Hello,
I have an ***h0le blue texas (25cm) and a common pleco(30cm) in a 45gal (obviously a nano tank for this fish, I know, please don't trow rocks at me, I water change religiously) with a bunch of snaks (guppies).
I'm buying a 70 galon this weekend as an upgrade.
The problem is , there are some fish as a "free bonus"
Please tell me if I've identified those correctly (pic attached):
- African Leaf Fish / Leopard Gourami.
- Gold Severum
- Bala Shark
- Rope fish
I did a quick google search and bala shark seem to be a monster fish, that will be about a foot long (please tell me I've identified that fish wrong).
The rope fish aswell seems to be a foot long thing when it's grown up (is it safe to assume he's not a mega pooper as my foot long pleco?).
The cichlids and gourami see to me on the smaller side 7-8 inches long when fully grown.
My questions are:
1. Do I have enough gallons to merge those 2 tanks?
If not, do I have enough gallons if I re-home the balla shark?
If I still don't have enough gallons, which fish from the new tank should remove?
2. Do they stand a chance against a texas cichlid? (I have dividers in case things go wrong)
The texas, pleco and the bigillion of guppies are moving to the new tank.
ATM, the texas doesn't eat the guppies, he just rages at them, he can't focus on a single fish, thus, no guppies are hurt.
The pleco bosses the cichlid around when he's bored or when the cichlid is being an ***h0le to other fish
3. If Blue tries to kill everyone regardless of the a) tank not being his territory and b) the snaks providing distraction, will those fish work in another 70gal with the following fish:
- angel fish x3
- botia clowns x7
- ram cichlids 2-3 (don't remember)
- normal gourami (fully grown gourami, but not the giant one) x1
I know that the bonus fish are not very agressive, however, the fish that are in the second 70galon seem quite fragile to me (I have no idea what size the bonus fish are, but in the second 70 gal everyone but the botias are fully grown).
The owner of the second 70gal is already in-love with Alf (african leaf fish), Sharkie and doesn't want to re-home Noodle or "those weird blood parrots".
4. If the option #3 doesn't work, shall I get some more cichlids to disperse the aggression or just re-home? If so, which would be suitable? Would getting even more guppies give the same effect as getting more cichlids? Shall I re-home Sharkie if I get more cichlids or the tank size is fine?
I feel bad having to re-home fish and would prefear not to since most people seem to treat fish as decorations, rather than pets, but I don't want anyone hurt.
Please advise (specially identifying the fish)
PS: yes, I'm aware that guppie-snaks will most likely be eaten. I'm leaving lots of snaks to breed in the 45gal and adding some snails since google tells that Sharkie and Noodle love to eat those. It is indeed cruel to let fish eat other fish when there are other options, but I like to think they're doing a bit better than in the fish store's feeder tank.
PS2: yes, I'm aware that I'm trying to mix fish that require slightly different temperatures and ph/whatever. Blue is fine with slightly hotter water and the tap water has the same paramethers, regardless of what kind of cichlids the tank has. I had successfully kept African and American cichlids previously until the day my parents decided to transfer "healthy bacteria" from their tank to mine for no reason, transfering disease, leaving me with what I currently have. It worked because everyone was bought together, thus all the babies reached adulthood at the same time more or less.


I have an ***h0le blue texas (25cm) and a common pleco(30cm) in a 45gal (obviously a nano tank for this fish, I know, please don't trow rocks at me, I water change religiously) with a bunch of snaks (guppies).
I'm buying a 70 galon this weekend as an upgrade.
The problem is , there are some fish as a "free bonus"
Please tell me if I've identified those correctly (pic attached):
- African Leaf Fish / Leopard Gourami.
- Gold Severum
- Bala Shark
- Rope fish
I did a quick google search and bala shark seem to be a monster fish, that will be about a foot long (please tell me I've identified that fish wrong).
The rope fish aswell seems to be a foot long thing when it's grown up (is it safe to assume he's not a mega pooper as my foot long pleco?).
The cichlids and gourami see to me on the smaller side 7-8 inches long when fully grown.
My questions are:
1. Do I have enough gallons to merge those 2 tanks?
If not, do I have enough gallons if I re-home the balla shark?
If I still don't have enough gallons, which fish from the new tank should remove?
2. Do they stand a chance against a texas cichlid? (I have dividers in case things go wrong)
The texas, pleco and the bigillion of guppies are moving to the new tank.
ATM, the texas doesn't eat the guppies, he just rages at them, he can't focus on a single fish, thus, no guppies are hurt.
The pleco bosses the cichlid around when he's bored or when the cichlid is being an ***h0le to other fish
3. If Blue tries to kill everyone regardless of the a) tank not being his territory and b) the snaks providing distraction, will those fish work in another 70gal with the following fish:
- angel fish x3
- botia clowns x7
- ram cichlids 2-3 (don't remember)
- normal gourami (fully grown gourami, but not the giant one) x1
I know that the bonus fish are not very agressive, however, the fish that are in the second 70galon seem quite fragile to me (I have no idea what size the bonus fish are, but in the second 70 gal everyone but the botias are fully grown).
The owner of the second 70gal is already in-love with Alf (african leaf fish), Sharkie and doesn't want to re-home Noodle or "those weird blood parrots".
4. If the option #3 doesn't work, shall I get some more cichlids to disperse the aggression or just re-home? If so, which would be suitable? Would getting even more guppies give the same effect as getting more cichlids? Shall I re-home Sharkie if I get more cichlids or the tank size is fine?
I feel bad having to re-home fish and would prefear not to since most people seem to treat fish as decorations, rather than pets, but I don't want anyone hurt.
Please advise (specially identifying the fish)
PS: yes, I'm aware that guppie-snaks will most likely be eaten. I'm leaving lots of snaks to breed in the 45gal and adding some snails since google tells that Sharkie and Noodle love to eat those. It is indeed cruel to let fish eat other fish when there are other options, but I like to think they're doing a bit better than in the fish store's feeder tank.
PS2: yes, I'm aware that I'm trying to mix fish that require slightly different temperatures and ph/whatever. Blue is fine with slightly hotter water and the tap water has the same paramethers, regardless of what kind of cichlids the tank has. I had successfully kept African and American cichlids previously until the day my parents decided to transfer "healthy bacteria" from their tank to mine for no reason, transfering disease, leaving me with what I currently have. It worked because everyone was bought together, thus all the babies reached adulthood at the same time more or less.

