Hello, new to AC. thoughts on my tank?

Hi Jason, welcome to AC! I suggest you post your stocking in general freshwater to get opinions. I hope that you enjoy the site!

jsayther said:

Hey, i'm new here. I have my first tank, it is a 36 gal bow front. i kinda went balls out for my first time. but its coming to its 3rd month, and i have the filter it came with (aqueon 30)... too small for the tank it came with.. so i bought a penguin 200 to go with it. bought compact fluorescent lights and moonlight blue LEDs. i put in 6 live plants and a huge fake ferny looking one with a pretty big piece of driftwood.

fish kept...

1 asian knifefish
1 male betta (calm and hasn't created problems)
1 angelfish
1 pleco
2 flame gouramis
2 paradise gouramis
2 clown loaches
1 synodontis catfish

i have been reading about firemouth cichlids in comm. tanks, and i decided to try, i put him in today, he's been hiding out in the plants and hasn't cause a ruckus (yet). i'll keep you posted though.

i was wondering if anyone had any ideas on calm cichlids that i might be able to add into the tank, i'm looking for just a couple more fish before i get toooo many fish.

i'm moving to a house around next june, and planning to get at least an 80 gallon tank, so the fish aren't going to be in there forever. some may stay.. who knows, but i'm planning on having a bigger home.

alrighty let me know what you think. i'll post a pic later thanks.

jason.

Click to expand...

Welcome to AC!

First off, your tank is way overstocked, adding more fish (especially cichlids) is only going to equal disaster.

Ok, what exactly is your asian knife? There are many species of asian knives... I'm going to guess you have a clown knife, which really isn't a good option as they get HUGE (2-3') and eat everything.

There are hundreds of species of plecos around, some get HUGE, some get small. I'm going to guess you have a hypostomus plec (is it black) which are the most common (also called common pleco). They get 2 feet and poop A LOT!

The gouramis may eventually brawl the betta as they are similar in appearance, and bettas are very "conspecificly" aggressive (aggressive to similar fish).

Clown loaches really need to be in groups of 5 or more, they're schooling fish. Also, these guys (although it takes about a decade) will get pretty big. 6-10 inches. Possibly twelve or more, though unlikely.

You tank will work for a few weeks, but eventually the fish will grow and take control and eat other fish. Your filtration is great, so I'm not surprised you haven't had any deaths- so far.

My advice would be to remove the CLs, the knife, and the pleco for know. The rest should be fine for a while, but watch them. It would make for a kool tank to just have two angels, some tetras, and some more plants.

Art

Welcome.

I have to agree with Art though, way overstocked.

Welcome to AC! Agree with Artemis

Hello............:welcome: