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October 13th, 2009
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| | Fish Helper
| Overstocked?
Ok, well, those of you who have been following my posts here will no doubtedly roll your eyes and groan at this, but please realize I am doing things much more carefully after poor Iskierka's demise. I am watching whenever I can and carefully looking for signs of stress, injury, etc. Additionally, I seem to have solved the aggression problem in my tetras.
The total number of tetras I'd owned and had with the betta female were 4; 2 neons and 2 glowlights. There had been more of each, but a few passed on and I just never got more. I've been reading that not having enough members of their own species in a school can cause fish to turn to nipping, which is definitely what happened with my tetras. The glowlights were the ones doing the biting, and there were only two of them. I kick myself for making such a novice-esque mistake, but I figured they'd school with the neons. They did to some extent, but even so, 4 isn't enough for them to be happy and feel secure.
A mistake I regret making, obviously, more than anyone could know. But I digress. A friend of mine has a small community tank with glowlights, and those 2 glowlights now have a permanent school with whom they are very happy. The neons I kept, since they've been with me for a long time (almost 7 months) and hoping to prevent another such injury to my new betta girl, I purchased 5 more neons, making the total neon tetra count 7.
My question is this: is the tank now overstocked? I couldn't leave my tetras in their temporary home, as it had no filtration whatsoever, and my friend could not have taken the neons as her tank would have then been overstocked. The tank contains the following:
--1 betta female
--1 panda cory
--1 otocinclus
--7 neon tetras
--1 ghost shrimp
It seems like a lot, but the shrimp doesn't add much to the bioload, and the tetras are small...
If it is overstocked, do you guys recommend going to a 15 gallon? | 
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October 13th, 2009
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| | Moderator
| Quote:
Originally Posted by hooxeii  Ok, well, those of you who have been following my posts here will no doubtedly roll your eyes and groan at this, but please realize I am doing things much more carefully after poor Iskierka's demise. I am watching whenever I can and carefully looking for signs of stress, injury, etc. Additionally, I seem to have solved the aggression problem in my tetras.
The total number of tetras I'd owned and had with the betta female were 4; 2 neons and 2 glowlights. There had been more of each, but a few passed on and I just never got more. I've been reading that not having enough members of their own species in a school can cause fish to turn to nipping, which is definitely what happened with my tetras. The glowlights were the ones doing the biting, and there were only two of them. I kick myself for making such a novice-esque mistake, but I figured they'd school with the neons. They did to some extent, but even so, 4 isn't enough for them to be happy and feel secure.
A mistake I regret making, obviously, more than anyone could know. But I digress. A friend of mine has a small community tank with glowlights, and those 2 glowlights now have a permanent school with whom they are very happy. The neons I kept, since they've been with me for a long time (almost 7 months) and hoping to prevent another such injury to my new betta girl, I purchased 5 more neons, making the total neon tetra count 7.
My question is this: is the tank now overstocked? I couldn't leave my tetras in their temporary home, as it had no filtration whatsoever, and my friend could not have taken the neons as her tank would have then been overstocked. The tank contains the following:
--1 betta female
--1 panda cory
--1 otocinclus
--7 neon tetras
--1 ghost shrimp
It seems like a lot, but the shrimp doesn't add much to the bioload, and the tetras are small...
If it is overstocked, do you guys recommend going to a 15 gallon? | your spending allot of time defending yourself in this thread...hmmm are we that bad ?
as you know from former posts , bettas dont do well in community tanks....sometimes you get lucky, but most times you do not..so I wont bother with that  but the rest of your stock looks fine...but I think your ottos and cories would do better in a school but you dont have the room in a 10g tank...keep an eye on your water parimeters as smaller tanks can go crazy really fast with water issues....goodluck and I hope it works out  | |
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October 13th, 2009
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| | Fish Keeper
| I would put the betta in a different tank just in case the neons start nipping but if you can't hopefully nothing will happen! Your stock seems ok, I would add 2 more cories but then you would have to do more maintenance. | |
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October 13th, 2009
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| | Fish Helper
| No, you guys really aren't that bad xD I just wanted to make it clear that I'm not a crazy and didn't want to sound like a fool.
Yeah, I would add more cories/otos if I had a bigger tank. There is always christmas, heh...
As far as the neons go, I kept my last female betta with neons successfully for months, it wasn't until I added the glowlight tetras things got bad. I am watching for ANY signs of trouble and will seperate fish at the first red flag.
Thanks for the advice | |
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October 13th, 2009
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| | Fish Keeper
| Hi Hooxeii, if things got worse when you brought home the Glowlights, I'd suggest taking the Glowlights back and maybe just replace them? Or you could just have another tank set up just for a school of Glowlights. A 10 gal would sound nice. | |
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October 14th, 2009
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| | Fish Helper
| The glowlights were given to a friend who actually has room for more of them (she has a school of 'em already), and the two neons now have 5 more friends
So far the neons and the female betta seem to be getting along good. The neons have not nipped, and thinking of my last female betta, I had her with two neons for a long time and there were zero problems... I'm thinking the glowlights were the issue, however, I plan on getting a 5-gallon and the needed supplies just in case...I might even start cycling it just to be on the saf side | |
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October 14th, 2009
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| | Moderator
| Quote:
Originally Posted by hooxeii I plan on getting a 5-gallon and the needed supplies just in case...I might even start cycling it just to be on the saf side |  Good plan. | |
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October 14th, 2009
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| | Fish Helper
| Yeah first sign of ANY nipping about I'm transferring. Not going through that again... I may move the panda cory as well since she and him are "friends" if it comes to that.
What would you recommend cycling a new tank with? I plan to put in the substrate, maybe some live plants, definitely some fake ones, and a filter, but will it cycle w/o fish waste?? | |
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October 14th, 2009
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| | Fish Helper
| Thanks The LFS store folks are not real bright when it comes to cycling... | |
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October 14th, 2009
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| | Fish Helper
| hypothetically yes that is fine in a 10g buttt betas do not like community tanks... also cory's like to be in groups of 6 or more... I would recommend getting a 20g and putting all the other fish (and 5 new cory's) in the tank and then leave the beta in the 10g. | |
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October 14th, 2009
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| | Fish Helper
| Thanks for the advice, I'm in the process of setting up an alternate tank for her (5 gallon) if the need arises, which will be set up and cycled in the event of any problems being shown in any of the fish. So far everyone is getting along well, and the betta is being checked many times for signs of stress, injury, you name it.
The best case scenario is that everyone gets along (the cory, betta, and oto do fine, it's the tetras that are the variable). Of course, luck favors the prepared. At worst, I figure I will spend a little extra money and have a really nice hospital tank xD | |
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November 2nd, 2009
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| | Fish Bum
| You should totally start scouring craigslist for a free/cheap tank. Aquatic realestate is fun when you have a surplus. | |
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