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Alright everybody here is my predicament.
My brother's girlfriend recently got into fish keeping (after seeing my establishment) (yay me), BUT she's completely overstocked and doesn't believe me when I say so, so I need you guys to back me up here.
Currently she has a 30 gallon, 30x12x18, with tons of plants and nice little places for them to hid, she's done a great job there.
And well this is where it gets bad.
She has ....
6 platies,
6 julli cory,
4 honey gouramis (all female),
1 male dwarf neon gouramis,
7 neons,
8 harliquin rasboas, which i think are the dwarf kind because she got them from me, and well i've had them for months now, and they haven't gotten any bigger.
and
4 otto's.
She has a 2 aquaclear 150's and she does frequent water changes.
But I keep telling here that it's too croweded for them, but she doesn't believe me because they are "eating regularly" and there is lots of "swimming room".
I have offered to take the harliquin's back, along with 3 platies.
I have an empty 10 cycled gallon that i can use. Normally for fry but i don't have any right now.
Can I just get some input here so she can read this and try to understand!
Thanks so much,
LIB

Thats over stocked.

Adjust the stock to this...
6 julli cory
**
2 honey gouramis (all female)
OR
1 male dwarf neon gouramis
**
7 neons
8 harliquin rasboas
4 ottos

I agree with john.stone. Keep the Corydoras, Neons, Harliquins & the Otos & just add a Male Dwarf Gourami.



http://www.flickr.com/photos/corydoras/
Member of the Malta Aquarist Society - 1970.
http://www.maltaaquarist.com

Also agree with JohnStone, 2 of the Honey gouramis should go too.. The store prob won't offer full price back unless she's real lucky..

If she wants to sell any of those otos... let me know !

The Amazon Nut...

The numbers suggest it's overstocked, but with plants, filtration, and water changes, it may be ok for a while. The problem is what happens if you go on vacation, or get busy with something else, and a difficulty occurs? You have very little buffer. I would recommend you test the water (pH, nitrates, etc), and do so regularly to be aware of any changes occurring. You can overstock with smaller fish, but you must be very careful to keep up the maitenance. I know, I've been there, and it ain't pretty! I had a pH crash, and lost most of my tetras in the process. HTH...

I wouldn't keep any more than 2 gouramis in a 30 gal, plus the other fish.. Gouramis can get mean if they feel cramped in the tank... Mind you with dwarf gouramis 4 might be fine as they don't grow to the same size as a 'regular' size gourami.

The Amazon Nut...

okay well after seeing this post (thanks so much guys), she's cut it back quite a bit.
she now has
3 honey gouramis,
2 neon dwarf gouramis,
6 cory's,
6 harliquins,
and 2 oto's
but from this she wont budge.
she's also been talking about her 2 platies which she has yet to give up.
but we'll see.
thanks guys!
LIB