Reviving a Community Tank

[FishieMomma]

Hey all.
After a long illness during which I was unable to do much keep my community tank going, I am finally better and hoping to restore it to a thriving community tank once again.



Facts: 55 gallon community, black sand, half planted/half wood.
Current occupants:
(2) dwarf 3-spot gouramis
(4) neon tetras
(3) black neon tetras

All these fish appear healthy.

I lost two fish last week after I was able to change the water (first time in a month). All parameters perfect at the moment. I am checking every other day right now and when I do a PWC I change well over 50% using Prime and API Stress Zyme.

I'd like to rebuild with Corys, more of both types of tetras, and a few swordtails. Obviously, I have to go slowly. My biggest question for you all is how long should I wait before beginning the restocking process? I figure large PWCs every other day, even though the numbers don't indicate a need, should help my remaining stock strengthen up before new occupants arrive.

Also, which type of fish is the best to begin the restocking with?

 

[Goldfish loach boy]

Hey all.
After a long illness during which I was unable to do much keep my community tank going, I am finally better and hoping to restore it to a thriving community tank once again.

View attachment 231634

Facts: 55 gallon community, black sand, half planted/half wood.
Current occupants:
(2) dwarf 3-spot gouramis
(4) neon tetras
(3) black neon tetras

All these fish appear healthy.

I lost two fish last week after I was able to change the water (first time in a month). All parameters perfect at the moment. I am checking every other day right now and when I do a PWC I change well over 50% using Prime and API Stress Zyme.

I'd like to rebuild with Corys, more of both types of tetras, and a few swordtails. Obviously, I have to go slowly. My biggest question for you all is how long should I wait before beginning the restocking process? I figure large PWCs every other day, even though the numbers don't indicate a need, should help my remaining stock strengthen up before new occupants arrive.

Also, which type of fish is the best to begin the restocking with?

Well, first of all, hope you feel better!
Did you test with an API master kit?
I would firstly add the cories
Then wait a week, and add the swordtails, the. A week later, add the tetras
By the way, are those opaline gouramis you are talking about?

 

[henningc]

I agree with the above except I'd do the swords last so the schoolers can settle in nicely before these oddball guys pay a visit. Keep in mind, swords can get large 4" +, so not too many. As for corys, figure out what kind or kinds you want and get 6-10 of them. In a 55gal, you could go with say 6 paleatus and 10 pandas or skuncks.

 

[Coursair]

There are no Dwarf 3 Spot Gouramis. 3 Spots get big and often kill each other as adults, nice looking tho.

Dwarf Gouramis are small and in a big tank, may not kill each other.

The above is JMHO.

And I'm jealous as I'd love to have a big group of Cories.

I love C sterbais, C trilineatus, C concolor, C adolfoi so many cool fish !! C habrosus are super perky mini Cories.
http://www.planetcatfish.com/common/genus.php?genus_id=1

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[FishieMomma]

Thanks for the replies, folks.

Goldfish Loach Boy and Coursair are right! They are Opaline Gourami. One is a three-spot and one a marble. The three-spot is pretty small:


Not a great pic. I'll work on that. The marbled one is four times his size. Here's a pic of both of them for comparison.


Pretty sure the little three-spot is a male (sharper dorsal fin) and the the larger marbled one is a female (rounded dorsal fin). She spends most of her time hiding. I didn't plan on putting two gourami in together, and certainly not a male AND female! The smaller one was in a different tank (a 14 gal.) and was miserable in there so was moved to the big tank. Chalk that one up to NOT doing enough research before purchasing! While the female chased the male when he first joined the big tank, they settled down pretty well. I guess I'll have to keep a close on them and figure out a re-homing situation if the ever act up and/or look like they might want to breed.

I do use the API Master Kit and my numbers have now begun running 0, 0, and <5.0. I do have a heavily planted tank on the right half that keeps the NirtrAtes down considerably, that number used to run pretty high.


HenningC - thanks for the recs regarding the corys, I lean toward albinos simply because I have a black sand substrate, but could certainly look at some others. That link you included above is fabulous, by the way. There are quite a few I like beyond the basic albino. Which brings me to a Very Important Question:

Sometimes my LFS (Aquarium Center in Blackwood, NJ), has some of these less common corys and if one wants enough of a group to make them happy, one has to get six or so at a time since there is no definite timeline for getting more of the exact kind of cory. When ever I have added more than two corys at a time, it seems to overload my BBs and they don't do as well. Obviously, I can step up the monitoring and PWCs from now on, BUT everything I rad says not to add more than three fish at a time. So going for these rarer varieties seems pointless.

Any thoughts on how many fish to add and how often?