grappler

hiya guys

currently have a 9 gallon tank with 1 yoyo loach, 2 cory sterbais, 1 albino catfish, one bristle nose and 3 khulis. i know thats probably a bit overstocked at the moment but thyve been in there for a while now and seem to be happy. i do a 30% change every week.

now im upgrading to a 45 gallon!! yipee! and i was wondering if i could get any advice on whether my selection of fish would be overstocking the tank.
i plan for: 2-3 yoyo loaches
4 cory sterbais
3 albino catfish
2 bristlenose c/f
5 khuli loaches
lastly 12 to 16 inches of schooling fish
e.g congo tetras or harly rasboras

the tank will be planted with an under gravel filter and an appropriately sized cannister filter. what do you guys think?

Butterfly

Sounds like a pretty tank, glad your adding more Corys and Kuhlis.
Adding the Yoyos would take it over the overstock line quite a bit. I personally would leave the underground filter out. It's possible for the kuhlis to get trapped underneath.
Carol

sirdarksol

If you are going to use the UGF, use a piece of something to prop an edge up so the kuhlis can get in and out, or, conversely, use silicon to seal the edges down.
However, I agree with Butterfly that leaving it out is the best bet, especially if you're going to have rooted plants, which prefer a substrate that wouldn't allow for a UGF, like EcoComplete or fluorite. Since you've got loaches and cories, I would suggest EcoComplete, as it is a soft substrate, easy on the little barbels.

I don't know much about yoyo loaches, but loaches.com says that they should be kept in a group. I also don't know how big of waste producers compared to, say, Bristlenoses, they are. If they are comparable, I would leave the BNs off and get the two extra yoyos so they could have a group. Otherwise, perhaps find a new home for the yoyo.
What kind of albino catfish do you have?

Butterfly

SDS are you following me around
My concern with the yoyos was that they can get five inches and are chubby little things so the mass has to be taken into consideration. They also like to root around in the substrate like the corys and Kuhlis.
Carol

grappler

thanx for the feedback guys, much appreciated. im aware that the yoyos should be in a group. however i bought my one a year ago and was lacking in fishkeeping knowledge, so didnt research the fish before i bought it. i know better now! lol so i wanted to get him some friends now that im getting a bigger tank, but if it will lead me to over stocking i might keep him in the current tank with some friends.

the reason i wanted an undergravel was to create a better filter system which would create a more stable enviroment. but it sounds as if its going to create more problems than solutions. so i guess ill leave it out! thanx for the advice!!!

sirdarksol

Yeah, I noticed that there were a lot of bottom feeders. I just didn't know if yoyo loaches were like cories and kuhlis and would be seriously stressed without a social structure, or if they would just be a little bit less energetic.

UGFs tend to be more trouble than they're worth (I only have one in my tall tank. I wanted something to create a vertical waterflow, so I used a UGF/powerhead pairing. This way, I avoid stagnant spots at the bottom of the tank.)