Hello

[bchapbronc]

This is my first post. Seems like a good board here. I also have a question. I have a 30 gallon tank and the origanal set up was

2 angels
2 platties
opaline gourami
betta
chinese algae eater

Then I decided that I wanted one more fish so I go to the pet store and I lke glass cats and cory's so I just got one of each. THe lady at the store told me glass cats are fine by themselves, but when I read about them I find out she is wrong. I didn't want anymore fish, but instead of taking it back I panicked and bought 3 more. I feel like I'm overcrowded a bit now, what do you think? Two of the four glass cats haven't ate yet so maybe I'll be less crowded soon.

Now I have:

2 angels
2 platties
opaline gourami
betta
chinese algae eater
4 glass cats
cory cat

All of them are full grown but the cats.

 

[justDIY]

yes, I would say you are overcrowding those fish

gourami get large

so do angelfish

the CAE will get to at least 12"

ideally, you should have 10 gallons dedicated to each adult angel - if they are a matched pair you might be able to have 15 gal for the two since they get along ... if they decide to breed, your tank will turn into a snakepit, as all your fish will have no where to hide from the wrath of the angelfish

time to upgrade if you can ... or see if someone will adopt your betta, platies and gourami - that should free up some room.

 

[Zic]

Or you could get a glass vase for your betta. If you change the water every week, it should do just fine in one.

 

[Zic]

Oops. Double posted.

 

[CRaZeeeBiTcHisH]

corydoras like pals too 8)

 

[bchapbronc]

The angels are about to their full size, I've had them for over a year. The gourami is also 4 inches which is full size. If I get rid of anything it will be the glass cats, platties, or algae eater. I also thought about moving the betta like you said but i like his color in the tank. If you go by inch per gallon I should be fine with the

2 Angels
Gourami
betta
cory
2 platties

That would put me around 28"
Thanks for the quick replies

 

[bchapbronc]

also

While CAE's can get to be 10-12 inches they rarely get that big in an aquarium. That is their size in the wild.

 

[Black Sails]

Are the angels a breeding pair? I wouldn't go by inches per gallon when keeping angels. That measurement is more of a guide in terms of waste being produced. (Too many fish = too much ammonia) It doesn't take fish behavior into consideration. I used to have 2 extra large veil angels and a pleco in my 29 gal. I wouldn't have ever dreamed of adding gouramis, cats, and bettas to my tank. You're overcrowding. Just my humble opinion though. Dowhatchalike

 

[bchapbronc]

Thanks for your opinion. No they have never breed. I'm not even sure if they are male or female. I have had all the fish minus the glass cats and the cory for over a year, and they have been fine. I just wish I never added anything now.

 

[Allivymar]

Welcome bchapbronc!

Ahh angels. My fav (*grin* if you check my gallery you'll see what I mean). Lovely buggers. Prob is, they need about 10g apiece. That whole 1inch/1 gallon thing? Is pretty useless. Only works well for small fish with small body masses. Face it, 10 inches of Oscar needs a LOT more room the 10 inches of Neon, know what I mean?

So yeah, you're overcrowded. Good excuse to get a new tank IMHO

Best way to figure out stocking, and again this is not law and depends on the fish, is the surface area calculations. The surface is where the oxygen exchange is (yep, those little bubbles from the aerator do not put O2 into the tank. They agitate the surface so there is an O2 exchange. Oh, and they look pretty *grin*). Theres a very nice explanation here: http://www.geocities.com/scalehead/stocking.html .

I've 5 angels, 3 clown loaches and a plec in my 55g. It doesn't sound like much, but to me its pretty stocked.

 

[bchapbronc]

Ok so I traded the 4 glasscats in for a cory and a chocolate gourami. I figure that the chocolate will die soon because from everything I've heard the are very difficult to keep alive. It just looked cool and they only get to be 2 inches. Also a non aggressive fish. The guy that owns the fish store said that even though they are hard to keep the ones that he has have been doing great so we'll see.

The two cory's have instantly become friends and never get farther than an inch from each other.

Now i'm thinking about getting rid of the algae eater mainly because he is getting very aggressive. For about 80% of the time he lives in big plastic rock that is hollow and he gets inside somehow. The other 20% of the time he comes out and harsases the other fish. I figure the cory's do a better job of cleaning that the CAE anyways because he is never out of the rock. Also decided that I like sunset dwarf gouramis and neon dwarfs alot. So might trade in my opaline which is becoming aggressive lately. So this might be my new tank what do you think?

2 Angels
2 cory's
beta
2 platties
chocolate gourami (if it survives)
sunset or neon dwarf gourami

That would make the tank alot smaller than it was since the opaline is about 4 inches and the dwarfs will only get to about 3. Also the cae is around 4 inches now.

 

[Guest]

Now i'm thinking about getting rid of the algae eater mainly because he is getting very aggressive.

Good choice, they aren't woth much in cleaning algae, and you've seen their behavior as they get larger.

Rest of plan sounds good too, should be a decent mix.