Small Community Tank

[TheChards]

Hi guys,

I have a newly cycled 16.64 US gallon fish tank which is currently home to 4 Dwarf Gouramis and 2 Upside Down Catfish. I'm aware that this isn't a lot of water for a community tank but I'd really like to add 6 Neon Tetras to finish it off and make everything perfect. However, I don't want to over-stock it and am also worried that the Gourami may pick on the Tetras so I thought I'd ask here what people think of this potential setup?

The adult size for a Dwarf Gourami is about 2 inches so I have a total of 8 inches of Dwarf Gourami. The Upside Down Catfish are an inch each so that takes my total up to 10 inches, possibly 11 allowing some room for growth (I don't know how much more growth I can expect from them though – probably not a lot). If the maximum size of a Neon Tetra is about an inch and a half then 6 of them will cost me 9 inches in total and take my total up to 19 – 20 inches. Yuck. This seems too high.

However, there is a reasonably good surface area/ capacity ratio to the tank because it isn't very tall so this should work in my favour. Also, because it's small I can easily do a 50% PWC at least once a week or more often as required. I test for Ammonia, Nitrites, Nitrates and pH on a daily basis and will continue to do so, carrying out a PWC if Ammonia or Nitrites get above 0.5 ppm. Finally, there is a good quantity of living plants and other hiding places for a tank of this size which break up the fishes line of sight and gives nervous fish somewhere to hang out.

I suppose a safer option would be to get less than 6 Neon Tetras but I know that they like to be kept in larger groups so that they don't feel threatened by the other fish so I'd like to go with 6 if I possibly can. Also, I can't move any of my existing fish to another tank as there's nowhere else for them to go (yet) so even if I could safely have 200 Neon Tetras if I got rid of 1 or 2 of my Dwarf Gouramis then this wouldn't be an option.

Any advice welcome! Thanks in advance...

Dan

 

[Lager]

What kind of upside down cats are they? Some grow to a foot or more.

 

[TheChards]

Hi Lager, thanks for the reply.

They were sold to me as Synodontis nigriventris which I understand are amongst the smaller ones. If they start growing out of control then I'll know that they hadn't been correctly identified by the LFS and will take them back...

 

[Johnny Tuttle]

I was told here to buy more neons than you expect to have, as they are fragile.

 

[Alaris]

I'll go ahead and post this though I'm not sure how much it will help you:

The rules to the inch/gallon guideline:

1.) Inches of fish = the eventual ADULT size of the fish, not the current size.
2.) The eventual ADULT aggression of the fish. Aggressive fish need ~5gal or more per aggressive fish.
3.) The messiness of the fish. Large fish are messy. Platies and mollies are messy.
4.) Large fish (about 5 inch or more) need more than just 1 inch/gallon. They need at least double the space and possibly up to 5 times more space than 1 inch/gallon.
5.) Active fish (like danios) need more space.
6.) In some cases you can have more fish, eg. in a species only 10g neon tank you could have ~12-15 neons.
7.) Just because you do larger water changes more often and have larger-than-required filtration, doesn't mean your tank is absolved of these rules, only that you can bend them somewhat.

After saying that....

The adult size of dwarf gourami is 2". The adult size of an Synodontis nigriventris is 4". The upside down catfish put you at the limit. If you had some cory cats or oto cats instead, then I would say go ahead with the 6 neons.