Lupin
Registered Member
- Sep 21, 2006
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- Paul
I'm leaving the 65g to be sored by Kashta.
As for these ones in red fonts, let's start with the 10g tanks. The first one is okay however I might warn you there is no easy way of determining the sexes of sparkling gouramis, no matter how you attempt to distinguish the differences in any way. Sex ratio is not an issue. As much as possible, buy the smallest and youngest of the stocks. Sparkling gouramis are not exactly long-lived species with most records of them living for barely eight months so you may need to reconsider this unless you want to go ahead. Further details can be found here.
Secondly, the 10g tank in red font consisting glass catfish is ridiculously cramped. The tetras will work but glass catfish are absolutely nonos. They grow to 5-6 inches in length and as they require to be kept in groups, a 10g is quite a soft option. Get a 30g minimum for a small group of glass catfish.
The third tank will work however I suggest you keep only one ram. Why? A pair may work but in cases involving parental disputes, one of the rams will absolutely have no chance of escaping any harassments. A 20g long should be reconsidered for a pair.
Fourthly, again a 10g is not exactly spacious. What is the scientific name of the spotted rasboras? Choose only one of the three species you listed above.
The fifth tank should work. Add 5 more kuhli loaches there.
The 6th tank needs to be heavily planted in order for the sorority to work. Bettas establish pecking/ranking orders so it may be unlikely for some to survive if the alpha female happens to be overdominant.
The 7th tank will work. Lastly, the eighth tank needs to be corrected. Either ditch the angelfish, or ditch the rest. You cannot mix both the tiger barbs and sharks with angelfish for aggression issues. If you opt to stick with angelfish, go with deep bodied tetras, plecos, kuhli loaches, rams, apistogrammas, hatchetfish and rasboras as their tankmates.
If you wish to keep tiger barbs and sharks, then I suggest for loaches (which you wanted earlier), you choose Botia striata, Botia kubotai, Botia dario, Botia rostrata, Botia almorhae or Botia histrionica. Clown loaches may be an option as well if you're indeed willing to upgrade in the next few years. Skunk loaches are also an option. Despite their nasty attitude for a small sized punk, the tiger barbs and sharks can defend themselves well enough from these skunk loaches. Skunk loaches are not however suitable for community tanks in general, just the more feisty and aggressive ones.
I must commend you for researching the compatibility and requirements thoroughly. Here are the following that will be compatible with snails and shrimps.
10g- 4 sparkling gouramis (3 females, 1 male), 3 otos
10g-6 neon/cardinals
10g-Guppies, spotted rasboras, white cloud minnows
20g- 6 cherry barbs, 1 pearl gourami, 3 kuhli loaches
If you consider keeping apple snails, please choose the mystery snails (Pomacea diffusa/bridgesii). These are absolutely plant safe and will work for plenty of planted tanks as they prefer to consume decaying and dead plant parts rather than healthy ones. Other alternatives include nerite snails, trumpet snails (Thiara, Melanoides, Brotia) and ramshorn snails (Planorbis sp.).
Assassin snails also fit the bill above but do not mix them with any other snail species intended as pets. Assassins are predatory species that prey mainly on other snails. If you wish to keep assassin snails, try breeding extra trumpet snails, ramshorns and bladder snails (Physas sp.) for their food. They will also accept bloodworms and fish foods in the absence of snail food supply with the latter only to an extent. Assassins happen to grow quickly once they reach the mark of half an inch compared to newborn ones. More information can be found here.
As far as nerites are concerned, please make sure your tanks are loaded with algae and biofilm by allowing the tanks to become well established. They will not accept other supplemental foods except algae and possibly pea-flavored snail jello.
What you should avoid are Pomacea canaliculata, Pomacea insularum (grouped under canaliculata complex category), Pomacea haustrum and Marisa cornuarietis. All of the aforementioned species are voracious plant eaters. The canaliculata complex are the most aggressive snails by far with predatory instincts (although this is not always the norm if well-fed).
Before you start with snails, please post here your pH and KH. We need to verify here whether you need calcium dosing or not. Acidic water albeit pH no higher than 7.0 will cause the shells to erode quickly thus damaging the snails and their health. All snails require a pH no lower than 7.4 (which is not an issue to any of your fish fortunately) along with KH no lower than 3. Click here for more calcium supplement infomation and be informed I will release an article for different types of calcium sooner or later.
Mollies can go here and replace either platies or swordtails for mollies. Both the swordtails and platies can crossbreed although the point is moot anyway since most of the platies and swordtails these days are a cross of each other hence why we don't see swordtails reaching 6 inches on mark and over anymore.
40g- platys, swordtails, 1 krib, 6 zebra danios, 6 glofish, 6 cories
As far as convicts are concerned, no tanks will work with them. Consider the fact convicts are amorous at an early age and will start breeding even at an inch size despite the fact they have a potential to reach 4 inches. At this time, they become extremely aggressive to the point, they will also kill their other tankmates.
Which species of plecos are you looking for? Almost all species of plecos will work with the exception of aggressive and extremely large ones such as Acanthicus adonis. If possible, stick with L010a, Rineloricaria parva, Sturisoma panamense, bristlenose plecos, clown plecos, butterfly plecos (not to be confused with the hillstream loaches often called as Borneo plecos), king tigers, queen arabesque and most Hypancistrus sp.
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