Stocking question

[Joergen.Schoppe]

I recently had a major disaster in my tank. a third of my fish population died. Now the water is OK again.
I have remaining: 4 clowns , 5 sinobotia, 2 corys, 3 rosy, 4 neon, 1 serpae, 3 penguin tetra, 2 longfin bristelnose, 3 SAE, 8 guppys and, yes, 2 male bettas in a heavily planted 120g tank. Have an uncountable amount of shrimps, too.
Keep 6.3 to 6.5 PH, very soft water.
Accumulated length of all fish, 96 inch.

1) What is your opinion, can I add more bottom dwellers? I have become fond of Loaches, would like to add some more, but also could think of trying Kribensins or/and rams?
2) Can I mix those species? Never ever had Cichlids, so no experience... I don't want anything that is going to harm my loaches!

If enough bottom dwellers, I will stock up on my existing tetras.

 

[Lupin]

I'd rather you go with loaches than cichlids. If you attempt cichlids, they will only give you more problems as they spawn. How long have your Sinibotias, neons, serpaes and bettas been in there together?

 

[Lupin]

By the way, smilies won't work in thread titles.

 

[Joergen.Schoppe]

Clown loaches and 5 neon for about 1.5 years, sinobotia 1 year same time added about 20 Neon, only 14 survived, till recently...
The other tetras also slowly from the beginning (slowly added more and more fish)
bettas 2 month now, they eat together, but one is obviously the dominant one, the other goes out of his way.

 

[Lupin]

I find your stocklist quite unusual to be honest. Serpaes, guppies and Sinibotias with bettas...I'm surprised they work for you. And then your Sinibotia pulchra has a mouth big enough to eat neons. In my opinion, I'd consider the Trigonostigma heteromorpha. Is it possible to shuffle your stocklist to a more appropriate one at the very least? Otherwise, it will be virtually difficult to suggest what fish to replace or add.

 

[Joergen.Schoppe]

I believe you talk about the different needs? Or Serpae being nippy? I had about ten of them, removed them after a few month, but could not catch all, have spent hours on the last two, so gave up. (one died in the disaster)

What's the problem with Guppys and Sinobotia? Don't see it. Anyway the guppies will go, planned long ago. Bettas, temperature is a issue, also the high flow I have (two 1200l filters) could agree on that. I keep 25 degrees.
Neon, no offense, but the mouth is not so big, the whole fish doesn't get bigger than 4 to 4.5 inches. But again, can remove the remaining tetras. Actually I didn't want a big mix of fish, it just happened (lack of discipline from my side)

Anyway, your suggestion of Harlekin rasbora is well taken, might replace ALL tetras (if I can catch them...) could have a Asia set up, just need to modify my plants a little. most are Asian already (thats's where I live, anyway)

another shock for you, see picture, I forgot to mention the 3 Hillstream loaches I have...
I agree I have to reconsider the stocking of my tank, thanks to you, Lupin, you made me think a little more.

 

[Lupin]

I believe you talk about the different needs? Or Serpae being nippy? I had about ten of them, removed them after a few month, but could not catch all, have spent hours on the last two, so gave up. (one died in the disaster)

What's the problem with Guppys and Sinobotia? Don't see it. Anyway the guppies will go, planned long ago. Bettas, temperature is a issue, also the high flow I have (two 1200l filters) could agree on that. I keep 25 degrees.
Neon, no offense, but the mouth is not so big, the whole fish doesn't get bigger than 4 to 4.5 inches. But again, can remove the remaining tetras. Actually I didn't want a big mix of fish, it just happened (lack of discipline from my side)

Anyway, your suggestion of Harlekin rasbora is well taken, might replace ALL tetras (if I can catch them...) could have a Asia set up, just need to modify my plants a little. most are Asian already (thats's where I live, anyway)

another shock for you, see picture, I forgot to mention the 3 Hillstream loaches I have...
I agree I have to reconsider the stocking of my tank, thanks to you, Lupin, you made me think a little more.

I kept serpaes before and find them rather nippy. I just could not imagine how long your stocks have been that way and as you said before, yet encountered less problems than most of us had been through.

The problem with guppies, neons and Sinibotia being together is that firstly, the Sinibotia pulchra would have been more than delighted to munch down their small tankmates if given the opportunity. This has however been diverted by the fact you have only one in that tank which means it wasn't exactly out in the open as it would have been in a group. Most loaches can be opportunistic and it is hard to imagine how they will exactly gulp down their small tankmates, Joergen. Loaches are sociable fish of course and if kept in less than five, if not three, they'd rather sulk in the corner. Secondly, the Sinibotia robusta, being rather boisterous, would have nipped your guppies at the first chance but again, this was diverted by the fact you have a very large tank hence they kept to themselves instead of focusing their attention to harassing the other fish if it were not for your tank space. I'll add a note that if it were not for your tank being heavily-planted, the above issues are quite possible really.

Your hillies look either Sewellia lineolata or Beaufortia kweichowensis to me judging by their underside shape. Is it possible for you to get a 20g long for these hillstream loaches? You can build up a river manifold setup for them there. The article about this system is found in http://www.loaches.com. I've built two for two of my tanks already and it's not that complicated. You'll need the PVC cement to attach all pipes though.

As far as the bettas, you made a good decision to consider removing them. A 5g for each one will suffice or at least put an opaque divider on the tank for both. Operate with sponge filter and Java moss. That's all you need.