My 60-70 Gallon Aquarium

HI everybody,

I've been posting on here for a bit now helping others and asking for advice, but am ready to share my tank with everybody else, and get some feedback and advice.

My girlfriend works at Goodwill and just showed up with this tank one day, much to my enjoyment. I did all my research and got the thing cycled and ready for fish. The fish currently stocked are:

1 Red-tailed Shark, 1 White Skirt Tetra, 2 Dojo Loaches, 3 Gold Barbs, 1 Buenos Aires Albino Tetra, 2 German Blue Cichlid Rams, 1 Dwarf Gourami, 1 Pictus Catfish, 1 Emerald Green Cory Cat, 2 Glass Catfish, 1 Common Pleco, 1 Opaline Gourami, and 1 Bamboo Shrimp.

I know I have a lot of solitary school fish at the moment but I plan on changing that with time. I want to prevent any ammonia spikes, seeing as I'm not detecting any right now. Someone mentioned stocking issues in another post but I assumed it was because of the solitary school fish like the Cory cat. If anyone sees any others I need to be aware of please say so.

I have an Aqueon 55/75 filter going along with a small Bio-wheel filter housing and releasing lots of ammonia eating bacteria into the tank. This is being done by placing Marineland ceramic rings in a bag and into the filter. The rings are made to house the bacteria, which helps increase the bioload of my tank. I also have a small power head going to help oxygenate the water and create a current for my shrimp to filter out of.

Pictures to follow:

 

your first priority should be upping the number of fish in each school, watch for aggression with that red tailed shark as he gets older
common plecos get 2 feet long and will be way to big for your tank
the pictus cat is a predator and you tetras,barbs, and shrimp will be at risk
the glass cats are very delicate and may get beaten up by this semI aggressive community
sorry to give so much criticism, I don't want to seem mean or harsh, I just want to warn you of future problems

 

I would up the schooling/scoahling fish which include the loaches, both of the tetras, the barbs, and cory cats to at least 6 +. The cory cats will need to be the same type. I am also unsure on how compatible you are temperature wise.

I agree that you should rehome the common plecos, and that both the red tail shark and pictus cat will probably give you troubles.

Also I did want to ask is that a rubber duck in your tank, or is it made out of a different material?

 

No don't feel bad, this is what I'm looking for. I want this tank to be has healthy and happy as possible so I'm looking for what might be sharp criticism to get to that point. So thank you

I've found that my shark won't get much bigger than 4", which he is pretty close to now anyways. And actually, the reason I got him was because my male Opaline Gourami was harassing everybody so the owner of my LFS suggest I get him to try and mellow the gourami out. It worked for the most part. The gourami only chases the other dwarf gourami and my two rams, and only occasionally. The shark chases the dwarf gourami on occasion but never violently. That's the only problems with aggression I've had, but any advice to get the Opaline to mellow out more would be appreciated.

I know the pleco will get big, at which point my LFS has already said they'll take him and give me credit for him. When that happens I'm hoping to get a gold nugget pleco or something like it that won't get to big but has a little more color than the common pleco.

I will definitely be upgrading the schools of fish with time but I'll try to keep them minimal so I don't overstock.

I'll be honest and admit I had a juvenile Ghost Clown in there for about two days. Another store sold him to me after seriously misleading me. They said he was peaceful and wouldn't get bigger than a foot. Research after purchase proved that wrong. I returned him to the more reliable store after I woke up one morning and he had a platy in his mouth. To any beginners out there like me, please research a fish before you buy it. You may save a platy's life haha.

 

I would rehome one of the gouramis if they chase each other. If they are both male that can become a problem too.

 

I agree that you should rehome the common plecos, and that both the red tail shark and pictus cat will probably give you troubles.

Also I did want to ask is that a rubber duck in your tank, or is it made out of a different material?

I read that the pictus won't try and eat anything it can't fit in its mouth and it's still pretty small so I'm not too worried. The shark has been in the tank for awhile and mostly sticks to himself so I'm not worried about him either until he gets bigger, if he will.

The duck is not rubber, it's actually made for a tank. No worries

 

thanks for knowing what is best for the fish and not getting angry at criticism, I definitely agree about research, I have a solid three shelves of books on fish that I have to pull out quite often

 

I read that the pictus won't try and eat anything it can't fit in its mouth and it's still pretty small so I'm not too worried. The shark has been in the tank for awhile and mostly sticks to himself so I'm not worried about him either until he gets bigger, if he will.

The duck is not rubber, it's actually made for a tank. No worries

It will get bigger though, plus fish can do a lot of damage without necessarily eating the other fish.

Just double checking, I've heard of people putting new stuff in their tanks that isn't actually for a tank, and then wondering why their fish died.

 

I have a solid three shelves of books on fish that I have to pull out quite often

Got any books you would recommend?

My LFS will take the shark if he ever gets too big or too aggressive. It's a quality store with very knowledgeable and experienced staff. If anybody on here is from the Twin Cities area, it's called Aquatropics. I highly recommend stopping by.

For everyone else, take a look at their website, . It is full of good info for beginners.

 

the number one book I would recommend is The Simple Guide To Freshwater Aquariums

here is a link

 

I would seriously recommend returning either the RTS and the pictus, or all the tetras and smaller fish including the glass catfish, it's better to learn from someone else's mistakes then your own, not saying I did that, I read about that happening a lot.

 

I can look into returning the pictus but my shark has been in there for awhile now and is one of the more docile fish in the tank.

Not to say that it won't change, but until that happens I think it will be best for him to stay in my tank.

 

Red tailed sharks are known to be very peaceful when young and aggressive when older, just make sure to watch out for aggression very carefully

 

Don't worry, I keep my eye on all of them. The only time I see any aggression from the shark is after feeding. He likes to chase the dwarf gourami around for a bit. The biggest aggression issue I have is with this guy:
If he sees either of the two Rams or the dwarf he will give chase. I think I mentioned this before, but I actually bought the shark to help mellow him out. He used to actively seek the Rams out to chase them.

Here's the shark and one of the Rams coexsisting peacefully

And here is another picture of the entire tank. Didn't realize how blurry the other one was:

 

I can look into returning the pictus but my shark has been in there for awhile now and is one of the more docile fish in the tank.

Believe me, not for long!

Don't worry, I keep my eye on all of them. The only time I see any aggression from the shark is after feeding. He likes to chase the dwarf gourami around for a bit. The biggest aggression issue I have is with this guy:
If he sees either of the two Rams or the dwarf he will give chase. I think I mentioned this before, but I actually bought the shark to help mellow him out. He used to actively seek the Rams out to chase them.

Here's the shark and one of the Rams coexsisting peacefully

And here is another picture of the entire tank. Didn't realize how blurry the other one was:

can you return it?

 

My LFS will take any fish anytime and give me credit. But, I don't need to... yet. I can guarantee that when one of the fish becomes too big and/or aggressive, it will be gone. I always want what's best for the fish, and seeing as the shark has only been in the tank for a month, it wouldn't seem very kind to put him through the stress of re-homing again. Especially when he's doing fine in my tank.

With that being said, as I start to up the number of schooling fish in each school, I won't have any issues with re-homing the aggressive fish to make room.