Do I need to rehome my diamonds?

Hi, everyone.

I'm feeling really bummed out over something that should be exciting. I have a 29 gallon community tank, with 3 gouramis (one thicklip and two honeys, all female) in quarantine and almost ready to join the display. There are currently 6 corydora elegans, 5 amano shrimp, 3 mystery snails and 2 nerite snails in the tank... along with diamond tetras.

I started with a school of 6 diamond tetras. They have rapidly bred, and I now have 2 juveniles and found an additional fry in the tank... who knows how many more are coming. I do not feel like I have the space to accommodate more than this, and it's really distressing me to keep finding babies in the community tank. I wanted tetras because I had heard that they are not easy to breed and typically fry don't survive in a community, but now my numbers are bumped up to 8 or 9 and the tetras continue to spawn every other week. I will at least have to come to terms with turning in a few of the fry for rehoming in my LFS if I can manage to net them out -- I'm still somewhat of a beginner and I'm quite bad at it, in truth.

What are my options, other than rehoming all my tetras completely and replacing them with something else? Is there any way I can discourage all the breeding activity in my tank? I already reduced the temp from 78 to 76, hoping it'll discourage them. I reduced the amount I feed them and include a fast day every week. It's really hard for me to feel excited about fry in the tank when I didn't set out to breed these fish and I'm afraid of overwhelming my tank and overcrowding.

Thanks for any help you can provide.

 

What can I say. Spawning is a pretty good sign that they are healthy and happy. Now, you are trying to make them miserable so they stop breeding. I think it is not worth it. You only have 2-3 fry survived and I would not expect many more as the number of adult fish is increasing (new tetras plus gouramis).

If you really get too many and you don't want them, just donate the extra to your LFS. Diamond tetras are not very commonly found and will probably be welcome by the store.

 

What can I say. Spawning is a pretty good sign that they are healthy and happy. Now, you are trying to make them miserable so they stop breeding. I think it is not worth it. You only have 2-3 fry survived and I would not expect many more as the number of adult fish is increasing (new tetras plus gouramis).

If you really get too many and you don't want them, just donate the extra to your LFS. Diamond tetras are not very commonly found and will probably be welcome by the store.

They are so happy and I love that they are! I’m just a very high stress sort of person. I think they’re beautiful fish and I hope that they can continue to thrive in my tank, but I want to keep providing them all the optimal conditions without overcrowding either.

 

Seeing fry is a sign that your tank has matured I agree with the above and doubt their numbers will increase too much long term. Netting a couple out shouldn't be a big deal if you really need to eventually. For now you aren't overstocked

 

They are so happy and I love that they are! I’m just a very high stress sort of person. I think they’re beautiful fish and I hope that they can continue to thrive in my tank, but I want to keep providing them all the optimal conditions without overcrowding either.

I think you are worrying too much about them overcrowding the tank. You are lucky that you have surviving fry, but don't expect that to happen all the time. If you are worried about overcrowding, go easy on buying new fish.

 

Seeing fry is a sign that your tank has matured I agree with the above and doubt their numbers will increase too much long term. Netting a couple out shouldn't be a big deal if you really need to eventually. For now you aren't overstocked

ill try to keep reminding myself I’m not overstocked. I actually have three filters running in the tank at the moment (I’m slowly switching from aqua clear 50 to tidal 55, plus a sponge filter) and it’s moderately to densely planted. The parameters I watch like crazy. I apologize that I’m a bit quick to panic, I chose to try out this hobby for anxiety relief and sometimes it bites me instead of helping me.

I do have room to add in another tank. If I have to I can always get a 40 breeder and run it alongside, moving the old aqua clear to the new tank for a quick cycle...

 

Am I the only one thinking new tank? It's disturbing that my mind goes there first
The gourami will take care of that problem for you, I imagine. I agree with the other posters and tetras are not hard on your bioload. I wouldn't expect that many fry to survive, particularly if you go light on the feeding. Enjoy your fishkeeping success!

 

Am I the only one thinking new tank? It's disturbing that my mind goes there first
The gourami will take care of that problem for you, I imagine. I agree with the other posters and tetras are not hard on your bioload. I wouldn't expect that many fry to survive, particularly if you go light on the feeding. Enjoy your fishkeeping success!

Oh my mind keeps going there. Thank you for the reassurance. I loved seeing the first two babies grow and I knew there was spawning activity happening so it shouldn’t shock me to find another. I’m glad that I created a thriving ecosystem— I want my fish to thrive!

I have no other plans to add anything else to the tank at this time. Just the Gouramis. Again, thanks everyone for the help

 

As of now, there's nothing in your tank (besides the adults) to prey on fry - the gouramis will gladly solve your problem.

 

Keep it good, for them, you can always sell some if there gets to be too many.

 

As of now, there's nothing in your tank (besides the adults) to prey on fry - the gouramis will gladly solve your problem.

One more week! One of them had a parasite problem (there was a fourth gourami who passed away day 2), so I treated for two rounds two weeks apart, and now I'm observing to make sure all is well. So far so good, they are wonderful fish. I hope they settle into the display nicely, especially since I set up quarantine with trimmings of floating plants from the display.

I'm also feeling much better now. The little fry really are so cute.