50 Gallon Tank: My community tank

[Dojo]

Hey thought I’d finally introduce my tank!
It’s a peaceful community of mostly small fish and I’ve tried to keep the tank natural looking and a bit wild so it’s interesting for the fish to explore.
They all love the plants, the neons and minnows shoal through them, the loach rests on the leaves and merrily uproots them as much as possible and the platys and guppies like to munch on any algae that grows on leaves.
These pics are from March and the tank looks a bit different now – switched out and pruned a couple plants and trying out 2 new species that are growing well so far.
Also added a keyhole cichlid and black Kuhli loach since these pics, the Kuhli was to keep my weather loach company and they love each other even though my weather loach is like 10 times the size and can’t fit into the kuhli’s cave to sleep lol. I’ll be getting another Kuhli soon as I know they don’t like being alone.

Inhabitants are 6 guppies, 2 platys, 6 diamond head neon tetra, 5 white clouds, 2 glass cats, 1 keyhole, 1 kuhli, 1 weather loach and 1 otocinclus.
I’ll be adding 2 blue rams, 1 kuhli, and prob another oto and then I’m done stocking.
I think that should be ok as nitrates are still only 5 with the current stock.

There’s 35 guppy fry in a breeder box at the mo, (was 60 until keyhole realised he could suck out the newborn fry through the slits, but they are too big to fit now) but will they add greatly to the bioload before they reach 3months old and I can rehome them?
If they will then I think I can set up my 10g for them to grow up in.

Any suggestions are welcomed, as are possible plant ids, I don’t have a clue what the plants are except for the hornwort!

[Amanda]

Looks awesome!!

[coffeebean]

looks lovely! thanks for sharing

[Beth1965]

I cant help you with the fry but your tank is marvelous. What kind of lighting do you have?
beth

[serissime]

Your tank is beautiful! As for suggestions, I'd bump up your glass cat school to around 6, your khulis to around 6, and your otos to 3 or 4. Ideally, wcmm and dojo loaches shouldn't really be in a tropical tank because they are more temperate tank fish, but they will probably be okay, especially if you lower your tank temperature to the low-ish end of tropical temps. The glass cat number is especially important.

Your tank really is beautiful though. I'm envious.

[Dojo]

Thanks for the comments, I only have 2 x 35 watt lights, which I think is just under 1.5 watts per gallon, so its a mystery to me why the plants are growing well as im not using ferts or CO2. Thats why im wondering what the plants are, I will prob upgrade the lighting during the summer and want to check which lights to get.

serissime, I def have that on my list for the cats, when I got them they were the only 2 in a silver dollar tank so i've been keeping an eye out for any more since. Only ones I've seen seemed to be a different species but hopefully they'll have some more in at some stage. Do you think i'd have room for that many kuhlis? That would be cool to have a little gang of them It would prob overstock going by the inch per gallon rule but personally I like to stock by adding slowly and monitoring nitrate. I guess the plants will take the edge off the nitrate a bit at least.
Thanks for the concern about the weather loach/WCMM, I keep the tank at about 75 degrees which seems to suit everyone.

[serissime]

I'm not sure about the lights... sorry

The inch per gallon rule is pretty unrealistic. You have a big tank full of small fish and lots of plants. I think everyone has the space they need. Khulis contribute very little to the bioload anyways. You don't have any obnoxious fish besides the dojo that will bother anyone (spacewise). The dojo has enough room to be obnoxious by himself. (I love them)

I completely understand the availability dilemma. You could ask the manager of the LFS to put them back on the list because you will buy xx of them when they come in.

You're way ahead of me. 75 is probably good

[Charlize]

Beautiful tank.If you are happy with your plants,and you do not have algae,I wouldn't mess with changing the light.I am horrible with plant ID as well,but if they are staying healthy with your WPG then I wouldn't change it.If it aint broke,don't fix it!

[Beth1965]

if i were you, i wouldnt mess with the lights since they are working great with what you have going on now.
beht

[aquarist48]

Beautiful! Wonderful job.

[Louis Rousseau]

looks realy natural!!!!

[11yancazosj]

what a beautiful tank

[Regal]

Your tank is beautiful! It’s so green. Looks like Ireland lol

[11yancazosj]

i had a long hard look at the picture trying to pick out the different types of fishes that i could see. Looks FANTASTIC!!!!

