What to stock? and other issues.

[Redoog]

I am a little early, but I bought a used but running 30+ gal tank, set it up a month now. I used existing filter on this tank as well as 30-60 hob from my 10 gallon, and all substrate etc, so bio should have been good. I used 5 gal water from noth my 10 and 30+ i bought.

I am thing about going with little fish. Would like some that will occupy differant levels.

I am doing a 100 gal 72x18x18"

My wife and I both enjoy neons, so i must have a least 10 for nice school.

I just bought/received

5 serpae tatras -- all doing well --petco

5 cherry barbs 3male 2 female -- 2 male 1 female surviving -- petco

15 neons -- 2 left -- 10 petco -- 5 my 10 gallon

2 yellow algae eaters -- both ok -- lfs

2 otto cats -- 1 left -- lfs

1 sm pleco -- decessed -- lfs

2 african frogs sm -- ok -- petco

1 blue gourami -- ok, but in sump right now, thought he was killing neons, so removed before i lost little frogs, idk what to do with this one

1 yellow gourami -- decessed -- both gourami came with big tank

I added all the small stuff 2 weeks ago, except neons, i had about 5 for awhile- year - started losing one a day, after move to bigger tank.


so stocking ideas when i get real big tank up??

IDK water levels, waiting new test kit.

Funny neons hit hardest, i have always keep them, and never had issues in past. And i am not the best fish keeper i am sure.

 

[Lupin]

I would not add the fish until you have the test kit. Is it API liquid drops you ordered? That is just one of the most accurate and reliable test kits assuming of course, that it is not expired or tampered with. I'd avoid the test strips if possible since these ones tend to be misleading or inaccurate.

Which tank are you stocking? The 30g? I feel a bit confused by your post. If it is the 30g, assuming the yellow algae eaters are Chinese algae eaters (Gyrinocheilus aymonieri), they may seem the perfect choice for community setups when they are young but adults absolutely are pure terrors when they grow to 6 inches and more as their taste of algae fades to be replaced by taste for slime coat which is their source of protein. In this case, they become more temperamental and may harass your other fish to the point they will even suck their slime coat as a result.

Your other fish are not a problem with the possible exception of serpae tetras that are notorious fin nippers so keep a watch on those ones since they are likely to nip other tankmates especially those who are slow moving and sporting long trailing fins particularly angelfish and gouramis.

As for the neon tetras, before, I did not have problems with them but neons nowadays tend to drop dead suddenly that I just avoid these fish completely. Cardinal tetras are a much better choice in my experience as they outlasted the neons and tend to be hardier.

Which African frogs do you have? African clawed frogs are predatory by nature whereas African dwarf frogs are much more peaceful. If you have the former, then you may need to reconsider them before putting them in a community setup. ACFs are predatory creatures gaining a size of 4-5 inches and are much more aggressive. The albino ones are mostly ACFs so you may need to stay away from them if you wish to consider frogs in a community setup.

There is no such thing as "best fish keeper". This hobby is full of choices and trials and errors. You can only continue practicing what you think is best and avoid the issues as much as possible as you go down the road arming yourself with experiences, suggestions, facts and opinions. Follow your instincts and decide firmly yourself which is best for you.

 

[MonsterMinis]

1) get water perameter levels checked.
2) what filters exactly are you running?
3) How did you acclimate your old fish into new set-up?
4) No signs of illness? I'm assumeing you did not QT the new fish?
5) Gouramis can be aggressive, Good call seperateing the one you do have as a potential.
6) cherry barbs are one of the least aggresive barbs ime, but are still barbs.
7) 100 gal I see you want natives on your sig. the dimensions you listed might be OK for a trio of sunfish, but gars,bass will both need much bigger. and snapping turtles +fish = happy turtle and no fish in tank. not to mention alligator snappers will get upwards of 300lbs and outlive your children if properly cared for
8) see #7 .. depending what you and your wife like fishwise. You have alot of options, and alot of HW to do.

