Meenu

Good morning, FL friends!
I was wondering if this combination of fish will work in my 30 gallon with fake plants:

6 danios
3 male guppies
3 male endlers
2 cory cats
1 dwarf guarami


1) Are the endlers too small with this group? I could do 3 more guppies instead.
2) I can't afford 6 cory cats. Are 2 okay (3 at the most), or should I go with a different bottom-dweller. I've had bad luck with plecos in the past and would like to avoid having one in my tank, even a bristlenose. Any advice on a different bottom fish?
3) I can skip the dwarf guarami if that's not a good fish to have in this mix.

Thanks!

Beth1965

I don't think the endlers would be too small. I have no idea about the gourami though. i have two but not with guppies or endlers. I do have danios with them.
If you can go for 3 cories, i think it would be best.
beth

iloveengl

The DG should be fine with everyone...they seem to be aggressive only without their own species.

3 (minimum) really is best for cories. If it's a space issue, there are dwarf cories (pygmaeus, hastatus, habrosus) and then you could have a larger school.

Otherwise, I like your list a lot!

Jaysee

I think it's a great list. If the tank is a true 30 (36" long) then I would do 8 corys. If it's a 29 (30") then I would do 6.

peacemaker92

Your stocking list looks nice The Guppies require a male & female ratio of 1:2, but I'm sure you already know that. I also agree on 3 Corycats. Hope to see pictures when you finally put it into reality

Best of luck!

Jaysee

Only when mixing sexes do you have to worry about ratios.

Meenu

Thanks for the support and advice!

I'm not mixing genders with my guppies because I don't want the fry. I called around for endlers, and nobody has any currently. Apparently, one of the shops gets them from a local hobbyist when they are tiny and sells them as feeder fish for 20 cents each, but he's only got females right now, and I'd like males.

The problem with the corys is the price, not really space. I just can't afford so many of a fish that costs 7 dollars each. I think I'll try to get 3 panda corys.

my tank is 36"W X 12"D X 16"H. I'm not sure if that counts as a "true" 30 gallon, since when I plug it in to the calculator at the bottom of the page, it comes back as 29.9 gallons.

An alternative I'd really like to do is:
8 neon tetras
3 guppies
3 endlers (or guppies if I can't find the endlers)
3 panda cories

I'd love to have neon tetras, but all this talk of them being hard to keep alive has me scared of them.

Diggly

well if money is the issue get the cories and guppies at the same time,

Let your tank establish for a while then add the neon tetras, they do better ina more mature tank so with the other fish in there the neons should be fine 2 weeks to a month after adding the original fish providing the tank had been cycled beforehand.

mason

yay you can keep them together just dont get snails the guppys eat the snail eggs and they fertilize in there stomack its not a pretty sight just to tell you if you get about 6 corys they will pair off and spawn

Jaysee

A lot of people call 29 gallon tanks 30. The extra 6 inches in length is important for some species and for school sizes. Yeah, that's a 30 gallon.

As for corys - you can build the school up over time as opposed to getting them all at once.

Diggly

Thats what I am doing with my corys, I have 2 pandas atm and I am adding 6 more over the next month .

It is better for your tank to start off small and grow it as it can help keep ammonia spikes under control.

Meenu

Great news! I called around and found a shop that sells corys for 2.19! What a price difference!

mason, no snails, thanks for that warning though. Yuck!

So now that I'll be able to afford 6 corys at the cheaper price, can I do either of these lists, or would it be too overstocked?:

6 danios
3 male guppies
3 endlers (or guppies if I can't find the endlers)
6 panda cory cats

OR

8 neon tetras
3 guppies
3 endlers (or guppies if I can't find the endlers)
6 panda cory cats

Diggly

well it depends on you and what you prefere out of neons and danios .

I would still recommend adding them slowly to prevent spikes, 2-3 fish at a time is what I would add then add another 1-2 if the ammonia and nitrite had remained 0 over 2 days and adding the neon tetras last.

Jaysee

Endlers are guppies, so sayeth the american guppy association.

I don't see why it has to be danios or neons. Why not both? You have plenty of room. What kind of danios? Have you looked at dwarf neon rainbows?

iloveengl

I have never heard this before, nor experienced it with my own tanks; that sounds like an urban legend . I've had mystery snails (which lay eggs above water and make it easy to control snail population ) and MTS with all different types of livebearers and there has never been a problem.

A DG will likely snack on shrimp, but a mystery snail would be a nice addition to your list. They get about golf ball size and they're quite the characters.

Jaysee

One way to minimize the spike of adding new fish is to feed your fish more than usual for 4 or 5 days. Then, after you add the new fish, you can cut back the feeding to normal. Doing this, I've added entire schools of fish at a time without a spike. The extra food fed creates extra waste, which builds up the bacteria colonies. You DON'T want food rotting in the tank, so feeding a few times a day instead of once or twice will get it done.

Meenu

this is awesome advice!

diggly, you think i have room for 6 danios, 6 guppies, 6 corys, and 8 neon tetras? I would have thought that would be way overstocked!

Tony G.

Hello
I had a DG with the guppies and he was agressive towards them. your stock sounds fine other than that

ATKINSON

I think diggly means a smaller school of each. Maybe 4 danios and 6 neons? Not 100% sure though.

Diggly

Providing you do proper tank maintenance which I believe you will as you seem to really care about the fish and the cories will help haha.

Jaysee seems to think thats fine too and I would follow his advice on adding 1 species and overfeeding them to build up bacteria. But still add fish over the course of a few weeks .

Edit: yes Atkinson sorry I was thinking slightly smaller schools of 6 neons and 4 danios and 4 corys.

Jaysee

It also depends on what kind of danio. There's a big difference between pearl danios and giant danios.

Diggly

good point!

what danios are you going for?

jaysee help me out in the 120g thread .

Jaysee

I just weighed in on your thread.

Meenu

I already have the danios. They are not giant. The are long-finned, some with stripes and some with speckles. I've considered giving them to the fish store or seeing if someone on craigslist would want them for free for their aquarium to get the neon tetras instead.

I was really not crazy about the idea of the corys, by the way, but I just got a few on my way home from work, and they are so CUTE!! They waddle when they swim, and look so happy. How adorable. They are all over the tank, swimming in a group. I got corydora matae, which are also called bandit cats, apparently.

I think that at some point, I will probably trade in my danios for the neons - they are just so pretty. I love the thought of a school of them.

Thanks everyone for the help. I'll skip the dwarf guarami, Tony. Thanks for the heads up.

Jaysee

Do you have sand in your tank? If not, you'll find their cuteness goes to a whole new level when you switch. They bury their faces in the sand looking for worms and things living in the gravel.

Meenu

I have gravel - they dig around in it.

Diggly

now you can see why all us cory owners are mad on them!

Jaysee

Make the switch to sand! Your fish will love it, and so will you. It's so much easier to maintain than gravel - I know it may not seem like it, but it is.

peacemaker92

Hmm... Does that mean if I get Corycats too, they'll dig around my gravel too? haha I don't have much gravel in my 8 gal.