Hi guys, I'm a fairly new fish keeper and have a 30 gallon as my first set up. I've had it running for about a year now and I'm looking to add the missing piece to my fish jigsaw. I currently have 2 opaline gouramis, 2 eartheater cichlids, 1 ruby shark, 1 reed fish and 1 pleco. (If I shouldn't have any of these fish in the same tank please let me know! They all seem to get along but they were all introduced as young). My tank has a sand substrate with the majority of the aquascape being rocks with a few tall plants dotted about. I am looking to add one or two more fish that will act as the centre piece if you will, colourful and bold in the mid to higher area of the tank where there is some open water to swim freely in. Any suggestions will be appreciated and if you need me to answer any questions I will do so as soon as I can! Thanks guys!
Need help with fish selection
- Thread starter Gunderson29
- Start date
Hey Gunderson. I'm new to the forum too and I just want to prepare you for all the people who are about to tell you your tank is too small for your fish. I have the same problem.
But there's a good bunch of people here who will point you in the right direction. A lot just don't take you seriously unless your tank is larger than your car though.
But there's a good bunch of people here who will point you in the right direction. A lot just don't take you seriously unless your tank is larger than your car though.
Hey backfromthedead, I appreciate the warning! I have read a few forums on here and wanted to pose a question of my own so whatever people say I appreciate it. My fish appear happy in their tank anyway! Always active, feeding fine and showing interest of what's outside the tank! Hopefully I'll get some helpful people like yourself see my thread!
Yeah some folks can be brusque here so I thought I'd give it a friendly approach.
Are they just baby eartheaters? I know a lot of those can get up to a foot and bulky when they're grown, at which point they'll be pretty cramped in that 30 gallon of yours. Not to mention those plecos grow to over a foot too. Bottom line is they'll eventually outgrow your tank and not be so happy down the road.
There's a lot of other stuff concerning bioload and nitrate levels that I don't really understand fully but I think the grand scheme is to put the fish in a tank with lots of room for them and excessive, excessive filtration. At least those are the rules on this forum. No mere hobbyists here. These are fish mavens.
There are plenty of fish you can put in your tank the people here just want to help and make sure your fish are safe and healthy
The more opinions the better for me as everyone needs to start somewhere right?! What would you recommend boomer? Replacing the eartheaters with one centrepiece fish at like 6 inches fully grown? Or a shoal of like 1 inch fish?
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Backfromthedead
said, I'd have a bigger tank ready for when your fish outgrow your 30g. My fish fit in my 60g easily, but I'll need to upgrade my tank because they'll outgrow it. I also relate to the want to add more fish to the tank. I wanted to purchase an arowana to add to my community, but I was strongly advised against it because their growth rate is so quick. Like your fish, mine are doing well, eating, and using all the decorations I placed in my tank. I never considered the potential size of my fish to be a huge problem; I thought they'd adjust to life in my 60g. If I wasn't on this website, I probably would've been in a really bad place with the fish I have. I realized that I'm in the position that I may have to return some fish to the store I bought them from because they either get too big even for an upgraded tank, or they take up enough space so that I can't add the new fish I want. As long as they don't grow too quickly, you can keep them in the 30g. But I'd highly suggest upgrading your tank. And when you do, you can begin adding more and bigger fish. I'll have to wait patiently for that, especially since the fish store I buy from has many arowanas for sale.
Backfromthedead
said, I'd have a bigger tank ready for when your fish outgrow your 30g. My fish fit in my 60g easily, but I'll need to upgrade my tank because they'll outgrow it. I also relate to the want to add more fish to the tank. I wanted to purchase an arowana to add to my community, but I was strongly advised against it because their growth rate is so quick. Like your fish, mine are doing well, eating, and using all the decorations I placed in my tank. I never considered the potential size of my fish to be a huge problem; I thought they'd adjust to life in my 60g. If I wasn't on this website, I probably would've been in a really bad place with the fish I have. I realized that I'm in the position that I may have to return some fish to the store I bought them from because they either get too big even for an upgraded tank, or they take up enough space so that I can't add the new fish I want. As long as they don't grow too quickly, you can keep them in the 30g. But I'd highly suggest upgrading your tank. And when you do, you can begin adding more and bigger fish. I'll have to wait patiently for that, especially since the fish store I buy from has many arowanas for sale.
What kind of earth eaters? A common rule of thumb is to take the max size of the fish in inches and move the decimal over for gallons of water.
Example: A 7.5" fish is fine in a 75 gallon. Or in your case, you don't want any fish that get over 3.0" for your 30 gallon tank.
Your earth eaters will most likely have to be rehomed as a 30 is too small for the smallest of gymnogeophagus.
Props to you for being open to criticism! And most people on this site are pretty nice people
Example: A 7.5" fish is fine in a 75 gallon. Or in your case, you don't want any fish that get over 3.0" for your 30 gallon tank.
Your earth eaters will most likely have to be rehomed as a 30 is too small for the smallest of gymnogeophagus.
Props to you for being open to criticism! And most people on this site are pretty nice people
*Yep! We are hobbyist, we fish lovers, we also made ton of mistakes early on like everyone else, we are no perfect nor better than anyone else, we are just more experiences than new folks that taking a new turn into this fishkeeper fun 
*True that some of our advises sound hash to newbies but its absolutely for your own good and your own wet pets and save you ton of money, headache down the road. Trust me, most of us start this hobby just like you, some even started out with a gallon bowl and a pair of gold fish in it
*If you live in US then watch out for Petco 1 dollar per gallons sale event, save up and buy a bigger tank when the sale event is up.
*True that some of our advises sound hash to newbies but its absolutely for your own good and your own wet pets and save you ton of money, headache down the road. Trust me, most of us start this hobby just like you, some even started out with a gallon bowl and a pair of gold fish in it
*If you live in US then watch out for Petco 1 dollar per gallons sale event, save up and buy a bigger tank when the sale event is up.
Thanks for the all the advice coming in guys! So it looks like I'm gonna be rehoming my eartheaters within the next couple of months...but with those two little gems gone I think I'd get a small shoal of fish, what would you guys recommend? Tetra or something along those lines? Or will there still not be enough room in the tank?