Help stocking a 29 gallon

[bettalife]

Ok so I saved an oscar from a ten gallon but I was to late and he died last night from internal parasites. RIP
So what should I do with the tank? I was just thinking of letting it sit and cycle for a couple weeks. Would that be ok or do I need to treat it with something?
Now the third thing is what to put in it? I was thinking this.

1 bushy nose pleco
1 female betta
4 galaxy rasbora
4 swordtails
6 zebra danios

Let me now if I am overstocked or what you think I should add or take out.

 

[Istrom]

That's not overstocked at all. I would use prime and stability while it cycles, and for future reference, even if a tank has more than 1 inch of fish per 1 gallon, all that means is you need to do a lot more water changes.

 

[bettaowner]

I would only keep one pair of swordtails in that tank. Swordtails can be fairly aggressive in smaller tanks.

 

[Animag771]

Definitely not overstocked. I agree with bettaowner on the swordtails. Males can be aggessive if you keep to many together without enough females. If you choose to keep 4, be sure to keep a 1 male to 3 female ratio to minimize aggression. Though they can also be aggressive towards other fish in the tank during breeding. (Most of that info is from the Google so if anybody has experience with swordtails, please correct me if I am wrong)

I would swap the pleco with corydoras though (I may just be partial to them), they are smaller and produce less waste. More fish, more active, more fun for the same (or less) bioload. I would also up the number of the galaxy rasboras between 6-10 (definitely 10 if you only do 2 swordtails) because they only grow to be barely an inch, which will make them hard to see with so few in the tank.

 

[azmodan]

CPDs are very timid and best kept with with other nano fish. With rambunctious and fast fish like your swords and danios your CPDs could end up hiding most of the time and getting outcompeted for food. As already mentioned I'd also stick with 2 swordtails, but you could bump up the danios if you want.


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[bettalife]

Ok I think that this is a better stock

1 female betta

1 bn pleco

2 swordtail

10 zebra danios

Then that leaves me with 8 gallons of space. What would be a good kind of centerpiece fish or something else?

 

[bettalife]

And also should I do two male swordtails or will they fight or should I do a male and female

 

[bettaowner]

Two females would be best. Males would fight and a line female would be harassed by the male.

 

[trennamw]

Have you used aqua advisor at all? It will help calculate stocking levels.

I disagree that the only consequence of overstocking is more water changes. Without enough space to "run" and for personal territory fish get stressed and stress provokes disease.

I suspect with parasites you need to seriously clean the tank.

 

[Animag771]

Ok I think that this is a better stock

1 female betta

1 bn pleco

2 swordtail

10 zebra danios

Then that leaves me with 8 gallons of space. What would be a good kind of centerpiece fish or something else?

The inch per gallon rule is a decent general guideline to keep things on the safe side, but is not all that accurate. As trennamw mentioned, some fish have special needs. For instance BN Plecos like to have driftwood in their environment.

As for your stocking, it seems that would work with 2 female swordtails and for a centerpiece fish you could use something like a ram, sparkling or dwarf gourami, or an apistogramma.

 

[bettalife]

Ok I think I got it tell me if there is anything wrong with this

1 bn pleco

2 dwarf gouramis

1 male swordtail

3 female bettas

10 zebra danios

 

[Animag771]

Having a trio of female bettas together could lead to aggression between them and they will form a strict hierarchy, possibly causing subordinates to be picked on and bullied to death. If keeping multiple bettas it is best to keep no less than 4 together with plenty of hiding places and plants in the tank so they wont be as nippy.
I love Google

I would personally keep it to only 1 female Betta then throw 6 Cardinal Tetras into the mix for some added activity and color. You would still be well within stocking limits. Though you may want to add some more filtration, I'm not sure what filter you have but a single AquaClear 70 would do just fine in there with that stock.

 

[bettalife]

Ok so I just gave up on the swordtail idea. So I have this

1 bn pleco

4 female bettas

2 dwarf gouramis

10 zebra danio

 

[azmodan]

Ok so I just gave up on the swordtail idea. So I have this

1 bn pleco

4 female bettas

2 dwarf gouramis

10 zebra danio

1 gourami is best as they are very aggressive toward each other when they reach sexual maturity (unless you get a female, but they are rare). Also best to have a back up plan for the bettas in case they don't work out together.

 

[bettalife]

Ok so thus is what I got.

10 danios

4 female swordtails (couldn't resist)

1 dwarf gourami

1 male betta ( I added him in from my 5 gal so I had one less tank.)

Does all of that seem ok or does someone need to move to my empty 10 gal?

 

[bettalife]

I am going to add a bn pleco but they didn't have any so I have to wait

 

[Animag771]

Ok so thus is what I got.

10 danios

4 female swordtails (couldn't resist)

1 dwarf gourami

1 male betta ( I added him in from my 5 gal so I had one less tank.)

Does all of that seem ok or does someone need to move to my empty 10 gal?

I would leave the 10g empty to transfer some swordtails over if you start seeing problems. I would still say to add some cardinals, harlequins or something of similar size, but I'm not at my computer right now to see how the stocking would be with the the 4 swordtails. I really doubt you would have a problem with 6 of them.

 

[bettalife]

Ok so I need a clean up crew I am torn between Corys or a bn pleco. I live the way bn plecos look but they aren't as active as corys. I think that corys will do a better job of cleaning up but I just want a second opinion.

 

[bettaowner]

Go with the cories, plecos are messy and highly territorial.

 

[bettalife]

Ok thanks that is what I was leaning towards because I am really just worried about the left over food because the danios make a mess when they eat.