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My mother has just informed me that she is coming to visit next month, that she is taking down her tank, and that she is bringing her fish to my tank. I have an already overstocked planted 55 gallon with 1 golden algae eater, 2 kissing gouramis, 4 raspboras, 2 (female) bettas, and 14 cories. She is bringing another GAE, a full-grown pleco (I've never had one before, and this one is huge! Like a dinosaur!), and an unspecified number of cories. I can handle the maintenance for a slightly overstocked tank, but this??? I don't want to sell off my fish to my LFS, because I'm not sure all of Mom's will survive the trip (5 hour drive), and I don't want to empty my tank only to discover I have nothing to replace them with. Barring selling off all my stock, any ideas on how to prep my tank, with the assumption that they do survive? My husband objects to setting up a whole other tank, though I might get away with a two-gallon for one of the bettas. (But I'd rather leave them both in the 55, if I can.)

Just tell her it aint happening. You cant risk your fish because someone else cant cope with theirs. If your tank is truly stocked, the introduction of an adult common plec would totally max out the water chemistry and its ammonia spike deaths all round. You might be able to squeeze a betta in, I doubt it will cause any problems considering you already have kissers that will beat the hell out of it if it tries to dominate, but then again the betta might not do so well precisely because of that..

Ive rescued a few fish in my time, but someone with only one tank and an already high stocking just cant be really forced into that position, its not fair on the fish.

If she wants to splash out on a bit of monetary aid to help you get a bigger tank and a thunderously huge new filter all is well and good. Aside from that, she is the one who should be taking some fish to her LFS, not you! You can help her find a way to rehome them though, and to be honest if it was my mom , that would be the best offer shes gonna get!

Mothers take the mickey a bit sometimes...

Why is she taking her tank down anyway?

The bettas are already mine - they live in the tank in question already. They are just the only ones it's conceivable to move. As both they and the raspboras are somewhat elderly, I don't think even my awesome LFS will take them. I know they'll take the cories, though, if I absolutely have to. Maybe the GAE.

Unfortunately, mom doesn't have an LFS. If I tell her "no," there's a pretty good chance my dad will try to feed the fish to the cat. (I know, I know. But you can't pick your parents.) So I really am between a rock and a hard place. Maybe I can convince her to go straight to my LFS instead of coming to my house first. I was afraid the pleco would be the biggest problem.

Incidentally, as I've never known of anybody who had more than one, are chinese/golden algae eaters territorial?

The pleco will need another home. There is no way you should introduce a fish like that into your tank. The others, however, might be doable.

What kind of filter do you have on your 55? Could you possibly get another filter to double the rate of water turnover? Additional filtration will probably allow you to take in the extra cories and the GAE. No amount of filtration in the world would prepare that tank for a large pleco. Plus, he would probably rip up all your plants and just create a mess. Ask your local LFS, or even call an LFS near your mother's house and ask them if they could accept the pleco, even if you get no money for it, it's better than the alternatives.

When your mom moves the fish, to increase their chances of survival, tell her to transport them in a picnic cooler (if necessary, rinse it with water, but do NOT use detergents). It's dark, the temperature will stay more stable, and it's actually easier than trying to put the fish in individual baggies. They only need 2-3 inches of water for the trip, so the cooler shouldn't be that heavy. If she doesn't have a cooler, a cheap styrofoam one will do fine.

Hoping that there must be a word for everything I mean...

Thanks. Yeah, adding another filter won't be much of a problem at all. I will probably need a new powerstrip, though. But that's no big deal.

I think mom's arthritis just finally made it too hard for her to keep up the tank. It was really my brother's, but he couldn't take it with him when he joined the army. His wife doesn't want it, so I'm the default. Nothing's ever easy with family, is it?

Running two filters on your 55 (both rated for 50 gallons or more) should allow you to maintain a slightly overstocked tank. None of the fish you mentioned (except the pleco) are truly huge, and so the waste they produce isn't out of reason for that size tank. All of those cories must be awesome to see, though! You should post a picture sometime.

Hoping that there must be a word for everything I mean...

Why not take her tank too, if shes just taking it down.
Then you could keep her fish in their own tank.

Im not sure if ya know how big Kissers get, but
14-16 inches is very common.

CAEs, are very aggressive as adults, and often kill and eat other fish.

Her fish will likely definitely survive the trip.
You could just take them straight to the LFS after she has arrived.

You could keep the cories, if you get rid of your CAE,
but you cant keep a common pleco in a 50g tank.


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Come with one problem and leave with several , lol !

Still its better to know than not to know. Good luck sorting it all out, its not just your mother with a stocking problem!

I don't know what part of the country you live in, but if you or a friend had somesort of out door pond, you could keep the pleco in the pond after the weather warms up a bit. It is what to do with it in the mean while that presents the present predicament - if only she would wait another month or two, to give you time for to figure out the best resolution for the problem? Suggest to her to bring the tank along with the fish....
Your algae eater is going to present much the same problem as the pleco in the matter of size (they can get huge) along with the before mentioned agression (at least the pleco will be tolerant of the other fish).