Stocking help

Sprinkle

Sprinkle

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Mar 21, 2020
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Hi all.
I just re-measured my tank, it's not a 30-31 gal, it's a 29 gallon. It's pretty sad, but still fine for my swordtail and mollies, luckily also fine for my convict pair.

Current stock:

- 4 swordtails
- 3 mollies
- 3 platies. I'm leaving ALL my gups in my betta tank, which will be upgraded to 15 gallon at some point.
- 1 BN pleco
- M and F pink convict cichlids

For my current stocking I also have 7 white clouds (they don't really count for now). I'm also planning to move the platies with my betta to the 15 gallon.

Planned stocking:

- 6 corydoras
- a molly (50/50 chance that I won't get it, depends on colors and agression)
- a dwar gourami male
- dither fish?
- tiger barbs?

I'm planning to slightly or hardly overstock my tank maybe? I'm ready to do water changes more often.

What else could I get?
 
Id not out the platies with the betta--theyre not temperature compatible. Platies max temperature is 75 which is too cold for bettas.

I would choose either the dwarf gourami or molly, they dont tend to mix well in most cases. I had to move my female DG early because my molly and her started fighting. And my male gourami also fights mollies...

I would not add cories since your convicts breed. Cories dont know the meaning of personal space and that spells trouble with your spawning cichlids.

Since you already have a heavy bioload of livebearers, a pleco, and cichlids i wouldnt add much else. All of these fish have heavy bioloads. Your top level will also be quite busy with your livebearers.

Would not advise tiger barbs. They will probably terrorize your other fish since you do not have enough space left for the very large group they need to keep the peace (10+)

Id say leave it as it is as its pretty stocked. A 30 is already the minimum for swordtails and you got a handful in there already.

But if set on adding a compatible schooler, try cherry barbs. A group of 6 (1m:2f ratio) would work as theyre not too bad as long as kept in a school. And theyre very good with livebearing fish.
 
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NoodleCats said:
Id not out the platies with the betta--theyre not temperature compatible. Platies max temperature is 75 which is too cold for bettas.

I would choose either the dwarf gourami or molly, they dont tend to mix well in most cases. I had to move my female DG early because my molly and her started fighting. And my male gourami also fights mollies...

I would not add cories since your convicts breed. Cories dont know the meaning of personal space and that spells trouble with your spawning cichlids.

Since you already have a heavy bioload of livebearers, a pleco, and cichlids i wouldnt add much else. All of these fish have heavy bioloads. Your top level will also be quite busy with your livebearers.

Would not advise tiger barbs. They will probably terrorize your other fish since you do not have enough space left for the very large group they need to keep the peace (10+)

Id say leave it as it is as its pretty stocked. A 30 is already the minimum for swordtails and you got a handful in there already.

But if set on adding a compatible schooler, try cherry barbs. A group of 6 (1m:2f ratio) would work as theyre not too bad as long as kept in a school. And theyre very good with livebearing fish.
Click to expand...
Ok, I would say I'll choose one DG and a school CB with WC twice a week.
Though I need to do water changes a bit often due to still cycling my tank (it doesn't want to get cycled)
 
Assuming your livebearers are a male/female mix, I wouldn't add anything more given you can wind up with more livebearers than you'll want. It's also very wise to keep a just a single BN pleco. I made the mistake of buying a tiny, scrawny pair of them from a local fish store a few years ago. Now I've got more BNs than I want. Some of the big males get nasty towards each other. They do a wonderful job of polishing the inside of the glass and the hardscape though. Much more so than other other snail, invert or fish would IMO.
 
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FreshyFresh said:
Assuming your livebearers are a male/female mix, I wouldn't add anything more given you can wind up with more livebearers than you'll want. It's also very wise to keep a just a single BN pleco. I made the mistake of buying a tiny, scrawny pair of them from a local fish store a few years ago. Now I've got more BNs than I want. Some of the big males get nasty towards each other. They do a wonderful job of polishing the inside of the glass and the hardscape though. Much more so than other other snail, invert or fish would IMO.
Click to expand...
So I could get couple more mollies? Or just one more molly to make swordtail to molly numbers even?
Yes, I just keep one BN pleco, I know how this could end up. Before I had about 4 BN plecs, but they were still juvies. Gave them to my LFS and just kept this one.
 
What I was thinking was, even with what you have, they'll breed like crazy and you'll eventually have a tank full of mollies and sword tails.
 
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