Stocking suggestions!!

[Surprise_Clown_Loach]

Ok. I'm the guy with the 30g tank and 12 fish! :O

I know I am pushing the "/g rule. These are the fish that came with the purchase of the tank. The water perameters always read perfect, water changes every two week. NO3 never gets over 20ppm.

1 AngelFish ~ 4". This guy is old. Mature. Must keep.
1 Redtail Black Shark ~ 4" Must Keep
1 Common Pleco ~ 8" long (Must go, need to convince the boss)
2 Tiger Barbs ~ 2" (Schools with the CL) Must Keep
1 Clown Loach ~ 3.5" (Schools with the TB's) Must Keep
1 Red Betta ~ 3.5" Must keep.
1 Rosy Barb ~ 1.5"
1 Swordtail/Platty whatever it is.. ~ 1.5"
1 Rasbora ~ 1.5"
1 Zebra Danio ~ 1.5"
1 Neon Tetra ~ 1"

So, five fish are being considered for exchange. (besides the pleco.. seperate issue) Rosy Barb, Swordtail, Rasbora, Danio, Neon

The goal is to pick a good schooling fish, and return the other 4 fish, 5 fish if other than what we have.

I'm looking for suggestions for a good schooling fish. Danio's, Neon's, Rasbora's, other?

I'm leaning towards the Neons as those stay small, and would help my "/g situation. Although the Rasbora's are neat too. The danio is super active, and can imagine having 3-5 of those swimming would be kewl.

I don't want to split up the TB's and CL as they've bonded together, and spliting them up might make the other become more agressive. + The clown loach is my screenname. I can't lose him.

Wife loves all the fish, but has commented 1000's of times how the betta and AF are hers.. No way they will be leaving the tank.

The Shark is too kewl to take out of the tank. I do worry about the potential "shyness" of the neon school and they may not do well with the RTBS.


Currently the tank community is very non-agressive. Only the RTBS will chase fish (never bites..) Never any ripped/torn fish tails. Very little/no plant nippings/eating. None of the fish get picked on.

Oh. Do all mature TB's look like YUCK??

Oh, and everything must be approved by the boss.

 

[Surprise_Clown_Loach]

Yes, Cookies will be handed out if you actually read that book above!!! lmao..

 

[TAL]

Where is my cookie?


Rasboras would be my choice hands down......small, helps with bio-load.


Pleco.....give the boss an Oto instead! (or a pair to see them spawn!)

Tetras are cool....i have 5 gold pristella tetras that are always hanging out together but I am likely to give them away for the Rasboras;.

 

[unwritten law]

Where is my cookie?


Rasboras would be my choice hands down......small, helps with bio-load.


Pleco.....give the boss an Oto instead! (or a pair to see them spawn!)

Tetras are cool....i have 5 gold pristella tetras that are always hanging out together but I am likely to give them away for the Rasboras;.

oto's aren't a fair exchange for a pleco. They are like 1/6 the size. I would just get a small pleco like a BN or a small army or oto's if you go that route.

 

[TAL]

oto's aren't a fair exchange for a pleco. They are like 1/6 the size. I would just get a small pleco like a BN or a small army or oto's if you go that route.

He sems to have alot of fish in there so swapping out the pleco for smaller Oto's may be better for the tank at large...

(lol listen to me being concerned about stocking levels!!)

 

[Surprise_Clown_Loach]

Thanks for the replies. I will look further into the Rasbora's.

I'd like to sidestep the pleco discussion all together. I know it's too big for the tank (or soon will be..) convincing the boss of that is another story. Will use leverage when we decide to exchange fishes!!! (Well, we can only get 3 fish, BUT if we exchange the pleco for a smaller one, we can get 6 !! )

Ack. HiJack in process. Idealy, I'd like to exchange the pleco for a baby one. And or, no pleco for 2 ottos. The giant pleco does not clean the tank at all. If he's cleaning it, it's nothing thats visible. (I finally had to scrape the algae off the front of the tank, and he doesn't touch the stuff on plants, back of the tank..) I witnessed the ottos at the LFS eat algae off the plants & glass & dead bodies & if there is algae, there's an otto. Also, I understand older plecos don't *clean* the tank as well as babies. I think bristlenoses are ugly and would prefer swapping baby plecos every 6-12 months.. hiJack over (maybe)

 

[Surprise_Clown_Loach]

Lets see, one 8" Pleco could get me 4 2" ottos.

hehe.

