Overcrowded?

[aquasamurai]

I'm quite a newbie but I recently bought a 24x12x14 (17gallon?) tank.

My cycle hasn't finished yet but I decided to put 10 neon tetra, 7 harlequin rasbora, 4 shrimp, 1 male mickymouse, and a pleco. I originally had 3 male guppies on top of this buy they passed away in the past two days.

Is my tank overcrowded?

 

[Aqualady40]

Go to this web and put your info in .....AqAdvisor - Intelligent Freshwater Tropical Fish Aquarium Stocking Calculator and Aquarium Tank/Filter Advisor

 

[Rivercats]

Unless the pleco is a bristlenose it needs to be rehomed. Commons get large and have a very heavy bio-load. After you rehome the pleco you have no room for anymore fish. BUT with your tank not being cycled don't be surprized if you lose more fish. Are you testing your ammonia/nitrite/nitrate daily and doing WC's as needed to keep levels of ammonia and nitrites at .25 or below?

 

[aquasamurai]

I don't have test kit yet, is it essential?

I don't know what kind of pleco I have but it's white and the store person told me it won't get large.

 

[Lt.]

Test kit is a necessity, a liquid test kit, and DO NOT trust the information of LFS (local fish store) employees. Does the pleco have little bristles on his head? If so then the pleco is fine. You are ok on the stocking as long as you keep up on maintenance IMO.

Edit: and by the dimensions you gave, I'm pretty sure you have a 20 gal tall.

 

[Dallascowboys16]

Kind of pushing it

You are on the verge of over stocking so don't add any more fish until you get a bigger tank if you ever want to. Good luck!

 

[aquasamurai]

Thanks to you all for your advice.

My pleco, by the way, doesn't seem to have bristles on his head.

 

[Rivercats]

When you say white do you mean an albino? Does it look like this.... Aquarium Advice - Aquarium Forum Community - Rivercats's Album: 220g inhabitants - Picture only with shorter fins since mine is a longfin albino bristlenose pleco. When BNP's don't have bristles on their head they are either a female as mine is or is a young male not old enough to grow his bristles.

Also as mentioned above you need to invest in an API master test kit and you need to be doing tests daily and WC's daily if needed to keep ammonia/nitrites below .25. This is the most important thing you need to be doing. You need to read this article... I just learned about cycling but I already have fish. What now?! - Aquarium Advice as you should find it very useful.

 

[Lt.]

Ok, could we get a pic?

 

[aquasamurai]

This is it

 

[Rivercats]

Its an albino bristlenose pleco so your good. Can't tell for sure but it looks like it might be a longfinned one.

 

[aquasamurai]

Thanks!

By the way I see eggs-like thing (dark green) in my shrimps tummy, but she always sits on top of my heater near the surface and doesn't move much. Is she sick by any chance?

 

[Rivercats]

I don't do shrimp except some ghost shrimp I rarely see so hopefully someone else can answer that. If she is eating then she is probably okay.

 

[Zimmanski]

Thanks!

By the way I see eggs-like thing (dark green) in my shrimps tummy, but she always sits on top of my heater near the surface and doesn't move much. Is she sick by any chance?

Could just be something she ate, like some plant matter or something. And shrimp hang out in weird places sometimes, I wouldn't be worried