next additions - what to add first?

[Ap0ll0]

Hi there,

I started a freshwater aquarium a couple of months ago, and have had fish in it for just over a month.

Current stock is:

3x (1m 2f) Boesemani Rainbowfish
4x (3m 1f) Celebes Rainbowfish
4x (unsure) Sterba's Cory

All seem to be doing pretty well, both Rainbow species have been displaying and spawning, all seem to be growing, most noticeably the male celebes and a couple of the corys (maybe the bigger ones are the females?)

Since the first stocking was effectively using the display tank as the quarantine tank, I hadn't set up a QT, but I have now and it is just getting through the nitrite spike and I need to fit a lighting unit and tube into the hood, but I'm hoping it'll be ready for fish by the weekend.

With that in mind, I fully intend to start out by increasing the numbers of the species I already have, to get the Bows up to 6 (2m 4f), Corys to 7 (I don't know whether the gender split matters much, assuming it doesn't will want 3:4 ratio that goes either way and celebes to 8, with either 4m 4f or 3m 5f

My question is which one to up the number first?

The corys seem pretty happy, they can be a bit skittish particularly when there's more light outside the tank so they can tell if someone is going past, but I assume that will be the case regardless of numbers generally. I was thinking I could put 3 corys in with either of the additional rainbow groups, as they pretty much ignore each other and the QT tank is a good size

The celebes seem pretty happy as well but my concern is the gender ratio 3m 1f, but while the males do 'harass' the female mostly in the mornings, she doesn't seem particularly bothered and is the only fish I've actually seen laying a couple of eggs. Also after the initial display from all the celebes, they seem to be taking it in turns to be the dominant male as I only tend to see one of them with the full dark colouration at a time and isn't always the same one.

The rainbows also seem fairly happy, although the male does get territorial and chase the females away sometimes, and the other evening the two females were actually getting pretty aggressive with each other during a tubifex feeding, when I saw one properly lunge open mouthed into the side of the other I stepped in and tapped on the glass and they packed it in

All are eating well - feed 3 different flake brands (two came with aquariums, one when I got the initial stock), tetra brine shrimp mix packets, two types of sinking wafer/pellet, and freeze dried bloodworm and tubifex treats. The boesemani rainbows can be greedy b**tards and they go mental for the bloodworms

I'm thinking I'll start with 3 more Bows and 3 more corys, and then as soon as (all things going well) they are into the display tank I'll keep the QT going and add the celebes. Once they are in the display I can start thinking about a new species (Pearl Gourami is currently top of my wishlist)

What are people's views?

 

[Rivercats]

Personally I'd add the Celebes first, then the other rainbows, and cories last. Only having one female Celebes can put alot of stress on her and with those fish a slightly higher number of females is best. I don't have Celebes right now but have in the past, right now I have Threadfin rainbows which behavior and size wise are about the same as the Celebes.

 

[Ap0ll0]

that was my original thinking (altho with the corys in the first additions as well) but would you say that not having a large enough school is less likely to stress the fish than too many males to females? I guess that makes sense as the celebes actively chase the female (though like I say, she really seems completely fine as far as a newbie like me can tell, I'm assuming the fact she hasn't grown as much as the males is natural and not stress related. I swear the other day she was chasing the males!)

I'll await some more opinions - I keep vacillating on this

also I hope it is noted I'm letting the needs of the fish guide my choices rather than the other way around (i.e ensuring minimum or greater school/shoal sizes before worrying about more variety of species)

Is there a reason you would add the corys last rather than with the first lot?

 

[Rivercats]

The reason I'd add the cory's last is there are enough to sufficiently provide their shoaling needs where as the female celebes is under stress without getting any breaks since the males have no other females to chase. Often a fish doesn't show any signs of stress until they have been pushed to their limit. I know females don't have the color or finage of males but if you get a couple females to every male the males actually display more. To both the females and to the other males. My threadfin males spend as much time displaying to the other males as they do chasing the females around which gives the females a much needed break from all the male attention.