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 Posted: Tue Sep 01, 2009 8:55 am
I don't have pics yet but I got some new fish. 4 Bloodfin tetras and a beautiful new red male betta. He's a veil tail, but his back fin is more rounded almost like a halfmoon. In another week or so I'm going to get 4 more of the tetras. I was questioning whether I should do that, or get two more and then get 6 rummynose tetras, because I think they'd look really good together, but 12 tetras is probably way too much for that tank, so maybe in the future. We also have more kuhli loaches in stock, so I'm probably going to pick a few of those up for the 10g before I go home tonight (the things I do for my fish...going into work on my only day off mad ).
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Posted: Tue Sep 01, 2009 9:37 am
Vanilla eXee I don't have pics yet but I got some new fish. 4 Bloodfin tetras and a beautiful new red male betta. He's a veil tail, but his back fin is more rounded almost like a halfmoon. In another week or so I'm going to get 4 more of the tetras. I was questioning whether I should do that, or get two more and then get 6 rummynose tetras, because I think they'd look really good together, but 12 tetras is probably way too much for that tank, so maybe in the future. We also have more kuhli loaches in stock, so I'm probably going to pick a few of those up for the 10g before I go home tonight (the things I do for my fish...going into work on my only day off mad ). Exciting! I wont be able to get any new fish for a while ): no money
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Posted: Tue Sep 01, 2009 3:37 pm
Heh, nothing like getting new fish. Glad to hear your kuhli is getting some buds.
Tetras are pretty low-waste fish, so how many you can have depends on your water change schedule, filtration, and current bioload, plus whether you have live plants or not. Those 12 tetras could certainly fit into a 15 gallon or bigger as long as there aren't too many other fish. And I know what it's like trying to decide between a bigger school of one fish or two smaller schools of two fish, heh. I can't decide whether to expand my school of rainbow shiners, or get some flagfin or sailfin shiners to go in with them. Arg.
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Posted: Tue Sep 01, 2009 7:52 pm
I know, it's like christmas. Except you're buying your own presents.
The tank they're in is a 20g high. Tankmates: 1 BN pleco, 2 brochis splendens (who are going to my grandfather soon because he has a lone one), two wrestling halfbeaks, and my most recent acquisitions: a pair of german blue rams. I got those guys today. I intended to get a pair of apistos, but the store I was at was out and I didn't want to waste the trip. Might put 5-6 kuhlis in there unless I can find pygmy corys. I do between a 25% and 50% change weekly, depending on how dirty the tank is and how much water I feel like hauling, and I use a HOB rated for 30g. As for plants, yesterday I pulled some hornwort from my puffer tank and put in there, but I'm looking for some more live plants. I've really been neglecting the look of my tank, so I'm going to plant it as heavily as my puffer tank and put a nice piece of driftwood in the center for my plec.
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Posted: Wed Sep 02, 2009 3:20 am
From what you describe I'm really interested in seeing your tank. Sounds like a very interesting combination.
I think Bloodfin's and rummy nose tetras might school together. I never kept rummys, but I used to have some very friendly bloofins. They schooled with rasboras and guppies.
12 tetras sound like they would do fine in a 20 gallon tank, but I'm not sure what the khuli's or cories would add to the bioload, especially since you already have a pleco.
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Posted: Wed Sep 02, 2009 8:17 am
I will take some pictures, I just can't find my camera atm and I won't be home to look for it for the rest of the week, so it might be a while. I think they'd school together too, we have some rummys in the anaconda tank and they don't seem to mind schooling with the cardinal tetras.
I think the addition of either bottom dweller group would only have a small bioload. If I do corys, I only want pygmys since all the other ones, in my mind, get too big for a proper school in a 20g (would do better in 20g long or bigger). The kuhlis are pretty small and as far as I can tell so far, they don't produce too much waste. I'm going to stick with just a group in the 10g until I get to know them better.
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Posted: Wed Sep 02, 2009 5:05 pm
C. panda and C. similis stay quite small at just over an inch full grown, but they prefer cooler temps than the rams--especially pandas. My pandas are actually in with a bunch of coldwater fish and the temp of that tank never goes over 74. Rams like temps of about 80-82, so kind of a bad mix. C. sterbai can tolerate higher temps, but they're one of the larger corys.
With the pleco in there I'd go for a smaller school of tetras. The rams need very good water quality, so you'll want to err on the side of understocking. Of course, I say this as someone with a GBR in a slightly overstocked 55 gallon...but I do have lots of live plants in there, plus 100 gallons of total filtration between the sponge and the HOB.
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Posted: Wed Sep 02, 2009 9:23 pm
I honestly can't picture a decent group of fully grown panda corys in a 20g high anyway. It seems too crowded to me. Remember, there's barely any floor space. I really want to ditch it for a 20g long, but I have nowhere to put one.
My water is pretty much pristine, but since I just added the rams, I'm gonna wait a while and see what it's like.
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Posted: Thu Sep 03, 2009 12:14 am
Since you do very regular water changes, and have a filter that is meant for a tank with more volume I don't think your water quality will be bad at all.
To be sure you could test the water every week for a month. You can also see how stable the parameters are then.
When you mentioned little floor space, I started to wonder if a high tank is suitable for a large schools of tetra's though. In a normal or long tank they should be fine, but I have no experience on high tanks.
Carefull with the rams though, once they have their teritory they can be nasty to newcomers. It's usually best to add the gentler fish first and then the more agressive ones.
But you can always take them out for a while and rearange a few things in the tank if they do try to bully any new fish you add.
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Posted: Fri Sep 04, 2009 6:18 pm
Yeah, that's a great idea. I'm just going to take it slow with the stocking, there's no need to rush.
A 20g high is a standard 20g, I only use the high to differentiate it from a long. The tetras I have in there so far don't seem to find it too small, there's just enough room for them to zoom around. I do need to get more either way, because 4 is not enough for them to school properly. I just found out that we sell them at my store and kicked myself for buying them somewhere else when I can use my discount on them =P
When I buy new tetras, I might move the rams just in case.
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