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FuzzyMuffin asked in PetsFish · 7 years ago

50 gallon stocking?

Just a hypothetical stocking idea for a 50gal community tank.

2x German Blue Rams

3x Sparkling Gourami

7x Galaxy Rasbora

6x Rummynose Tetra

8x Neon Tetra

1x Candy Stripe Pleco

6x Cory cats

What do you think? Is it overstocking? Should numbers be reduced or a whole species be cut out? Again, this is all hypothetical and if it were to happen the tank would be heavily planted (yes, I do have some experience when it comes to planted tanks) and properly filtered, cycled, etc.

Thanks!

3 Answers

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  • 7 years ago
    Favorite Answer

    I am concerned about a few things.

    There might be too many mid dwellers, tetras, for the rams to feel comfertable, it might stress the rams out and it might cause aggression in the rams.

    I think it may be too many fish, evan though they are small fish, I would start out with only 2 of the tetra species, Add the rams last. Then you can try to decide for yourself if a third school of teras will work based on the fishes personality, how they are interacting, and things like that, and if normal water changes keep the nitrates at or below 20, but never at zero.

    And do be sure that the sparkling gourami are really the dwarf species, there are several species of sparkling and croaking gourami and the could easilly be confused.

  • ?
    Lv 7
    7 years ago

    sounds ok, might be a little loaded for a planted tank, but it's probably ok.

    your experience will help you adjust the fish load, fish feeding and maintenance, to make this work fine. Personally I'd leave off two of the gouramis and the pleco, change the corries to Otocinclus catfish and maybe shrimps, and bump up the number of rasboras and tetras by almost double. Might even increase the rams.

    EDIT: I didn't realize that sparkling gourami now refers to a dwarf species, and I take back some of what I say above.

    I seem to remember pearl gouramis were labeled as sparkling in the past....oops my bad...Make sure your store does not call pearls, sparkling...

    I still like the higher tetra numbers, and the tank is at full occupancy even if it wasn't a planted tank. I'm concerned that with a full load of fish you'll have trouble managing the algae etc...I would always trade a pleco for more other fish, but that's me. They dig up plants, knock crap over, annoy other fish all night long and can vacuum up small fish and invertebrates/shrimps etc. Some will just plain mow down plants.

    Again, adjusting the various factors like maintenance and maybe your fish load won't be a problem

    edit: a couple more things occured to me: if you find the rummynose to be too aggressive to the other smaller tetras you might want to replace them with a similar small tetra species or small group of cherry barbs or other dwarf fish. Buy either neons or cardinals, depending on what's healthiest at the stores you frequent.

    Buy smallest fish first to grow them up just a bit before adding others, especially before the rams and gouramis. Buy schools all at once and at least 3 more of the neon/cardinals and galaxies to account for losses.

    have the tank well planted before buying more than one of those schools and make sure you have good new growth of plants before adding the next groups of fish.

  • Akeath
    Lv 7
    7 years ago

    I see only one issue, and that's that Galaxy Rasboras are fin nippers, and shouldn't be kept with Gouramis. You'll need to choose between the two. Other than that, everything looks good, and you are well stocked bio-load wise. Rival males of the Galaxy Rasboras can be combative. You have a lot of room, so that might not be an issue, but you should keep an eye on things and add to the school to spread aggression out if necessary.

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