yes, another stocking question

TIO

TIO

AC Members
Oct 9, 2006
32
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0
Anchorage, AK
I've been lurking around AC for a while now, and you guys seem to give pretty good advice. I'm curious to see what everyone thinks of our 55g setup.

55g
9 checkerboard barbs (4 males, 5 females)
1 albino bristlenose (female)
1 sunset gourami (male)
1 powder blue gourami (male)
4 neon gourami (1 male, 3 females)
1 bamboo shrimp
2 apple snails
various live plants


We've been tossing around the idea of adding some tiger barbs, but I have a couple concerns. The first being the overall stocking level of the tank. I don't want to overload, obviously, and don't like the idea of adding any less than 6 barbs. The second concern is how the barbs and gourami would interact. I worry that the tiger barbs might nip at the gouramis barbs.

Any input you all might have would be greatly appreciated.
 
Hi,

Yeah, the Tiger Barbs would nip and probably harass the Gouramis so I wouldn't get them. You could get six more Neons and six Cories.

Cory Lover
 
that sounds fine. watch out for aggression, though, checkerboard barbs can be nasty.
 
Yeah, the Tiger Barbs would nip and probably harass the Gouramis so I wouldn't get them. You could get six more Neons and six Cories.
Click to expand...
4 neon gourami (1 male, 3 females)
Click to expand...
Easily misread. ;) I wouldn't add anymore gouramis.

I would also skip the Tiger Barbs...they can be nippy and are also voracious eaters, while the gouramis are slower. You need more mid/bottom fish. How about some Cories or Loaches? You could go with 8 Cories or 6 loaches.
 
dont add any tiger barbs. they will not only harass the gourami, but they will also harass the other fish. a school of six isnt even enough to spread out aggression between the tiger brbs themselves, much less keep them away from the other fish. to do that, you'd need at least 12 for lowering aggression in the school. tiger barbs really only do well in a species tank or in a tank big enough to support enough of them with a few other fish.

you should also wrooy about aggression between your three male gouramis- they may start to fight.

if you want to add anything, it should be either more checker board barbs or some more female gouramis.
 
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Thanks for the input... appreciated.

We've just added the females. They're not so easy to come by in Alaska. We bought all our LFS had. It's already helped the aggression level between the males quite a bit. We've had no problems at all between the checkerboards and the gourami, either. They've got plenty of driftwood and rock cave, and pretty much stick to themselves. The gourami pretty much hang out in the top 1/3 of the tank and really seem to like the floating plants, while the barbs stick to the lower 2/3.

Thanks again!
 
I hate to follow my own post, but I've got a follow up question.

In doing some reading it looks like some loaches get quite large... i.e. clown loaches upwards of a foot to foot and a half. I also notice that they're known to feast on snails. I assume (maybe not a great idea) that they'd be alright with large snails (1 1/2" or larger).

So, any suggestions for a small group of loaches for this tank? I've been looking at zebra loaches, and they seem to be a pretty good fit. Anybody have experience with them... had them with apple snails?
 
What about instead of barbs, some rasboras? They're very lovely. (I'd have them as my second school, if I had a slightly larger tank.)

Also, wouldn't YoYo Loaches work in this environment?
 
Yoyo loaches would work too...as would Zebras, Polka Dots, or Dwarf Chain. I have Yoyo loaches in my 55g and have some nickel sized Ramshorn snails that don't get eaten. I'd think that a 1 1/2" snail would be relatively safe. ;) I'd go with a group of 4-6.
 
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