Can my tank hold anymore fish?

[zombie2k]

Hi, great site you have here!

I have been wanting to get a few more small fish that will school around with eachother for my 30 gallon (tall) tank (eclipse system).

The tank is moderately planted and I intend to put a few more plants in the tank in the coming weeks.

I have two fairly large black angelfish, one blue gourami, one red tailed black shark, and one other kind of fish (He's light grey on his head and darker grey on his back half with a furly long tail).

I don't have any camera so I can't provide you with pictures, but based off this description (ask away if you need more info), do you think my tank can handle anymore fish?

Thanks in advance for the help!

 

[black hills tj]

Sounds like you could use some cory cats to cover the bottom

I have a single black angel, 2 golden algae eaters, a black skirt tetra, 2 cherry barbs, 3 cory cats, 2 scissortails, 2 bala sharks, a red tail shark, 2 silvertip tetras, a pristella tetra, and 2 black neon tetras and they all do fine

Most people say I'm overstocked but my fish seem happy

 

[Zagz]

Cory cats will work on the bottom to be sure. The shark will get too big for the tank eventually but you can worry about that later. Without know the ID of the mystery fish, I can't advise you on any other middle dwellers.

 

[zombie2k]

Thanks guys for the replies so far

I tried to look for some photos on the internet according to description for the mystery fish and this is what I was able to come up with:

http://www.timstropicals.com/FreshwaterPhotos.asp?fish=BlackSkirt&name=Black Skirt Tetra
Gymnocorymbus%20ternetzi&Family=TetraLarge&Family2=Tetras&Page=index

The fish looks a lot like that in the front (with the stripes and colors), but the fins (top, bottum, and tail) are long and furly on mine.

Hope that helps, thanks!


EDIT:

Alright, after doing some more research I found out that it's called a long fin black skirt tetra. Here is a video of what he looks like.

http://www.aquariumfish.net/catalog_pages/tetras/tetras_bigger.htm

(video is the second one down)

More advice is welcome!

Thanks!

 

[zombie2k]

I don't know the protocol for bumps on this site, I didn't see any sticky that said it was bad, so here it is!

I'm going to the fish store tomorrow morning to pick out some new fish, any more suggestions or comments would be much appreciated! Thanks!

 

[severum mama]

black skirt tetras are schooling fish and would appreciate being in a group of 6 or more. Your tank seems pretty heavily stocked, so I would suggest trading in your red tailed shark- as Zagz mentioned, they grow too large for your tank, plus in my experience with its less-aggressive cousin (the rainbow shark), they may nip the fins of your angels. My rainbow shark is aggressive enough to live in my SA/CA tank and not get pushed around, so the red tailed shark, in time, will probably be too aggressive to live in a community tank. I'd trade it in to your LFS and get some more black skirts, although they have a reputation of being nippy as far as tetras go, so keep an eye on your angels' fins. JMO.

 

[zombie2k]

I've never brought a fish back to the store, do I just put him in a tupperware bowl or what?

I'd never expect him to be mean to the angels, he sometimes chases my gourami around though--but has never left any visible signs of biting on him.
On another note, does anyone know who's eating all of my plants? I'll take that foo back too!

 

[eah]

I've never brought a fish back to the store, do I just put him in a tupperware bowl or what?

It depends on the store. Many won't give you a refund, but will accept the fish. In my area, Petco takes fish back but some others won't. It might help to call ahead and ask. As far as transporting, a large tupperware container should work.

 

[zombie2k]

I didn't pay much for him (maybe 7 bucks compared to the 20 for each angel), so Im not really concerned about a refund, I'd just rather not run into any tank wars later down the road--though he is my prettiest fish. So it looks like I'll try that and go ahead and buy some tetras.

Do I need to get more longfin or will my longfin hang out with any old blackskirt tetra?

 

[black hills tj]

Severum...that interesting. I've always heard that the red tails are more peaceful and the rainbows are mean little buggers. I've never had any problems with my red-tails.

