350 litre tank stocking

[Silverdollarboy2]

Hi all,

I'm hoping somebody can advise

I would like to add more fish to my 350 litre tank.

This is what I'd like to get :

1 red parrot fish

3 geophagus surinamensis and 3 keyhole cichlids

Are geophagus surinamensis easy to keep?

Are the above compatible with my current fish?

My current fish are

10 x Juvinille Silver Dollars

2 x spotted mettynis

1 x clown loach

1 x red spot pleco

1 x upside down catfish

1 x chocolate talking catfish

4 x adult silver dollars

Many thanks in advance.

[David R]

I can see a few problems;

3 of just about any cichlid is a bad number, you're likely to end up with a pair and a spare. Keep an eye on them, and if one is getting picked on be prepared to separate them. Ideally you'd keep a group of 5+, but given that G. altifrons (they're not true G. surinamensis btw) grows to ~25cm you're pushing the limits of your 350L tank (especially if it is one of those tall narrow ones).

And, you're already over-stocke before the Geophagus. IMO you should ditch most if not all the silver dollars, the redspot pleco, and possibly the upside down cat (depending on species and size). The clown loach should really be with a group of other clowns in a larger tank.

I think that a pair of "surinamensis", pair of keyholes, a few spotted mets or smaller mid-swimmers, and a few bottom dwellers like the chocolate cat, upside down cat, and perhaps a smaller pleco or two would be comfortable for a tank of your size (again, depending on the dimensions and filtration).

[Silverdollarboy2]

Many thanks, would this work any better

4 silver dollars

1 clown loach

2 boeseman's rainbowfish

2 bristlenose

1 chocolate talking catfish

1 angelfish

2 spotted metynnis

[alexyay]

I can see a few problems;

3 of just about any cichlid is a bad number, you're likely to end up with a pair and a spare. Keep an eye on them, and if one is getting picked on be prepared to separate them. Ideally you'd keep a group of 5+, but given that G. altifrons (they're not true G. surinamensis btw) grows to ~25cm you're pushing the limits of your 350L tank (especially if it is one of those tall narrow ones).

And, you're already over-stocke before the Geophagus. IMO you should ditch most if not all the silver dollars, the redspot pleco, and possibly the upside down cat (depending on species and size). The clown loach should really be with a group of other clowns in a larger tank.

I think that a pair of "surinamensis", pair of keyholes, a few spotted mets or smaller mid-swimmers, and a few bottom dwellers like the chocolate cat, upside down cat, and perhaps a smaller pleco or two would be comfortable for a tank of your size (again, depending on the dimensions and filtration).

+1, the upside down can needs a group too (about 6+ - not sure whether they're much of bottom dwellers). Clown loaches are best in groups of 6+. I think the boesemani rainbows are schoolers too?

Also for the surinamensis it'd be best to have sand as a substrate.

I'm not too sure how angels and surinamensis and angels would get along, but you want at least 5 angels as they are pretty social fish.

[#!CrunchBang]

Ok would this work

1 clown loach

No, the loach would stress out. The more you have, the happier they are, I would go a minimum of 7 clown loaches.

[Silverdollarboy2]

Silverdollarboy2 said:

Ok would this work

4 silver dollars

1 clown loach

2 boeseman's rainbowfish

2 bristle nose

1 chocolate talking catfish

1 angel

2 spotted mets

I intended for this to be my complete stocking

[alexyay]

Alexyay I ment this to be my full list

I don't quite understand what you mean - my advice still stands. The clown loaches, boesemani rainbows and angels all need shoals of 6+. It also looks like silver dollars and spotted mets need shoals of 5+ each too.

This means that your final list (assuming you have/had the tank size for so many large fish) would look like

5x Silver dollars

6x Clown loaches

6x Boesemani rainbows

2x Bristlenoses

1x Chocolate talking cat

5-7x Angels

5x Spotted mets

[Silverdollarboy2]

On 26/09/2013 at 7:45 PM, David R said:

I can see a few problems;

 

3 of just about any cichlid is a bad number, you're likely to end up with a pair and a spare. Keep an eye on them, and if one is getting picked on be prepared to separate them. Ideally you'd keep a group of 5+, but given that G. altifrons (they're not true G. surinamensis btw) grows to ~25cm you're pushing the limits of your 350L tank (especially if it is one of those tall narrow ones).

 

And, you're already over-stocke before the Geophagus. IMO you should ditch most if not all the silver dollars, the redspot pleco, and possibly the upside down cat (depending on species and size). The clown loach should really be with a group of other clowns in a larger tank.

 

I think that a pair of "surinamensis", pair of keyholes, a few spotted mets or smaller mid-swimmers, and a few bottom dwellers like the chocolate cat, upside down cat, and perhaps a smaller pleco or two would be comfortable for a tank of your size (again, depending on the dimensions and filtration).

I recently reread this thread and liked this idea, so what do you think of this?

 

Pair of Red Hump Geophagus

4 Spotted Metynnis

1 keyhole

2-3 Silver dollars

Chocolate talking catfish

+ some bottom dwellers

[Silverdollarboy2]

 

6 Peppered Cories

4 Spotted Metynnis

2 Silver Dollars

1 Leopard frog Pleco

1 Chocolate Talking catfish

1 Keyhole

2 Geophagus Steindachneri

[Hecticity]

Interested in your feeding schedule, water change regime and nitrate levels...?

 

[Hecticity]

And tank dimensions..

 

[Silverdollarboy2]

I feed every second day, my test kit is long expired so I'm unsure of nitrate. I change 60% of the water weekly. Tank is a Juwel Rio 300 (stock filter + fluval 406).

[Silverdollarboy2]

I currently have 

6 Spotted Metynnis

2 Silver Dollars

1 L134

1 Chocolate Talking Catfish

2 G. Steindachneri 

Is my tank fully stocked?

[Fruju]

3 hours ago, Silverdollarboy2 said:

I currently have 

6 Spotted Metynnis

2 Silver Dollars

1 L134

1 Chocolate Talking Catfish

2 G. Steindachneri 

Is my tank fully stocked?

Yes. Potentially overstocked.

[Silverdollarboy2]

What should I remove?

[Fruju]

At the least, the two silver dollars.

[hovmoller]

Try firing all your details into this site and see what it says:

http://aqadvisor.com/AqAdvisor.php

It'll tell you if you are overstocked, which fish are incompatible, etc.

[Silverdollarboy2]

That site doesn't have spotted metynnis, I will enter them as silver dollars.

[Silverdollarboy2]

The Tank

[hovmoller]

Well there's your answer then 

[David R]

The spotted Metynnis stay smaller that regular silver dollars so that may throw out the calculation a little. The two regular SDs might be pushing it a little depending on dimensions, but the rest seems ok to me.

[hovmoller]

Yeah you might be overestimating the tank volume a bit as well.. I'm pretty sure if you fill up a Juwel Rio 300 up to the line it holds 300L, not 346L

You might have used outside dimensions?

But looks like you have good filtration

[Silverdollarboy2]

Yes I used outside dimensions, I will contact the aquarium about the 2 silver dollars. Cheers guys!

[Silverdollarboy2]

The silver dollars are off to the aquarium.

[Fruju]

Yeah you just need to consider the adult size of the fish and also the behaviour of different species. For example, you can expect each of the geos to hit at least 20cm, same with the choc catfish, SM don't get too big (only 10cmish) but they are an active swimming fish so require space. 300L will get taken up pretty quickly when stocking average -> large animals.

Filtration is good though.

I personally don't use the stocking calculators, but at a beginner level they can be useful.