Am i stocked?

[richardh]

I have a 65 litre, 17 usg, tall tank containing:

10 cardinal tetras
2 Pygmy cory
5 oto
3 harlequin rasbora

All are tiny fish and look at bit lost in the tank. Am I pretty much stocked now? All I really want to add is a few shrimp, but I am led to believe they won't add much to the load anyway.

 

[Nu-Nu the eel]

Ya you seem to be stocke in my opinion. The problem is you have 3 types of fish that want to be in schools of at least six to be happy, but you are stocked. I think you could add more cories because they stay on the ground the whole time. And yes shrimp have almost no bio load an if anything, will actually clean your tank.

 

[bruinsbro1997]

I have a 65 litre, 17 usg, tall tank containing:

10 cardinal tetras
2 Pygmy cory
5 oto
3 harlequin rasbora

All are tiny fish and look at bit lost in the tank. Am I pretty much stocked now? All I really want to add is a few shrimp, but I am led to believe they won't add much to the load anyway.

What is your nitrate concentration? How often do you do PWC?
Fish-wised you seem stocked. I would bump the pygmy cory school to 6, and the harlequin rasboras to 6 as well.

You could definitely toss some shrimp in there, they won't contribute to the bioload much.

 

[librarygirl]

You're actually overstocked I think. As Nu-Nu said, the Corys and Harlequins should be in larger groups although you can't really add any more fish. If you can upgrade to a larger tank at some point (at least 29 gal) then you can fill out your Corys and Rasbora. Adding the shrimp now should be OK though.

 

[richardh]

Nitrates are at 5ppm and I PWC at least once a week around 50%. This is not out of necessity, more out of habit

The Pygmy cory and harlequins are all my lfs had at the time and I'm waiting for a few more. Added the otos today, as I am getting a bit of algae. Hopefully they will have a feast!

I do have a currently cycling 33g that I can transfer some fish to at some point, if they get much larger. Personally I don't see cardinals or Pygmy getting any bigger than they are.

 

[richardh]

The strangest thing has happened. The cardinals were always shy and hid most of the time. The 2 Pygmy cory pretty much disappeared the second I introduced them...well they are tiny!

Anyway, once the harlequins and Otos were introduced today, the tank has totally come alive! The cardinals are swimming around carefree not shy at all. The Pygmy cory think they are actually harlequins and are constantly following them around! What a transformation in a few short hours! It's almost like the new fish said 'hey you guys, it's fine out here. Come see for yourself!!'

I can actually see the fish now

 

[richardh]

*update

Moved 3 of the oto into a bigger tank. Algae now seems under control.

Can't believe just how much difference the new fish made on the tank. It's a much livelier place now and the fish are much more sociable