 

[zombie2k]

Ok so I put 3 corycats in (the lfs didn't have any blackskirt tetras), I don't have any quarantine tank, so I put the baggy in to let the cats get used to the water and dumped them in befoe I left for work. I just got home and all of my fish look really really bad.

Im not sure if the corycats could have had anything that would make them this strange this fast. The tetra and gouramis colours are washed out and the angelfish seem really sluggish. I did buy some bloodworms and give them to the fish too--could that have caused this? Maybe I overfed them?

EDIT: Hmm they seem to be getting better (Edit is like 15 minutes after original post). Do fish lose their color if the tank lights are out for a long period of time? Im beginning to think they were just resting or something because now their colors are starting to look normal again and everyones not so sluggish--especially the corys, geese those guys are crazy!

 

[black hills tj]

I usually catch the fish out of the bag from the LFS and drop them in to my tank after floating them for about 20 minutes. Call me paranoid but I try to limit the foreign water entering my tank.

 

[severum mama]

When I acclimate FW fish, I float the bag in the tank for about 30 mins to equalize the temp. Then, I open the bag, and every 15 mins, I add a little bit of my tank water to the bag to get the fish acclimated. After about an hour or so, I net the new fish out of the bag and add them to my tank.

Zombie- the fish DO lose their color when the tank lights are out for a while, i.e. at night. It does help the newcomers to be less stressed if you turn off the lights during the acclimation process- that's normal, and I see this when I turn on my lights in the mornings, even with fish that I've had for years.

Just to be sure, can you test your water and post specific results (pH, ammonia, nitrite, nitrate)? The actual numbers will help us determine if there is really a problem, or if your newbies are just going through a normal acclimation process. Hopefully you have a liquid reagent kit, as the test strips are notoriously inaccurate.

 

[zombie2k]

Thing is the newbies are fine and dandy it appears, my angelfish seem to be the ones in trouble. One has a fat belly and is kind of swimming sideways and hanging out at the top Id be willing to bet it was the bloodworms--dunno if over stuffing would have caused it and it will just go away on its own or not.

One angel (the one that doesn't have a big bloated tummy) seems to be moving around, but kind of slow and not his usual, mean, self. The other one is doing what is described above.

Gourami and tetra seem to be doing the usual.

I'll see about those water tests, but im fairly sure my water quality is ok.

 

[severum mama]

I don't want to be a broken record, but can you please post specific water test results? That would help us help you.

If one of your angels looks fat, try feeding blanched peas- this will help fish that are constipated.

 

[patryuji]

black skirt tetras are schooling fish and would appreciate being in a group of 6 or more. Your tank seems pretty heavily stocked, so I would suggest trading in your red tailed shark- as Zagz mentioned, they grow too large for your tank, plus in my experience with its less-aggressive cousin (the rainbow shark), they may nip the fins of your angels. My rainbow shark is aggressive enough to live in my SA/CA tank and not get pushed around, so the red tailed shark, in time, will probably be too aggressive to live in a community tank. I'd trade it in to your LFS and get some more black skirts, although they have a reputation of being nippy as far as tetras go, so keep an eye on your angels' fins. JMO.

Red-tail as a fin nipper? I have never ever seen that. Even when being aggressive towards others of its own kind or fish with a similar body shape (like SAEs) the fins were never nipped. The red-tail may possibly be the culprit for plant damage though I mostly see them grazing on algae and not on plants themselves.

As for size: If you are lucky it may reach it's max size of 6" in your aquarium. How big is it right now? It will get a bit more aggressive as it gets larger.

I don't know about any direct comparisons between rainbow sharks and red tailed black sharks other than you can never keep more than one red tailed black shark in home aquarium but you may be able to have multiple rainbow sharks if you keep them in a group of 6 or more.

 

[zombie2k]

Alright, just got the tests done--had to buy the kit

Nitrate is 20ppm

Nitrite is 0ppm

Ammonia is 0ppm

pH looks to be around 7.8 or 8 I have some lacerock in the tank now that was for my sharky to hide in, not sure if I should take it out or not.

The kit I got was the one with the test tubes and you poor water and drops of liquid and shake em up. Then you read the clors that they come out to.