Tips welcome

Hi there
Many moons ago I had discus, marine tanks etc.
After a few bad years I am finally in a position to start my passion again.
My end goal is to have discus again.
I have a 3ft tank that had crushed coral as substrate.
Replaced all of that with plain gravel. Added store bought wood and a few nice live plants.
I have: 2 Opaline/blue gouramis, 2 gold ones and 3 honey ones.
Also 1 each of the following rainbowfish: threadfin, red, boesemani.
And a pleco and one glowlight tetra that somehow still survives.
Id love to know what you guys think I should add to have enough (especially for the rainbows) to not be so alone? Also have two female black (?) swordtails in need of a male.

And if all goes well ....can I convert it later to some discus?
Any ideas welcome.
Thanx for your time.

 

Welcome!
As a general rule 6 of a fish is minimum for a small group

 

Thanks so much... should I build up on the Rainbows you think? And not so much on gouramis?

 

I am thinking to concentrate for now on Boesemani and reds....maybe 2 good schools of those.
Anyway , appreciate the tip.

 

Of all those fish, your rainbows and tetra would most appreciate the company. The swordtails don't absolutely need a male around, unless you were thinking of breeding them. As recommended above, 6 is a good number for a school. But even building up the group slowly but surely works too.

Regards,

 

Thanx that helps A LOT. Going to see Saturday what I can find.

 

no no no ... the eye does not count odd numbers well, so 7 is a way better number.

 

Okay this lol.

Gouramies are okay number wise

 

7 is the perfect number for a school of tetras.

 

Hi and welcome to the forum

I see these guys are trying to confuse you with the sixes and sevens... think we must play the loto!!

On a serious note..
I am not very good at judging stock levels on smaller tanks but take care not to over stock too much
Rainbows grow to a fair size.. maybe @Pierré Schoonraad can chime in here, if memory serves me right he has a tank with rainbows

7 of each would be 21... plus your 6 gouramis.... plus? tank is only 3ft...
If i may ask... What pleco have you got?

As far as converting to a discus tank... im sure one of the members with discus will give you some advice but you would have to re home all the other fish..

Post some pictures.. we love those.

 

Hi and welcome to TASA.

Regarding discus, I am going to tag you in another thread where everyone was discussing the quality and price of each discus and why most petshops do not have good quality ones.

 

As @MariaS mentioned Rainbows grow to a fair size. The Red slightly bigger than the Boesimani but you can look at about 10cm. Threadfins stay rather small, compared to the other 2, and love to school. I will suggest a minimum of 10 there. With the bigger ones it all depends on what your filtration can handle and the amount of plants you have in the tank. My Rainbow tank is completely overstocked, as my reply to the question on how many of each you need, is always just one more. You can always have a school of different types together but you always have the chance of hibradisasion which is possible as both are Melanotaenia spesies. Although this shouldn't be an issue in a comunity tank. There is a stunning, thougg old, ebook titild Rainbowfishes Theire care and keeping in vaptivity by Adrian R. Tappin which is a must read if your interested in them.

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Here is a link to another forum.
http://www.aquaticcommunity.com/aquariumforum/showthread.php?t=124628
Now this is how a Rainbow tank can look like. You will also note that his tank is over stocked. Once you start you will not be able to stop

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I will try to upload pic today!

 

I try to go for uneven numbers when it comes to schooling fish unless you are really get more than around 10 or 12. Especially with the more aggressive types of schooling fish such as tiger barbs.
But in all honesty I would rather keep one large group of schooling fish than two or three smaller different groups of schooling fish.

 

Not best pics... but the idea!
Decide to get some rainbows and maybe glowlights. Budget wise and depending what pet shop has tomorrow, guess I'll concentrate on that first. Not into barbs and all in her now very peaceful.

 

Just let us know when you decide on getting discus and I'll do a write up on them for you bit basically you are going to need a bigger tank, good filtration, good food and a lot of elbow grease. You have been following the other discus thread so you already know about the lfs vs. quality fish. That's a very important first step otherwise runts everywhere if they survive at all.

 

Tank looks very nice @Netchess ..

Think teh rainbows will look nice in there!

 

That ship looks familiar. Did you buy it 2nd hand with the tank?

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