Bottom feeders don't count 1:1 for the 1"/gal rule right. Haha. (ok, hijack continues.)

 

[brian1973]

Your clown loach will get to large for the tank as well...think about getting rid of it.. As for any more fish I really cant help. Even your redtail IMO is going to get to large with your current stocking.

I do agree with 1 or 2 ottos..yes I prefer plecos but you arent pushing the 1in per g rule you are already over with immature fish..getting rid of the pleco wont even bring you under but would atleast help with the bioload.

http://www.loaches.com/species-index/clown-loach-chromobotia-macracanthusre fish you would have to get rid of the large fish

 

[Surprise_Clown_Loach]

What Brian said, "Too many fish in your TANK"

What I read.. "You have my permission to buy a bigger tank!!"



Thanks Brian, I agree, our clown loach will get too big for this tank. He's currently @~ 3.5 - 4 inches. Our RTBS is a hair over 4", and this site has them @ mature @ 4-6 inches. So it's possible he may be done growing? But yes, I can see him doing better in a larger tank.

We went with additional Neon’s. Then, I blinked and we also had 2 African Frogs and 5 snails on the counter for purchase.

The Ramhorn snails lasted almost a day. With one still moving about the tank. Does the CL eat the shells too? I need to find/remove those shells. They did do a good job of cleaning the tank while they lasted. Busy eaters.

African Frogs suck. At least in an overstocked community tank. I can't find one, and the other takes some hunting before you find him. Personally I dislike them. And couldnt talk the SO out of getting them.

Neon’s are not as active as I'd had hoped, but they are still fresh to the tank. The new neon’s are almost 1/2 the size as the original. (all the LFS had were baby neon’s.)

Tank does look less busy now as the AF's and the snails stay hidden/on the bottom and the 3 new neon’s are TINY compared to the fish they replaced.

 

[brian1973]

out of curiousity are the dwarf frogs or clawed...the clawed get larger and will eat anything that will fit into there mouths.

 

[Surprise_Clown_Loach]

Dwarf.

Haven't seen either of them for a day now.

All but one snail has become food.

 

[jo3olous]

errr, well you have an interesting community because you combined peaceful community fish with semi-aggressive fin-nippers, with territorial fish, with fish that get rather big, + the frogs which shouldnt survive the TBs, unless they are clawed then the smaller fish will not survive them!

This is a very interesting tank because you basically broke all the rules and are getting away with it, so I don't really know how to comment cuz it looks like it's working, so why ruin the chemistry your tank has developed?

So like, I guess I can tell you everything wrong with your tank mix aside from overstocking (everyone talks about it so who cares), and then I will give you my opinion on what fish you could exchange and add.

Tiger Barbs are tiger barbs, theyll peak @ near 3'' long, and will be a bit pudgy. They should be in schools of 5+ to avoid aggression and fin-nipping towards other fish (but you say you haven't had this issue)... anomaly!

The clown loach is a really cool fish, sucks that it can get to be almost 2 feet long and rather wide, so you will eventually need a 75G tank (length > volume in this case). It does school with the tiger barbs and that is really fun to watch. After about 5 months the clowns growth rate does slow down a bit, so you have time to upgrade.

The RedTail shark is territorial, you would expect it to get real nasty during feeding time and to protect its cave or whatever hiding spot it has aggressively. If it's not out patrolling the floor and chasing invaders it is probably just hiding, a lot.

Your angelfish and betta have long fancy fins! Supposed to be a huge no-no with tiger barbs because they are notorious fin-nippers. How they got acclimated to each other in your tank I have no idea.

The rosy barb, and the danio are fast enough to dodge the semi-aggressive fish so that's okay, I don't know much about danios and neons.

The pleco gets along with anything really, it's just that it's a big bioload; It actually makes a bigger mess than it cleans.

So with all that info, I would say ditch the tiger barbs. You can get another juve clown loach if you plan on upgrading later to accompany your current loach. The only issue I see with your tank is the Tiger Barbs decide to go their instictive ways and rape your betta/angelfish. Aside from that issue, I think your tank is fine. RedTail sharks usually do not get along well with other bottom feeders (except plecs that get bigger than it) and I have a RTshark and a Clown together and after watching them I've negated what a lot of people say online (that they don't get along). Supposedly RTsharks mistake loaches as one of them because they have red tails too, and RTsharks cannot coexist 99% of the time (ignore this for your tank though).

It's a very interesting tank, If you lose the tigers and the loach or plec, I would add more rosy barbs/danios, or another angel.