And to say the least, Do not add anymore fish until you have identified why you lost your other fish. I'de give it a 2 week min before adding any new fish if your water checks out fine. and at least 2 weeks + if you find a problem and have it addressed. and serpa tetras ime can be a slightly aggresive tetra, if you want Neons as the focus of your tank. cory cats for bottom dwellers, Neons as mid-water, and some marble hatchet fish for topwater. and if you want a Pleco I highly reccomend a whiptail cat, or a flash pleco. But only 1 or the other. whiptails are about 5-10$ in my area and flash plecos run 20-40$ but are very attractive and neither would outgrow your 30 gal. And both are hearty, mine in seperate 20H's eat algae tabs and scavenge extra flakes. I see my whiptail more dureing the day but when my Flash comes out WoW.. goregeous lil' fish. And driftwood. They seem to enjoy makeing a home on/in it, and will scavange algae and other stuff offa it.

since you bought you algae eaters from petco I'm assumeing your yellow algae eaters are chinease algae eaters. which can also be quite aggressive and boisterous. they are "slimecoat suckers" and may be killing fish, eating your dead ones. and like common plecos can often get a taste for the slime coat of other fish and kill anything they can catch. Watch when the lights are out, that is when they will "hunt".

EDIT: And what Lupin said

 

[Redoog]

Sorry,

When done I will only have the 100.


The frogs, are very small. Not albinos, I will look at petco site and get back with you.

Agree on testing.

I had a 10 that was up and running years, and 5 neons in there were always fine.

I bought an up and running 30 that had the 2 gourami in it for a couple years.

I left 5 gallons in the 30, kept filter and bio whell wet. Got home, added at least 5 gallons of water from my 10. I had a large hob {30-60} on the 10. So i hung it on the 30, added EVERYTHING from the 10 to the 30, topped off the 30 with both filters running.

I did this so i could remove a bunch of stuff to put in my sump, which i have cycing in the garage right now, using the 30-60 HOB. It seemed to work, becuase i thought the blue gourami was killing off my original neons, so i put it in the sump, and it is doing great in there.

After the move i bought all the small fish. I wanted to get it good an established so i can do anouther transfer when the 100 is set up. Thought it would need fish to get cycled.

hope this is a little clearer, LOL

I want to put it back in tank so i can move the sump to its permenant spot, but dont want it to attack frogs or other tiny fish??

 

[Redoog]

30 is an eclispe 2 built in hood, the hob is a augatech 30-60 i have used for years on a 10g. I used established filter media, no new stuff because i wanted the bio.

algea eaters came from LFS not petco. 30 had a large pleco in it. I didnt feel it would be good tank for it , so i traded it for the 2 yellows, 2 ottos, and a 1" pleco all small. Tried feeding some veg, but small pleco passed before it really figuered it out.





have 2 and they have grown some since i got them allready. 1.5" to 2" now. Longest thing in the tank

some of the other stuff, i think i was answering while you were typing.

 

[Lupin]

Your fish in the photos depicted are indeed Chinese algae eaters. I'd get rid of them.

 

[Redoog]

frogs are african dwarfs.


What am i going to do with the 4" blue gourami?

BTW, yes i need to change sig, learned about the snappers and gars, so while i like the idea of natives, i think useing neons as base will be better for us.

 

[Redoog]

great, i guess they can join the gourami for now. But they are so active even right now with lights on, and always scrubbing glass, substrate and decor.

 

[MonsterMinis]

yes those are "devil fish" as we came to call them at my last petshop job... lol.. Otto's are nice and stay small... very small. they tend to be like neons though =/ always have 1-2 per batch die on me no matter how well i took care of them. If they are fat and sassy.. I'm betting them, not the gourami are your culprits if your water checks out. But.. he could be just as nasty.. 100 gal your dwarf frogs may have issues reaching the top to breath.. those might do better in of all things a large goldfish bowl or similar with a top. Only use I've found for some of those cheapo 5 gal tanks w/ undergravel filters that are covered with spongebob and stuff.. they do make nice dwarf frog homes. they look nice on the kitchen counter.

and if you're running an eclipse system it's a 29 gal or the 37Tall. either way a nice lighting system.. filter is okay.. and the HoB added should be good filtration. =D and a trick I used was use filter floss in the filter chamber spread atop the filter itself. take out the floss and rinse/discard weekly rinse/shake out the filter cartride itself biweekly/monthly. never replaced the cartridge on it, the carbon turns into a ground for BB bacteria and works great. then your only changeing the carbon media out on the aqua HoB filter and 1/2ing your filter cartridge cost or more. Musta ben fun getting that HoB on w/ those hoods. Only thing I didn't like about them was it was almost impossible to put a HoB on it. BUt they may have fixed it if yours is a newer design.

 

[Redoog]

yes hob looked gastly and did not fit, i only did it, thinking the BB from the 10 would benfit the 37 and my fish from the 10. also added water and everything else from the 10 into the 37.

i have just removed hob and a bunch of ornaments and old filter carts, and put all that in the sump, to build up some BB in there on the bio balls and scrubbies.