Stocking advice wanted please

[Frenchi74]

Hi I was just wanting your thoughts on my setup please.. This is the most fish I have kept in one aquarium at once, it has been running well for the past 7 month or so with a slight nitrate reading of 50 but no losses and all fish are active and happy.. Would you add anymore of is the amount of fish pushing it ... All answers welcome

Thanks

Mick

240 litre juwel with aqua one external filter plus the juwel filter customised with upgraded powerhead. I run at 26 degree .. My current stock is:
5 orandas(they love the heat)
20 wcmm
5 bronze corys
4 rainbow corys
2 Brochis splendens
2 bristle nose
1 hoplo cat
3 Siamese algae eater's (small) Plenty of plants Good few kg's of ocean rock.

 

[Mumma.of.two]

Hi I was just wanting your thoughts on my setup please.. This is the most fish I have kept in one aquarium at once, it has been running well for the past 7 month or so with a slight nitrate reading of 50 but no losses and all fish are active and happy.. Would you add anymore of is the amount of fish pushing it ... All answers welcome

Thanks

Mick

240 litre juwel with aqua one external filter plus the juwel filter customised with upgraded powerhead. I run at 26 degree .. My current stock is:
5 orandas(they love the heat)
20 wcmm
5 bronze corys
4 rainbow corys
2 Brochis splendens
2 bristle nose
1 hoplo cat
3 Siamese algae eater's (small) Plenty of plants Good few kg's of ocean rock.

As the tank stands now it is overstocked. Just the orandas stock the tank by themselves. I'm guessing they are still fairly young?
50ppm of nitrate is pushing it. Ideally you want to keep it under 40ppm but under 20ppm is better.

 

[Frenchi74]

As the tank stands now it is overstocked. Just the orandas stock the tank by themselves. I'm guessing they are still fairly young?
50ppm of nitrate is pushing it. Ideally you want to keep it under 40ppm but under 20ppm is better.

Hi thanks for your advise, the orandas are approx 4 years old now I had them in a juwel 120 tank upto 7 month ago when I upgraded .... I had the 2 bristle nose plus the rainbow (sterbi) in there with them ... I never lost any fish in that time... I do feed well too... Will things deteriorate with the stock I have as I wouldn't like to loose any fish ?

Thanks

 

[Mumma.of.two]

Hi thanks for your advise, the orandas are approx 4 years old now I had them in a juwel 120 tank upto 7 month ago when I upgraded .... I had the 2 bristle nose plus the rainbow (sterbi) in there with them ... I never lost any fish in that time... I do feed well too... Will things deteriorate with the stock I have as I wouldn't like to loose any fish ? Thanks

I would be worried about a few things honestly. Goldfish don't usually do very well in warmer temps for long periods of time. The warmer temps can decrease their lifespan. At four years old they should be of a substantial size by now. If not then there could be a problem. Larger goldfish will eat anything they can get ahold of. I'm surprised you haven't lost any WCMM yet. Cories have spines in their gills. If one of the orandas decided they look tasty they could get one stuck in their mouth. It can cause injury or even death for one or both fish. What's your filtration like? Is 50ppm the normal for nitrate readings? How much water do you change?

 

[Frenchi74]

I would be worried about a few things honestly. Goldfish don't usually do very well in warmer temps for long periods of time. The warmer temps can decrease their lifespan. At four years old they should be of a substantial size by now. If not then there could be a problem. Larger goldfish will eat anything they can get ahold of. I'm surprised you haven't lost any WCMM yet. Cories have spines in their gills. If one of the orandas decided they look tasty they could get one stuck in their mouth. It can cause injury or even death for one or both fish. What's your filtration like? Is 50ppm the normal for nitrate readings? How much water do you change?

I have never seen them even nibble at the other fish... But I'm not there all of the time.
I'm using the original juwel filter half full with ceramic a pouch of purigen plus 2 blue sponge, wool and the 1000 litre per hour power head
Also
Aqua one external canister filter 1050 around 1000 litres per hour also .. Three quarter full of ceramic 1 pouch of purigen and 1 sponge ..

I change 25 litres of water every week without fail.. I also use aquarium salt ..

 

[Mumma.of.two]

Filtration sounds good The water changes would be the reason why the nitrate is a tad high. With all those fish I'd suggest you change out at least 50% weekly. Although the tank is over stocked, if it seems to be working for now, I don't see any need to immediately change the stock but I wouldn't suggest adding anything and definitely keep a close eye on everyone's growth rate and over all health

 

[Frenchi74]

Filtration sounds good The water changes would be the reason why the nitrate is a tad high. With all those fish I'd suggest you change out at least 50% weekly. Although the tank is over stocked, if it seems to be working for now, I don't see any need to immediately change the stock but I wouldn't suggest adding anything and definitely keep a close eye on everyone's growth rate and over all health

I will sure increase the water change rate then thanks for that
I defiantly will not add any more fish..
It doesn't look messy and the fish seem to have there own space if that sounds right ..
I would add a pic if I knew how

I feed twice a day being generous but it all get eaten .... Should I reduce that to once a day ? I feed tetra pro colour, tetra goldfish gold Japan and Spirulina granuals ... Frozen bloodworm twice a week and shelled peas twice a week ..

 

[Mumma.of.two]

I would definitely switch to a higher quality pellet food. Tetra is pretty crappy IMHO. Hikari make a good sinking goldfish pellet. You want to avoid flakes or floating pellets because it can cause digestive issues. Hikari make smaller pellets also. NLS is another good brand.

 

[PockX]

You have a bunch of cories and other bottom dwelling fish. You also have plenty of fish.. I'm not familiar with orandas so I can't comment on them being in there.. New Life Spectrum is a good brand for any fish product and Hikari is always good.

 

[armymp327]

just want to throw in their that you said you use aquarium salt, corys are very sensitive to salt so you may want to re-think that....salt is not really necessary

 

[Frenchi74]

I would definitely switch to a higher quality pellet food. Tetra is pretty crappy IMHO. Hikari make a good sinking goldfish pellet. You want to avoid flakes or floating pellets because it can cause digestive issues. Hikari make smaller pellets also. NLS is another good brand.

I will defiantly look into Hikari for main feed I use there algae wafers... I use the flake in small amount just for the wcmm's
Thanks

 

[Frenchi74]

You have a bunch of cories and other bottom dwelling fish. You also have plenty of fish.. I'm not familiar with orandas so I can't comment on them being in there.. New Life Spectrum is a good brand for any fish product and Hikari is always good.

Thanks

 

[Frenchi74]

just want to throw in their that you said you use aquarium salt, corys are very sensitive to salt so you may want to re-think that....salt is not really necessary

I will slowly stop the salt I didn't realise this thanks
I suppose it would be like us spraying firery jack on our arm pits lol.... it will be stopped !

 

[armymp327]

sure thing, im sure the corys could adapt to some salt, but we dont want our fish to just adapt, we want them to thrive and be happy!

 

[Frenchi74]

sure thing, im sure the corys could adapt to some salt, but we dont want our fish to just adapt, we want them to thrive and be happy!

Your totally right.... I will slowly dilute over the coming water changes