Nutter

My new 4x1.5x1.5ft is finally getting the plants put in & will be ready to start cycling in another week or so. The tank is fairly heavily planted with Anubius Nana, Crypto Wendetti, Red Tiger Lotus, Water Wisteria, Rubin Red Sword & plenty of Green Camomba. There is also Java Moss attatched to two large pieces of Malaysian Wood & Riccia floating on the surface. So I'm wondering what people think of this as a stocking list & how it would look as a visual display:
5 x Adolf's Cory - (Corydoras Adolfoi)

4 x Marbled Oto - Otocinclus Paulinus or 4 x Otocincluc Maculicauda, (don't know common name)

8 x Pretty Tetra - (Hemigrammus Pulcher)

8 x Rummynose Tetra - (Hemigrammus Rhodostomus)

14 x Harlequin Rasbora - (Rasbora Heteromorpha)

Does anyone foresee any problems keeping these fish together or with the numbers of them I intend to keep?

jprime84

Ive wondered whether or not having a planted tank allows for a higher stocking limit, as the plants make use of a lot of the fish waste and nitrate

eiginh

I don't see any problems with your stock, good thinking of the oto's hopefully they'll eat algae growing on your plants. If you can purchase Siamese Flying Fox/Siamese Algae Eater that'll be even better! but otos are fine. Instead of having Pretty Tetras, have you considered having green neon tetras? If I did my calculations right your tank is about 224 gallons? If so you can put way more than that! Of course you will have to add them in small groups to not crash your cycle.

Jprime, plants will help with overstock but fish needs room as well!

jprime84

I know the fish need physical space. I am curious on the impact to the biological stocking limits. In other words, if my tank has a lot of open space left, could it support a larger amount of fish (assuming there is still plenty of space in the tank for each species) than a same sized tank without plants?

mathas

Assuming all other variables between the tanks are the same, the answer is yes.

edit: I should add that while planted tanks absolutely do allow a higher bioload than a non-planted tank, it's tricky to quantify just how much extra you can get away with. Different plants absorb nitrogen at different rates, and different fish produce different amounts of waste.

eiginh

I think Mathas you should be a mentor for planted aqua hobbyist! Your answers are always helpful!

jprime84

So I suppose if I wanted to further explore the capacities of my tank, it is my responsibility to research the physical needs of my fish, and to add additional fish slowly while monitoring the water parameters carefully.

Nutter

Eiginh - I wish it was 224gallons mate!! 4ft x 18" x 18". It's only 63US gallons or 55 imperial gallons. It's 243lts.
I work on an old way of stocking & just allow 25 cm square of surface area for each centimeter of fish. Because I work in with the metric system I will put this in centimeters. 120x45cm surface area gives me 5400cm square. Divide 5400 by 25 gives me 216cm of fish. I probably could go way above the stock level I am working on here as the filtration is 2 x Ehiem 2217's. I use 2 x Ehiems on most of my tanks so I can clean one at a time & still have good bio-filtration. Biological filtration will be excellent but I'm just going to start with what I've got listed & then maybe increase the load slowly after a few months if I feel like it & all my numbers are good. I like low bioloads these days to as all these tanks require quite a bit of maintainance.
As for the SAE, I won't have them in any of my tanks. They are a large, nasty fish that can cause damage to larger fish by sucking on thier sides. Obviously the sucking on a fishes side wouldn't be an issue as they are all tiny fish but I would still have a problem with thier size & aggression. I have two true Flying Foxes in my other tanks but they really need to stay where they are & I'm trying to stick to fish under 6cm in this tank.
True Flying Foxes are rarer than rocking horse dung over here so I wouldn't like my chances of finding another one soon. I have bought the only two I have ever seen.

Jprime84 - Mathas is right about the kind of plants making a difference to the bioload. Fast growing plants use nitrates & other fish wastes much faster than slow growing plants. So if your tank contains lots of say Cabomba, the nitrates will rise slower than if the tank features lots of anubius nana. Assuming the exact same filtration & stocking level. Doing the reasearch on your fishes tolerances, the requirements of the plants the tank contains & then monitoring your parameters is the way to go if you want to go for a more heavily stocked tank.

eiginh

Doh! I measured all by feet. LOL Yeah I read sae's as they get older will start sucking away on fish slime...I have a siamese flying fox in my 10g which is bad but I need a way to control my algae! Good luck with your tank and as always please post pics!

Blub

I believe that your getting confused with the Chinese Algae Eater (CAE), true SAEs are totally peaceful. Unfortunately there are several very similar species to the True SAE which can get a bit aggresive with age.

Anyway, I think that sounds like a great stocking list! All the fish should get on fine - I think you will have a happy, pretty tank!

Nutter

My two SAE both attack the other fish they are in with & they are the True Siamese, not one of the imposters. They don't suck on the sides like the Chinese do, just make strikes at the other fish. No harm is usually done but they have removed the odd scale from my Green Terror. Mine are definitley the true Siamese but they are kind of overgrown. Getting up to 17cm now but they would be getting close to the end of thier lives now & they have always had excellent water conditions & copious amounts of algae to graze on. Unfortunatley true SAE are hard to come by in aus & most aquariums market the chinese as the siamese. Doesn't really bother me too much though as I reckon otos eat heaps more algae than any of the so called algae eaters do.

Thanks for the replies everyone.

Blub

They don't sound like a true SAE at all to me - true SAEs are genuinely peaceful and don't get that big. They should also be eating heaps of algae -possibly even more than ottos. What features of them identify them as a true SAE rather than an imposter? It is possible they are just a pair of very, very odd True SAE.

Nutter

Only one set of forward facing barbels, black stripe from nose to tail no stripe above or below that & clear fins. They also like to hang around each other. CAE's are nothing like SAE's. Totally differents shape & coloration. The closest thing to a true SAE would be a flying fox but the stripes are different & they have more barbels, (2 sets from memory). The differences are quite obvious once you get to know them. Mine are true SAE's, they are just overgrown & act more aggresivly than usual. Perhaps because they have always been housed with Oscars, Green Terrors & Red Devils. I think they have learned to stick up for themselves over the years. They never used to be aggressive but it developed with age . Like all other photos, I'll post some when I get around to it. Sorry I'm not much of a photography fan. I'm ok at it, I just don't like it.

eiginh

Here's a good profile for SAE's and non SAE's

http://www.aquascapingworld.com/foru...ae-eaters.html