29 gallon roster

[Varick]

My son's 29 gallon tank is just coming out of its cycle, and I'm planning a roster of fish for it. The tank has tall broad-leaf silk plants in the corners of the tank and plenty of hiding places and caves on the gravel bottom. I'm thinking:

8 tiger barbs
1 red tail black shark
3 yo-yo loaches
3 ottos

The tigers will provide the eye candy, the shark will keep them off the bottom so they get seen, and the loaches and ottos are on clean-up duty, plus I hear the yo yo's are a blast to watch. I want the tank to be fairly low maintenance as it is in my son's room.

I've read anecdotally that the shark and loaches will get along just fine, but the various fish compatibility pages I've checked don't necessarily concur. Anyone see a problem with those two fish getting along, or other comments?

 

[Guest]

I don't know about the getting along part, but stocking wise, it looks like a good choice. You shouldn't be too stocked. The only question that I have would be this -- how long does the black shark get? I know most sharks just like common pleco's can get fairly large. You might want to check and see how big he'll get. Good luck with the tank.

 

[Varick]

Thanks Stewie, the female shark gets to 6" fully grown, the males slightly less.

 

[Guest]

Ok, With that said, the max sizes of your fish should be around:
Tiger barbs ~3 inches max
Red tailed shark ~ 4 inches (I researched it)
yo-yo loaches ~ 5 inches max
Ottos ~ 2 inches

With this list, you don't have an overwhelming amount of fish, but per the 1 inch/gallon idea, as max size, you'd have 24 inches of barbs, 4 inches of shark, 15 inches of loaches, and 6 inches of ottos.
That would total 49 inches of fish in a 29 gallon tank. Although the barbs would be middle/top most likely the shark/loaches/otts would be bottom/mid dwellers. Swimming space wise I wouldn't say you'd be overcrowded. However, if this was a walmart tank or a pre packaged tank, I would suggest getting a better filtration unit that can turn over a decent amount of gallons an hour, and hold a colony of beneficial bacteria. (emperors, aquaclear, etc). Make sure you keep tabs on the water quality and do frequent pw changes or else you'll run into some problems later on down the road. Maybe someone else here can verify/vouch for me that even tho it doesn't seem like alot of fish, the fish do get somewhat lengthy for a 29 gallon tank. (its taller than it is long probably). Course then again i could be completely off track with my idea.. who knows...

HTH
-Stewie

 

[Devilishturtles]

I think with all those fish, you would be fine. The yo-yo's, in my understanding, only reach to about 4 inches full grown. The tiger barbs would be a nice mid-top dweller as well. Otos will take care of your algae, no problem.

The one thing you will want to be cautious with, in the Red-Tailed Shark. These fish can be either extrememly docile, or mean little things. If you get one, get only one, and make sure they have plenty of caves and such to hide in. You will need multiple, as it and the loaches will probably be making a run to claim a cave as their own. Like I said, this isn't the case with all of the RTS's, but be prepared to take it back to the LFS if it is going to be a problem fish.

good luck with the tank. 8)

 

[Varick]

Just a quick update to anyone searching on this topic..

I bought 2 small yo-yo loaches and my (young) red-tail black shark has really taken a liking to them. He doesn't hang in his cave nearly so much and seems to get a kick out of prowling (& defending) the bottom with these guys.

 

[swanandmokashi]

i had an albino red tailed shark and 8 tiger barbs in my 29 gallons. No matter what, 2 of the barbs would die - if I added them. So after couple of tries , i stopped and just had the shark and the 6 barbs and then they were all happy. I had 3 ottos too , but they died withiin a month. Make sure the ottos are well fed..that's one fish where overeating is not an issue and they need plump tummies

 

[swanandmokashi]

and btw my shark was small when i bought it in and was about 5 inches when i gave it away