New 15g and 30g stocking questions - long, sorry!

[areeves]

Hi Everyone,

I currently have a 30g with 20+ guppies that I want to separate to avoid being overrun with them.

I've just setup a 15g that I am now ready to stock. It's not cycled, but I think I can use media from my 30g and stock straight away. IE, with 2 mature pads, I can remove one to use in the new tank and both tanks would then be capable of supporting 20 similar sized fish (filtration-wise at least, maybe not space-wise with the smaller footprint tank).

Should be no different than just changing a pad as usual, and I would need to fully stock both tanks straight away to maintain the level of bacteria in the filter media.

If I've got the above right, then it comes down to choosing suitable tank mates, and that's where I would appreciate some advice.

15g - 9ish male guppies. What kind and number of cory's could I add (small ones, I know)? Ideas for a suitable feature fish if I still have any room, although cory's are the priority. Eventually (once they reach their natural end) I want to replace the guppies with ember tetras - although I'm probably looking 18 months ahead.

30g - 11ish female guppies. I would like to add cory's here as well - what kind and numbers again please? A feature fish and possibly another mid-top level schooling fish. Again, the guppies won't be long-term.

possible feature fish if suitable:

Blue Rams
Angels
After that, not sure.

Oh, by the way, both tanks are low-light.

After 18 months of being snowed under with guppies, I quite fancy a change.

Thanks for staying with me so far, I would appreciate any comments or suggestions.

Thanks,
Andy

[furfinsfeathers]

Many Angelfish are nippy and I don't think they'd be good with guppies. They also get too tall for either of those tanks. I don't know anything about Rams. How about a Dwarf Gourami? Not likely to be too nippy with the adults, but likely to eat the fry (guppies store sperm and a female can have up to about 6 broods from one breeding--they'll be having babies for months). I think the 15 will be stocked pretty full for now, but maybe you could add 1 apple snail or a few cherry red shrimp? Cory cats do best in groups of at least 3, preferrably 6 or more. They may school with other species of cory cats, but sometimes they do and sometimes they don't, so get all one kind if that's important. In the female tank, I might add 1 dwarf gourami and 3 cory cats. If you later add more dwarf gouramis, 1 male and 2 females would be good proportions.

Take some gravel from the old tank and use it in the new tank to help with cycling, too.

[OldMan1947]

Furfinfeathers got it right as far as your population problem. Its not over yet. The gourami is a good control measure as would be an angel in the 30. There will be few surviving fry in the future with either one in that tank. I've never owned rams so I have no opinion on how they would work, but the GBRs look interesting to me for my future.
You could probably get away with 5 or 6 cories if no more guppy fry survive and you will enjoy having such lively fish. I would go with all the same type of cory because they seem to school better that way.

[guppygirl123]

I would go with a pair of Blue Rams in the 30g. They would eat most of the babie guppies, so your guppies wounldn't overrun the tank.

[areeves]

Thanks for reminding me about the babies. I did know that they might still be having fry for a few months, but strangely hadn't taken that into account!

So, looks like the 15g will house the male guppies, and I'll look for some cherry red shrimp as well, then leave it at that.

The 30, I'm still not sure about. I would ideally like to have both the Rams and 6 corys, but looks like I can't have both.

Hmm, can't make my mind up.

[Swayde]

I added 1 angelfish to my 29g and have no more platy fry survivors (yay!) and the angelfish and a female betta are even getting along. They feed side by side and I never see them act aggressively towards each other.