Its started... (Let the stocking begin) advice needed.

[sudz]

Hey guys!

My tank is fairly well cycled, in only a week. I have 3 neons, a 2 inch loach, a cherry barb, and my LATEST addition (last night) is a golden gourami.

The guy at the fish store said the gourami would be fine with my neons for now, But i'm still a little nervous. You can see the gourami in my gallery.

He seems to be healthy and happier then he was with about 30 other gourami's in a 30 gallon at big al's. And the only thing he's taken an interest in is my loach and my powerhead. He swimms up as close as he can to the powerhead and then lets the current take him away. Quite playful!

I love fish that can detect your presence as well. If i put my finger near the glass, he'll follow it around, and he'll look right at me. The second i put my hand in the tank, he comes upto my hand, and i've ALREADY hand fed him!

I'm super pumped! Do you think he'll be fine with some rainbow fish that i plan to buy next week?

 

[talloulou]

What size tank is it? What kind of loach? I think you need more neons for a better school, likewise you need more cherry barbs. The cherry barb likes to hang with it's own kind so you don't want a loner. The gold gourami will get kinda big...up to 5-6 inches and it may bother your smaller fish so make sure you have tons of hiding spots. I think the male gold gouramis are more aggressive then the females. This fish should definitely be the only gourami and hopefully it won't become too aggressive with age and kill your smaller fish. I think they are usually listed as semi aggressive in stores.

Also a week is a very short time for the cycle to have completed. What are your actual readings for ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate? Did you use filter media from an older tank to jump start this one?

 

[sudz]

Yes on filter media, and i had the bio-matter from this tank sitting in my 10 gallon for almost 2 weeks.

0 Ammonia, 0 nitrites, Just over 0 nitrates. probably around 2 ppm

 

[Lonewolfblue]

What size tank?

 

[sudz]

44 gallon pent. (diamond footprint)

 

[RoK]

The clown loach will outgrow that tank and would prefer to school with more clowns. I'd suggest not keeping it unless you plan to upgrade and get more of them. Also, you should get some more cherry barbs and neons as they like to school as talloulou mentioned. The gourami should be fine with neons and rainbows. If you want little to no territorialness from the gourami, do not get any more gouramis or anabantoids.

 

[sudz]

anabantoids... That doesn't include rainbowfish, does it?

Do you think a lemondrop would be ok? this lady at Big al's has bred them, and will give me a 2 inch for 20 dollars. Is that a decent price? they're so vibrant, I'm just worried about agression towards my gourami..

 

[rich311k]

Rainbowfish are not anabantoids.