Stocking ideas

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Bruno 1

Aquarium Advice Newbie
Joined
Oct 4, 2022
Messages
4
I have recently upgraded my 29 gallon to a 60 gallon. I have added new fish but i am worried i might have added too many. My stock is
1 firemouth around 3.5 inch female
1 convict 3 inch female
5 blackskirts tetra
6 bleeding heart tetra
1 betta female
1 bristlenose pleco 1.5 inch
1 clown pleco 1 inch
Any help would be highly appreciated. thankyou in advance
 
Hi and welcome to the forum :)

Can we get a picture of the entire tank so we can see ornaments, plants, etc?

What are the tank dimensions (length x width x height)?

What is the GH (general hardness), KH (carbonate hardness) and pH of your water supply?
This information can usually be obtained from your water supply company's website or by telephoning them. If they can't help you, take a glass full of tap water to the local pet shop and get them to test it for you. Write the results down (in numbers) when they do the tests. And ask them what the results are in (eg: ppm, dGH, or something else).

Depending on what the GH of your water is, will determine what fish you should keep.

Angelfish, discus, most tetras, most barbs, Bettas, gouramis, rasbora, Corydoras and small species of suckermouth catfish all occur in soft water (GH below 150ppm) and a pH below 7.0.

Livebearers (guppies, platies, swordtails, mollies), rainbowfish and goldfish occur in medium hard water with a GH around 200-250ppm and a pH above 7.0.

If you have very hard water (GH above 300ppm) then look at African Rift Lake cichlids, or use distilled or reverse osmosis water to reduce the GH and keep fishes from softer water.


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My main concern is the 2 cichlids and the black widow/ skirt tetras. These tetras are renown fin nippers and need to be kept in groups of at least 10 or more. In fact most tetras need to be kept in large groups consisting of at least 10 individuals, this includes the bleeding hearts.

If the convict and firemouth do turn out to be female, they are less of an issue. If they turn into males, it could be an issue.

The female Betta won't like a big tank or an open tank. They prefer calm water with lots of floating plants and no big fish.

The clown pleco could get eaten or bashed by the cichlids.

The bristlenose catfish should be fine when it's grown but might be a snack for the cichlids, depending on how pleasant they are. Some firemouths are peaceful, some are awful. Female convicts can be the same, some are lovely natured and others are psychotic lunatics.

Make sure you have some driftwood in the tank for the bristlenose and clown plecos. Make sure there is algae growing on ornaments and glass for these fish too. You can leave the tank light on for up to 16 hours a day to encourage algae for them to feed on.
 
Sorry for the late reply. My tank is 48x12 24 high. My ph is 7.8 so im alittle high for tetras 7.5 dont know the gh or kh yet waiting for the test kit. Most the fish get along fine other than the convict. She goes into breeding mode black eyes, diging, absolute b!$#. Normaly last around a week or so then back to normal. The firemouth only dose light chaseing of the convict. Im assuming the firemouth is female no breeding, so far been together for almost a year now.
Plants
2 swords
A bunch of java ferns
1 el nino fern
Frogbit and duckweed waiting for it to grow and take over
 

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You could try Water Sprite (Ceratopteris thalictroides/ cornuta) for a floating plant. It can also be planted in the substrate if you get too much.
 
Water sprite isnt bad but i like water westeria alittle bit more. Back to my orignal queston am i over stocked or can i add some panda cories or more plants would be better?
 
I wouldn't say it's overstocked but you have to be careful about what you add. Right now you should add some more tetras to increase their group size to 10 or so, then leave it at that.

I don't like mixing Corydoras with cichlids because the Cories usually end up worse for wear when they have to compete with bottom dwelling cichlids. You might be ok because you have 2 female cichlids, but I wouldn't add Cories to the tank.
 
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