Suitable community

[Zanzag]

Just looking to see if theres any problems with my current stocking
2 blue acara
2 firemouth
1 large opaline gourami
7 bronze cory
4 SA bumblebee catfish
1 small pleco(about 4 years old and only 3")
11 columbian red-blue tetra
And many many snails
All but the cichlids have been together for years
The cories spawn regularily.
Tank is fully cycled, 55gallons, water parameters are reasonable. (My tap water is basically liquid rock) ph about 7
Thanks for any input
I dont know how to move this post to where it needs to go

 

[Zanzag]

This iiiiis the tank im asking about

 

[Gourami Swami]

The firemouths are CA , and prefer hard water with higher pH, wheras most of your fish are soft water fish which like a lower pH. That said, these are fish which have been in tanks for generations, and are pretty adaptable.
Your stock seems a bit on the heavy side to me. But if you are willing to do enough maintenance to keep nitrates around 20ppm, and there are no aggression issues between the fish, I'd say don't fix what isn't broken.

 

[Zanzag]

The firemouths chase each other, the gourami chases everyone, and the larger of the acaras was shimmying at the other this morning. I thought it may be heavy but the nitrates stay nice and low and the canister i have is rated for 100 gallons

 

[Kvandy]

Nice tank.

 

[Zanzag]

Thank you kindly

 

[Serpentine]

Gouramis--other than pearls or dwarves--can be a bit on the aggressive side. Firemouths like to chase and flare their gills but they're generally bluffers and I have not yet witnessed mine actually come to blows. The shimmying of the larger blue Acara to the smaller sounds like courtship. If they decide to spawn they may become highly aggressive to all the other fish to protect their eggs and babies, and will likely need to be placed in a tank of their own. As long as no one is being hurt or harassed to the point of stress some chasing is OK.

The tank is very heavily stocked which will be a problem if the Acaras do spawn because the other fish will have nowhere to run. Other than that, as long as it's clean it sounds good. The majority of the fish are schoolers that need the company and Columbian tetras don't have much of a bio load. The pleco may be too dirty when it gets big though.

 

[Zanzag]

This pleco maxes out at about 5" (smaller wood eating variety) i forget what species it is. And is seen even less often than the bumblebee catfish.
The gourami chases , mostly the firemouths, but usually just smacks at anything that gets too close with its feeler thingys. As far as i can tell the gourami and cichlids arent showing their stress colors so im hoping all is good

 

[Zanzag]

 

[Zanzag]