The Dorm Tank Saga

So, maybe you all know, maybe you don't... I'm a college student at Kansas State University, and I live in the dorms where they have a fishtank. It's a 20 gallon, and is innappropriately stocked.

1 Pangasius Catfish (Irridescent Shark) - 4-5 inches
2 Pink Kissing Gouramies - 2-3 inches each
2 Gold Gouramies - 2 inches each
3 White Skirt Tetras - 1 inch each
1 Male Betta (I'm getting him out of there tonight)



So that's the back story, I went to the meeting of the Hall Governing Board of students, talked to them about it, and they gave me permission, (with every expense to be approved by them, of course), to do what I want with it.

What should I put in that tank? Preferably something low maintainance, because I won't always be here to take care of it, and something interesting to watch.

 

dainos are hardy and like to be in schools of six and they would be active.. dwarf gouramis are are beautiful and I had good luck with them..dont do neon tetras ..guppys are nice...but then you would have breediing if you had male and females.....fish and a lot of money are in the same sentence most of the time

 

HI Alison,
I'm not sure that I understand the question. IF the tank they are giving you is already overstocked why do you want to add more fish? Or did they allocate money for you to start up your own 20 gal tank with the Betta?

 

what do you plan to do with the fish in there, aside from the betta? I'd agree with hardy fish like Danios.

 

agian I would say go for hardy fish...if you don't think you will be able to take care of it all the time...glofish are mostly dainos some are more costly but pretty

 

I'm going to find other homes for the fish that don't belong in a 20 gal, which is basically all of them, and maybe even the tetras as well. The betta is already up in a bowl in my room here, and is very active compared to his previous behavior. I'll put him in a larger tank when I have one, I'm hoping to get one this coming weekend.


What I'm asking is mostly what all I should consider putting in there. I was thinking tropical community, since it's more fun to watch, just what all fish I should choose is still up in the air.

 

have to say, you're the most motivated college student I've ever know.

If you're negotiating with the board, perhaps you should get an annual budget, and put out the annual care to bid with LFS's

 

have to say, you're the most motivated college student I've ever know.

If you're negotiating with the board, perhaps you should get an annual budget, and put out the annual care to bid with LFS's

Well thank you! I'd like to say that I'm this motivated with, say, schoolwork... :

The thing is that I guess I can only get supplies through certain venues, I haven't found out which ones yet, so that'll involve some juggling on my part to get the best deals for the dorm's money. And also I don't want to buy supplies or fish from a store if they carry dyed fish. I'm picky about that. I don't know if the board would understand that quirk of mine, so hopefully the stores on the list are good ones. I guess I'll have to just visit all the fish/petstores around here, and see how good they are... The things I do for the betterment of fishy lives...

Of course, the fact that I like going to fish stores helps quite a bit with that task...

 

cool! well livebearers like guppies, platys and swordtails could give you some color and platys and swordtails are somewhat hardy, but you'd have to get all males or let nature take it's course with the fry you'd be sure to have.

african dwarf frogs might be a fun addition, but i'm not sure of how much their care needs are. corys, otos or shrimp could be a decent cleanup crew although otos are not hardy at all.

glass cats, x-ray tetras and rasboras could work to. just a few ideas.

 

So, I finally got the list of places where I cn shop using the dorm money card, and I'm pretty much crippled unless I take even more initiative.

I'm limited to a) Walmart (the one around here isn't all that bad, so I'll probably get basic supplies there, but absolutely not fish, I will buy the fish with my own money if I have to.), and b) a store called "Melvin's Pets and Stuff". I'm skeptical, but I'll check it out.

I'm also going to have to visit other fish stores around here, to see where to give the current occupants, and where I want to get the replacements from. Then I'll have to talk to the management there, to see if I can get them added to the list of acceptable stores for the dorms to shop at using their cards, and get the receipts sent back the college. So yay, more work for me if I want to do this right.

 

Yea, that's not much of a list there.. I hope they'll let you expand it.

 

Okay, here's my plan for stocking the 20 gal, any opinions/suggestions for changes?

3 Dwarf Gouramies
6 Cardinal Tetras
2 Corys
2 Otos

 

I might reduce the gourami to 1, to make it only slightly overstocked.. 3 would have it pretty overstocked and need more frequent maint.

 

Okay, my calculations were off. I was only counting the Dwarves as 2 inches, and the Cardinals as 1.

Would only one Dwarf be okay by itself?

 

yea, I think the dwarf gourami do fine on their own.

 

So, I finally got around to visiting Melvin's Pets N Stuff, and it wasn't bad actually. They don't carry Dyed fish, and they have a rather impressive saltwater collection, and even a bit of live rock. They had two of the blue lobsters there that I just love, I had to seriously make myself not buy one.

But I found all the supplies I needed there, and the fish I'm looking for. Only problem was that their inventory didn't look like they had very good genetics. Inbred problems looked to be common. Which worries me, but I want to get the tank all set up and cycled before I even look at fish. Fortunately, I've got mine all cycled now (yay!), so I can use that to help with cycling the 20 gal.

 

best of luck with it.. i'm glad that shop was pretty nice and hope we'll be seeing pics of the tank soon after it's cycled & stocked. ;D