[Dojo]

Thanks everyone, hopefully i'll get updated pics soon with a few close ups of the fish themselves and maybe one of the fry I think most of the fish are somewhat visible in those pics, except the glassfish which are invisible underneath the arch and the oto who is prob sitting on a leaf in there somewhere.
I guess you're right about the lighting, it seems to suit these plants especially the light green leafy one which is sending out roots from every branch, so it's really easy to cut little bits off and plant a new little cutting.

I'll prob visit the aqua place later this week and hopefully I can find some more kuhlis and glass cats. Maybe 2 more otos too, though everywhere seems to just order in CAEs and SAEs but no otos lately for some reason.

Originally Posted by serissime

You don't have any obnoxious fish besides the dojo that will bother anyone (spacewise). The dojo has enough room to be obnoxious by himself. (I love them)

lol obnoxious is a good word for them she doesn't chase or bug anyone but she doesn't exactly care if they are in the way either and just bulldozes along. The keyhole cichlid is the only one who doesn't seem to realise that it should probably drift aside when she's coming along - its already gotten a couple of accidental slaps from the loach's tail when she's busy digging.


Here's a pic of the glass cats from a few months ago, they hang out under the arch during the early part of the day and come out to play in the evening.

[serissime]

glass cats are so pretty... I want some... and that close up of your tank is so pretty. again, I'm so jealous. wish I had any kind of green thumb

Today I just got my LFS to put ember tetras and C. habrosus on their list... so I would definitely try to find a good employee to write you down. They are going to call me and everything (I'm sure they get requests for saltwater all the time if they have salties)

I love dojos. They definitely don't watch out for anyone else. I love it when they sleep in funny positions in the plants.

[Dojo]

Ooh pymgy cories? I think they are so cute! I've only ever seen them once and they were soooo small and adorable

My dojo convinced me she was dead a couple weeks ago - she was entwined around a few plant stems, gills not moving, eyes not moving, mouth not moving, I had my head pressed against tank for a few mins waiting for signs of life, then gave it a small *tap*. Nothing. *TAP* *TAP* Nothing. *BANG* Nothing. Was gutted and opened the lid to take her body out, she shoots to the surface, "FOOOOOOOD??!?"

I'll give the ordering a shot but they aren't very reliable to order stuff from, ordered blue rams about 8 weeks ago and am assured they are definitely coming 'next weekend' like each time I go to get food or whatever and they haven't come yet. I hate it when you see a fish you want, then you go back to get it and they are gone! When I saw the glass cats first there must have been like 30 of them all swimming behind a lump of driftwood, then I go to get a few only a week later and there's 2! Same with the otos, haven't seen them anywhere since I got my little guy.

You're lucky if your LFS actually does call you, i've ordered 2 other things before and 1 of them (breeder box) was there when I happened to pop in but they hadn't called. And I ordered a better heater like a month ago and haven't heard anything lol. It's prob sitting in the store gathering dust. I'm dying to order some java moss and make like the juwel filter box into a moss wall

I guess it's harder to order interesting fish when you're stuck on an island I'm soooo jealous the US has aquabid.
I'd be dangerous if there was an irish one
Prob get a serious case of MTS!

[MissMTS]

Your tank is lovely!

[serissime]

I have never seen the habrosus in real life... I'm excited

I got the one competent employee in the store. He is very knowledgeable and occasionally can get the manager to fix her own errors. He took down my information so I'm pretty confident he will try his best to get the job done. However I have never ordered anything from them , so we'll see.

I actually enlightened the manager that real aquatic plants exist and people might buy them if they ordered some. Java fern is like $7 though if that gives you any idea about everything else haha no thank you.

Places like invertzfactory and frank's have a very diverse selection of fish to order if you're willing to do that. They are the best I know of. I was about to order embers from frank and the corys from invertzfactory but then Alex gave me the idea to ask the LFS while we were there. So hopefully it comes through

[Dojo]

Do they ship as far as ireland? I think it might be a bit dodgy ordering that far away even if I found someone who ships to ireland, I imagine the mortality rate would increase when spending so long in a bag.. i'll just try bug my fish guy lol.
He's actually very nice, I just think he's so busy with his fish he forgets :P

I've never had cories, but i'd try get pygmies if I was gonna ever get some.
I don't think it was habrosus I saw, they actually are cuter than the ones I saw, I think I saw the regular dwarf cory. C. habrosus are smaller right?

[serissime]

I think frank ships internationally, but I cannot find any distinctions between domestic and abroad except for the one time he mentions it. Invertzfactory does not have shipping listed but I have received helpful replies to emails I have sent, within a few days.

all 3 dwarf species are about the same size, just a few differences, and markings etc... but I do think that c. pygmaeus is probably the most common