is this tank idea ok? (55 gal)

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Rablasewdfer

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55 gallon with 12 Cardinal Tetras, 8 Harlequin Rasboras, 4 Guppies (probably 1 male, 3 female), 3 Swordtails (1 male, 2 female), 1 Pearl Gourami, and 1 Pleco
I couldn't really find any inexpensive smaller bottom feeders since i have to buy a lot of them in schools. I was thinking of adding rcs which i plan on breeding in a 10 gallon later, until then I can add ghost shrimp to handle cleanup duty. My main concern is that I am overpopulating the middle level of the tank
 

WhiskeySunday

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Your middle level should be fine. The guppies and swordtails are going to be all over the place and will help picking off any bits of food that fall to the bottom. What type of Pleco? Most Plecos feed on plant matter or what they really enjoy is some driftwood. Plecos will naw on driftwood all day. They are not much help eating left over food or algae much.
 

Rablasewdfer

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Thank you, it's a Common Pleco. He is still small, around 4 inches, and I plan on taking him to a lfs and buying a Bristlenose when he gets around 8 inches. I've been looking into driftwood, he seems pretty content to stick to the decorations I have in the tank though.
 

Byron Amazonas

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The common pleco, Hypostamus plecostamus being the species more often seen in the hobby but the others imported now and then have similar needs, must have real wood in the aquarium. While they do not obtain nutritional benefit from eating the wood, they do rasp it and it forms an important part of their digestive requirements. Poor health may ensue if wood is not present. A chunk of the dark Malaysian Driftwood is ideal for this.

Its mature length will be anywhere from 12 to 20 inches, and this can have a major impact on the bioload. Mature fish have been known to attack smaller fish. It requires some vegetable matter when young, as it naturally feeds on algae, crustaceans, insect larvae, and worms. As it grows it needs more and more meat and eats less algae. As you intend re-homing the pleco down the road, I would suggest doing this now rather than later. The impact on the tank's biology is one issue, the size of the fish is another, and it is better for the fish to find its more permanent home sooner rather than later.

Byron.
 

gmh

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I agree, rehoming the Pleco now will give you so many more stocking options, and I don't like keeping a fish that gets huge in a too small tank for any length of time.
The rcs should then breed with some success with your remaining stock, but so will the Sword tails and especially the Guppies. One male is all it takes.
 

Rablasewdfer

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Bryon, I bought mopani wood at petco earlier and I am currently soaking it in a bucket of dechlorinated water. I will add it to my aquarium after a week or two. When I talk to my lfs next time I will ask them if they are willing to take the Pleco, along with a few other fish I have that I am not equipped to take proper care of. I plan on buying a Bristlenose as a replacement.
 

Rablasewdfer

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gmh, My original plan was to take the Pleco somewhere better suited to handle it at it's full size once it reached about 8 inches, I'm going to return it sooner now, but I don't understand how the Pleco would affect my stocking options. As far as I know, it's a peaceful fish that pretty much ignores it's tankmates, as long as it did not get huge, I thought it wouldn't be too much different then housing a Bristlenose or other smaller Pleco.
I plan on breeding the rcs in a seperate 10 gallon tank, then after establishing a colony, adding some of that stock to the 55 gallon.
Also, I was hoping that the swordtails and guppies would have very little success breeding; from what I've read the Cardinal Tetras and Harlequin Rasboras would make meals out of the livebearer's fry
 

Byron Amazonas

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Bryon, I bought mopani wood at petco earlier and I am currently soaking it in a bucket of dechlorinated water. I will add it to my aquarium after a week or two. When I talk to my lfs next time I will ask them if they are willing to take the Pleco, along with a few other fish I have that I am not equipped to take proper care of. I plan on buying a Bristlenose as a replacement.
This sounds fine. A Bristlenose is a better choice, maxing out at 4 inches (maybe 5 but that is pushing it). I would suggest you hold off though until the tank is established and you have algae of some form that the BN will eat, or at the very least some biofilms. These fish are wild caught [I don't think commercially raised BN are around] and frequently if not always arrive half starved. Do not buy one with a sunken belly. If introduced to an established tank with algae, it will acclimate much better. Same holds for otos and farlowella. Once settled, these fish usually discover sinking algae/spirulina/kelp based foods but initially it is sometimes hit and miss.

Also in case you don't know, Bristlenose will eat common green algae and diatoms (so-called brown algae). They will not eat some of the trouble algae like brush, hair, etc, at least not that I am aware. I will assume you are getting a Bristlenose because you like the fish as a fish, and not to deal with algae per say.

Byron.
 

Byron Amazonas

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My original plan was to take the Pleco somewhere better suited to handle it at it's full size once it reached about 8 inches, I'm going to return it sooner now, but I don't understand how the Pleco would affect my stocking options. As far as I know, it's a peaceful fish that pretty much ignores it's tankmates, as long as it did not get huge, I thought it wouldn't be too much different then housing a Bristlenose or other smaller Pleco.
The issue here is largely the development of the fish itself. Fish grow continually, unlike most other animals. They need sufficient space for this, and their internal organs develop independantly in a sense of their external physical growth. Also, moving a fish can be traumatic to the fish, and catfish of any type are particularly prone to this. Loricariids do not like changing environments. And for fish the environment is much more significant than it is for any terrestrial animal. This is because of the extremely close interaction of the fish's physiology with the water they live in; even slight changes can significantly impact their physiology and thus growth.

Also, I was hoping that the swordtails and guppies would have very little success breeding; from what I've read the Cardinal Tetras and Harlequin Rasboras would make meals out of the livebearer's fry
If male and female livebearers of a species (or different species within the same genus) are housed together, they will mate. Once impregnated, a female can deliver several batches of fry before mating again. And batches can be large, 50+ once they get going, and frequent (once every month or two). There are very few, perhaps no, aquaria where other fish can control fry.

Second issue is that fish should not be fed other fish. There is a nutritional deficiency [I've forgotten the vitamins or whatever that are involved] and this will cause health problems. Fish eating other fish in nature is rare for the fish we maintain, since we are not talking about huge predatory fish here. While it is true that fish will frequently eat their own fry, this is something that infrequently occurs in nature but in the confines of an aquarium will be rampant. Eating the eggs is much less problematic because this is about the best food there is...after all, the egg supplies the essential nutrition to start every fish/animal in life.

Byron.
 

Rablasewdfer

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Thank you for the advice, how long does it normally take for a tank to become established, exactly? My tank is about 4 months old and fully cycled, but I've never seen algae appear anywhere. I've been supplementing my current Pleco's diet with TetraVeggie algae wafers
 
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