I'm new... Help

[ohiogirlkrista]

Hey guys,
I signed up for this because I have a lot of questions as I get mixed reviews online and was wanting advice from experience. I started a small 5 gallon tank... with way to many incompatible fish. I started with 3 blue gouramis and 3 platy fish, hoping to breed the platy. However I had a mean gourami that stressed most of my fish until floating. I now have 2 tanks. 1 which I bought second hand it's a much bigger tank 55 gallons. In this tank I have 14 Convict Cichlids. (I'm not sure if there are too many or not.) My 'new' fish are different ages, and mostly stick to the bottom of the tank, very docile for Convict I think. My little 5 gallon tank still has 2 blue gouramis I believe one to be male, the other female. (I just figured this out yesterday). My husband thinks it would be fun to breed them... However I'm not sure how. Any advice you could provide would be greatly appreciated. I wanted to put my gouramis in the bigger tank, however I have 3 4inch convicts.. so not sure that would be a good idea.

Thanks for reading.

 

[Deckape]

Hi and welcome to AA. Yours is a complex issue and I think your question would best be answered in the freshwater form in the cichlid section. Just copy and paste your posting, and start a new thread in that section.
You will find a very nice bunch of folks here and a lot of knowledge.

 

[DA fisherman]

Your first tank was way to crowded ...and gourami are also semi aggressive, while platy are not and to put them in such a tight place may have caused that.

Now the 55g is also way to crowded .... I say about 4 convict cichlids in your 55g is calling it close..... They get about 3"-4" and when they find a mate it's over.... They will try and kill the rest off....


Just look into the fish you want to get a bit more , before getting them and you will be ok

PS: and when you breed fish the it should be that one class of fish in the tank.

 

[relisefishies8897]

Your first tank was way to crowded ...and gourami are also semi aggressive, while platy are not and to put them in such a tight place may have caused that.

Now the 55g is also way to crowded .... I say about 4 convict cichlids in your 55g is calling it close..... They get about 3"-4" and when they find a mate it's over.... They will try and kill the rest off....


Just look into the fish you want to get a bit more , before getting them and you will be ok

PS: and when you breed fish the it should be that one class of fish in the tank.

I second that
the bigger the fish the more room they need
the 1 gal per fish rule is bogus

 

[neilanh]

Welcome to AA!

I'm gonna move your thread to the FW Getting started forum since you're asking for advice, I think you'll get more feedback there.

 

[Shadowraven]

Blue Gouramis can be very aggressive, but if you keep them in with the convicts, the convicts will keep them in line. If any fish could stand the 5-gal, it would be the gouramis, because of their ability to supplement their oxygen by breathing air. They would still do better in the larger tank. Also if the male decided to get aggressive with the female, she would have nowhere to go in the smaller tank.

As far as breeding them goes, males are often very aggressive during spawning. You would need a larger dedicated tank than the 5-gal to breed them. They wouldn't do well being kept in with other fish if you decided to try this. Remember that breeding them will also involve you getting the fry the correct type of live food to raise them correctly. The breeding pair will also probably need to be prepared with high quality or live foods to place them into top form, ready to breed.

The platies should do OK in either location, although I'd get about 3 more of them. Breeding platies is fairly easy. They will often do it on their spontaneously.

That 5-gal IS way too overcrowded. I'm glad to hear that you got a 55-gal as well.

 

[ohiogirlkrista]

I do see that the tank is way over crowded after just spending some time watching them. It's a really busy tank. Some of the fish vary in size and I was going to give some away. I have 3 that are really large, and about 5 that are only about 1.5inch. What Size of Cichlids should I give away, I don't want them to be too small to give away. Any Advice would be appreciated.

Thanks

 

[Scalare]

Hi Krista, personally I would clear the largest fish in your tank, leaving the smaller specimens. Convict cichlids can be aggressive and get quite large so if you are putting other fish in with them get fish that can take care of themselves with the Convicts, maybe some similar size cichlids, but be careful not to overstock, you could easily overstock with large cichlids even in a 55g

Pete

 

[ohiogirlkrista]

It's been a couple of months, and I finally got rid of a breeding pair of Cichlids. My tank looks a little bit better, but I have 2 sets of babies, and One fish that I think it trying to take over the entire tank. I hopefully have another lady coming the first of July for another pair. I've placed the babies on Kijiji, as I have one set big enough to go, is 2.00 a fish asking to much, or should I drop the price. Looking for more suggestions. Also considering breeding fish. Any thoughts??

Thanks Again for all your help

Krista