29 Gallon Stocking Assistance

[littletankbigworld]

Aqadvisor tells me I've stocked a 29 gallon tank 35% with only 3 peppered cories. Is this a mistake? That seems awfully high to me. Aqadvisor isn't perfect, but I like to play around with stocking on the site.

I'm going to ask your opinion.

I have the fish in my signature currently in the tank.

Ideally, I would like to add 2-3 more peppered cories and 1-2 more upside-down catfish. Do you think this could work space-wise? I'm planning on upgrading my crappy Aqua-tech 20-40.

Right now with the three cories and the fish I have now, I'm at 105%, according to aqadvisor.

What do you guys think?

 

[misterking]

35%? Really? That can't be right..

Mollies get to about 3 inches so they'll add a fair bit of stocking onto there. But the cory thing is just a bit ridiculous. Especially considering it tells me that with pygmy cories in a 10 gallon I'd barely be stocked, they're not THAT much different.

 

[lauraf]

I'm guilty of overstocking, so am biased, but if you have the right mix of fish, the right filtration, and are dilligent with water changes, it can work. I think you'd be okay to add the fish you mention. But yeah, mollies can get huge . . . .

 

[ZackLanduyt]

Aqadvisor seems to be pretty conservative, I have my tank overstocked a bit and I am diligent on water changes (3 times a week) and have never had an issue, just watch your water. Condition and you will be fine, also cories I have heard have a teent bioload because they rummage around the bottom for scraps, offsetting their load

 

[bassbonediva]

AqAdvisor has never been accurate with the bottom feeders like cories and otos. That being said, you'd be okay adding a few more cories, but I wouldn't add any more USD cats. They get pretty big for a 29gal. They reach 4", so with three of them in there, you'd have 12" of fish. A 29gal has a footprint of 30" by 12". Not nearly enough space for those active fish, if you want my honest opinion. Alistair (who was actually a featherfin cat, but they have similar activity levels) used my whole 55gal as his playground and he was only about 4.5-5" when he died (featherfins get much bigger than USD cats at 8").

Honestly, I'd up your cory school to 4 and leave it at that.

 

[littletankbigworld]

Thank you very much.
I was shocked at the 35%. Regardless, three mollies were only about 22%. The dalmatian mollies have a larger bioload than regular mollies, for some reason. I have two girls at 1.5 inches and a boy with a bent spine (born that way) who likely won't get much bigger than an inch.

 

[misterking]

The dalmatian mollies have a larger bioload than regular mollies, for some reason.

Probably because they're different species - dalmatian mollies fall under Poecilia latipinna with sailfin mollies, where as most "regular" mollies fall under Poecilia sphenops. To what extend this is actually true with all the cross-breeding that occurs between them in the modern hobby is debatable but typically sailfins and dalmatian mollies get bigger than regular mollies.

Have you noticed any cross-breeding between you dalmatians and regulars? Might explain the bent spines in the two fry.

 

[littletankbigworld]

Only my one fry has a bent spine. It was a batch of fry from a female that was pregnant at the store, so it's hard to say if they cross-bred.

 

[misterking]

Oh sorry, misread

 

[littletankbigworld]

*unearthing an older thread*

I have 4 serpaes and while I didn't have trouble with my last trio of serpaes, they are nipping each other like crazy. (They don't bother the other tank mates.) I'd like to add 2 more serpaes, for a total of 6, along with 3-4 cories. I think this sounds okay, but what do you guys and gals think?

 

[aakaakaak]

Are your mollies Sailfins or normal mollies. Normal mollies aren't that much bigger than a platy. Sailfins are mutant sized in comparison.

 

[littletankbigworld]

Are your mollies Sailfins or normal mollies. Normal mollies aren't that much bigger than a platy. Sailfins are mutant sized in comparison.

They’re dalmatians, so they are slightly bigger than the normal ones.

 

[Thyra]

I have a male Dalmation sailfin and I can't have another male mollie in the tank. I had two black mollies that were sold to me as females (I wasn't up on sexing yet) and he killed both of them. He hounded a platinum female who was about to give birth and she died right afterwards. He doesn't bother the platies at all. I have one platinum fry which I think by some of his actions may be a male and so I am going to have to watch that carefully.