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hows my 29 gallon??? advice?

2K views 2 replies 3 participants last post by  Byron 
#1 ·
I'm new.... HELLO!!!

well anyways, I've had fish for a long time, and my expertise is with bettas. *(I have 15 of them)*
***I breed and sell privately.
but in the last 6 months I've been really getting into a tropical tank theme.

I have a 29 gallon, thet has been set up and has had fish in it for several months.
I've discovered what i like and don't like, and what is too big, what gets along with others, etc etc.

but I would like some opinions on what everybody thinks of it over all and any advice would be SO welcome.

In the tank I have:
5 tiger barbs (2 albino*1 inch, 2 regular*1 CM TINY, 1 green*full size 3 inch) school togetheR PERFECTLY.
2 Odessa barbs *1.5 inch
2 dwarf gouramis (1 powder blue, 1 honey *both 2 inch)
2 rainbow sharks (small, 2.5inch)
1 albino dwarf pleco (2 inch)
1 hillstream loach (1 inch)
3 shrimp (2 bamboo, 1 vampire)
1 FEMALE dwarf pea puffer (.5 inch)
1 glass fish (1 inch)

I would think that a total of 18 fish would be a lot for a 29 gallon, but the glass schools with the barbs, and they don't nip at anybody, (I'm amazed that the giant green tiger hasn't eaten the TINY regular tigers, but they all stick together)

I used to have a school of the odessas but the others died a couple months ago and these two (a male and a female) seem fine, they chase each other a lot, but nothing besides that.

the honey gourami is the most passive of fish I have, SHE ignores everything, the powder blue is the little fire cracker, he has his little corner of the tank and he'll nip anyone who enters besides the loach and pleco.

the two rainbows will eventually be pretty big for this tank. but I am only raising them so that eventually they will go in a much larger tank maybe with larger gouramis. (golds pearls and opalines)
when large will having just ONE be okay?? I have a regular and an albino, and I adore the regular, though he chases the small tiger barbs unless the green one is 'protecting' them ;-)

the pleco and the loach are my favorite fish of all! they are amazing, and do their job!
the shrimp are beautiful!!! I use the bamboo shrimp as a measure for good water quality. I know that the redder they are the happier they are, and the only time they have ever been brown is when I first got them, and they have remained BRIGHT orange and red since.

The puffer is the newest addition, I honestly got her because she is unbelievabley cute. I got a female to cut down on aggression, she eats black worms and bloodworms just fine, and the only fish I have ever seen her nip is my pleco, who seem to ignore it.

this was long and disgustingly detailed, but i would love feedback!
They all have a varied diet between live worms, live ghost shrimp to hunt, flakes, pellets, and frozen and freeze dried worms. I test my water weekly and have never noticed anything unbalanced. everything seems fine, no one seems stressed and no ones being picked on.
 
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#2 ·
Welcome to TFK! Glad you found us. Have any pictures of your tank? (If I didn't ask, Kym would be in here asking in no time anyway, haha.)

Well, as your tank matures and the tiger barbs settle in, you might start noticing more nipping from them. Some here have noted success with only large numbers of them (a dozen or even eighteen or more) and find that in small groups like yours, the inevitable result is that the weakest fish in the group gets harassed to death by the others, which as you'd guess is a continuous process leaving only one barb that really likes to bother your other fish. Even if you aren't having problems now, keep an eye out on their behavior.

As the rainbow sharks grow, they will also become quite territorial with one another and the more dominant one will likely kill the other. These should be kept singly as adults unless you have a very large tank.

The glass fish should really be kept in a group as well and should ideally be kept in mildly brackish water rather than fresh.

Puffers are strange little beasts. Some will be completely docile but some can be quite nippy and aggressive. If you've already noticed nipping behavior, I'd move the fish to its own tank. Fin nipping is extremely stressful to the target fish and nipped fins can quickly become infected.

That diet sounds pretty good. I might suggest adding a few veggies now and then for the pleco especially (though other fish might munch on them, too).

Hope that's helpful!
 
#3 ·
Welcome to Tropical Fish Keeping.

Iamntbatman provided some good suggestions and I second them. The aggression issue is well worth consideration; while the barbs may "seem" peaceful now, that can quickly change--it is in their nature, and few numbers and in relatively small quarters can sometimes cause this to erupt almost overnight.

Enjoy the forum along with your fishies.

Byron.
 
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