Fresh Bait Here <--

[Necolasa]

(SORRY WALL OF TEXT)


Hello, I just joined here. My parents owned a pet store when I was born and I always had my hands in the tanks, sadly it went under before I was old enough to remember. That left us with a lot of extra tanks/pets/pet supplies/etc, so growing up we always had an 80 gallon tank planted and full of tetras. Well one day about 9 years ago a picture fell off the wall and broke the glass tank top killing everything. Since then we haven't had a tank.

That is until now...

It's been years, I'm almost 23 and this past year my dad was almost killed in a motorcycle accident. We've been butting heads for forever and he is stuck home barely able to walk, and in comes the fish!

We've been working together on setting up a 135 gallon tank we had just sitting in the basement. It's only been a week but man it's therapeutic! We are both getting along so much better, and Dad has a project to give him a purpose in life.

Anyways since we were both a bit excited on stocking our tank I've got a few questions. First this is whats in it:

8 - Colombian Tetra (Hyphessobrycon columbianus)
5 - Bloodfin Tetra (Aphyocharax anisitsi)
6 - Black Kuhli Loach (Pangio oblonga)
2 - Spotted Sailfin Pleco (Pterygoplichthys gibbiceps)
8 - Serpae Tetra (Hyphessobrycon eques)
2 - Weather Loach (Misgurnus anguillicaudatus)
12 - Neon Tetra (Paracheirodon innesi)
8 - Purple Passion Danio (Danio roseus)
1 - Sterba Cory Catfish (Corydoras sterbai)
1- Bronze Cory Catfish (Corydoras aeneus)
4 - Blue Spotted Platy (Xiphophorus maculatus)
6 - Brass Tetra (Hemigrammus rodwayi)
3 - Tricolor Swordtail (Xiphophorus Hellerii)
1- Bamboo Shrimp (Atyopsis moluccensis)

My concern here is the Weather Loaches. I now know they will grow to about a foot in length. My question is will they eat my other smaller Black Kuhli Loches or any of the tetras/liverbearers? Also the plecos will get pretty big, I know they're mostly plant eaters but will they develop a taste for live fish and eat my Black Kuhli Loches or any of the tetras/liverbearers?
Finally what is a good pH for this community tank?

Let me know what else you guys think! I'll post some pictures as soon as my camera is charged.

[BV77]

welcome to the forum

[Necolasa]

Thank you, glad to be here^^

[emc7]

Only the platys and swords like hard, alkaline water. If you left them out, a pH 6-6.5 and steady would be good for most of the fish. I really hate stores that tell everyone 7.0. The water chemistry is different on either side and will keep flipping on the fish. IME, few live-bearers thrive in soft, acid water. So if they are your focus, you might try 7.2-7.5 and a moderate hardness. If I kept livewares alone, I'd give them 7.5-8 and TDS 200-300. This is why I hate the whole concept of "community tank". I prefer "bio-tope" tanks where you pick a an area, say S. american blackwater stream with leaf litter, or white-water central american rocky river and pick fish and plants to match.

What is your tap water like? Stability is important and using water close to your tap will make water changes easier.

[Necolasa]

The tank water is directly from our tap untreated with anything (we have our own well) and ph is currently at about 7.2. It's been running about a week before we ph tested. I want to get a better test kit though.

Also is there a post that breaks down all the acronyms? I'm not sure what TDS stands for as well as a few others I've seen around the site, Thank you^^'

[emc7]

TDS is total dissolved solids. LFS is local fish store. I'm pretty sure there is a TLA (three letter acronym) thread here someplace, but I can't find it right now. Use your tap water unajusted for awhile and see how the fish do.

[Obsidian]

Welcome to FF! Sounds like a nice tank

[C. King]

Welcome to FF! This is a great place to go for good advice from our many very helpful members, or to just talk fish. I'm so glad you &your dad rediscovered the fun of fish keeping. As a person who also has limited mobility, I can agree wholeheartedly that it has therapeutic benefits. And, joining the FF adds a social aspect to it. I encourage your dad to jump on line and join the forum as well; with his experience, he could have some valuable input for the newbies. My enthusiasm for my tank has grown even more, now that I have people to share it with!

[hXcChic22]

Your weather loaches will not eat your kuhlis. They are not very predatory except with *tiny* prey like brine shrimp. Most of the time they eat by sifting through sand/gravel, eating sinking food, and will swim up to the top if you use floating food. We've kept the two together with zero predatory casualties for a couple years now.

Also, a 135 gallon tank is more than adequate for two of them. They grow slowly and probably will not even get up to a foot for a couple years. Our biggest was only about 8 inches when he died from a jumping incident, and we'd had him for over two years.

[Trout]

I'm always envious to hear about these amazingly large tanks, because I've never had more than a 10 gallon these 21 years. But, it's nice to know that SOMEbody's getting to have the wonderful experience of not being super limited by space. Welcome to your new home, haha.

[MainelyFish]

That sounds like a very nice tank... Welcome! Definitely post some pictures when you have a chance...

[Necolasa]

Wow, Thanks for the wonderful welcome guys! Glad to hear my loaches will all get along they're my favorite. I tested everything and the only thing that's up is Nitrites because the filter had yet to establish bacteria. We are working on bringing it down. We ended up losing the smaller pleco we had. But now have 5 Black Neon Tetras and 1 Yoyo loach. I feel the tank has enough fish now, I don't want to overstock it. I will post a few pic for everyone asap^^