AtomicSunfish

As beautiful as bettas are, I have found that they can be quite limiting as far as tank mates go. If at some point you change your mind and want to add more fish, the honey gourami would give you more options. I’d go with the honey gourami for their more easygoing temperament.

I'd say my favorite underrated fishes are the sunfishes (family Centrarchidae) and darters (family Percidae). Both are native, North American fishes that are not kept in the hobby here in the USA very often, although sunfishes like pumpkinseed (Lepomis gibbosus), and the smaller Enneacanthus and Elassoma sunfishes are popular in Europe. Sunfishes are very cichlid-like, with cichlid-like shapes and colors, as well as cichlid-like territorial aggression and parental behaviors. Darters are beautiful, tiny fishes that creep around the tank looking for food. Some are very colorful, others less so, but all have fascinating behaviors. Sometimes local laws get in the way of collecting or keeping temperate fishes like sunfishes and darters, but they are super cool to keep if you can.

Looks like their Penn-Plax brand listings are just for canister filters. So, I simply used the sponge filter equivalent. Right now my 29g just has 7 zebra danios in it: "You have plenty of aquarium filtration capacity. Your aquarium filtration capacity for above selected species is 665%. Recommended water change schedule: 9% per week. Your aquarium stocking level is 44%." I'm thinking of adding a dwarf gourami, which would be: "You have plenty of aquarium filtration capacity. Your aquarium filtration capacity for above selected species is 520%. Recommended water change schedule: 11% per week. Your aquarium stocking level is 51%." So, I'm probably going to do that. My aquariums are in my teaching lab. In the summers, I come in only once a month to do a 60% water change. When I'm not here, the tanks are fed by automatic fish feeders. So, I can't get any demanding aquatic animals, with crazy diets or anything, because they must be able to accept flakes and/or pellets dispensed by the robot during summer vacation. That's also why I like to stock them only lightly.

Okay, great! Well, with that in mind, it's saying I could go up to 5 angelfish: "You have plenty of aquarium filtration capacity. Your aquarium filtration capacity for above selected species is 176%. Recommended water change schedule: 29% per week. Your aquarium stocking level is 98%." I might do a total of 4 angelfish, though. Or I might just do the 2 angels, plus 1 blue acara: "You have plenty of aquarium filtration capacity. Your aquarium filtration capacity for above selected species is 269%. Recommended water change schedule: 26% per week. Your aquarium stocking level is 71%." Do you know, is there an option for some kind of UGF? My 29g has HOB and UGF, and I'd like to select both on AqAdvisor if I can.

Okay, well right now I have two baby angelfish in a 55g with an HOB and a sponge filter. AqAdvisor.com allowed me to enter all that information (except for the sponge filter, and the fact that they're still babies). Anyway, based on that, here's their output: "You have plenty of aquarium filtration capacity. Your aquarium filtration capacity for above selected species is 188%. Recommended water change schedule: 12% per week. Your aquarium stocking level is 50%." Looks good to me! 😀

Back in the 90s I had a five star general (Hemichromis elongatus). They’re related to the jewelfishes, but they’re a bit larger and even more aggressive. This one was close to full size at around 5 inches. I think it was female. Anyway, I put her in with my 11-inch Oscar in a 55g (back then that was considered adequate space). The Oscar had lived in that tank for several years, and even used to share it with a Jack Dempsey, a convict, and a firemouth. At one point there was even a regular jewelfish in there (H. guttatus). The Oscar peacefully dominated all of them. But in this case, and by the next day, the five-star general had taken control of the tank, and relegated an Oscar more than twice her length and some 5x her weight to about a quarter of the tank, often pressing him into the corner. Well, I separated them and kept her alone in a 29g, so I took her back. Gorgeous, awesome fish, which was why I got her, but way too aggressive for me. On the other end of the spectrum, when I was collecting native fish, I caught a swamp darter and a blue spotted sunfish. I kept them in a 10g, and they were very happy there. Both cute, beautiful, great fish! Sadly, my apartment at the time was struck by lightning and burned down, and I lost the little natives, along with African dwarf frogs. Amazingly, some (not all) of my kribensis cichlids in a 30g survived. A very strange event in my life, to be sure.

LOL ... so name some! 😄

As a rule of thumb, what would you consider to be a lightly, moderately, or heavily stocked aquarium? Of course, slender minnow- or tetra-like fish secrete less waste than more robust perch- or carp-like fish, so that has a bearing on how many fish a tank can safely support (eg - one 4-inch cichlid or gourami needs around twice as much water, food, and oxygen as four 1-inch guppies or neons). I prefer to keep my aquariums lightly stocked to foster good water quality more easily, so I'd like to know what you would consider lightly stocked. Roughly how many slender or robust fish would constitute a 10, 20, or 55-gallon tank that is "lightly" stocked?

Ok, thank you. Yes, I think bioload was the problem, because that frog is the last of 5 … the other four died of bloat, which I’m now convinced was due to poor water quality. Even with bladder snails cleaning up after them, their uneaten food and waste released too much ammonia and fouled the water. That’s when I realized Elodea or other plants could help with that. Well, hopefully the current community will work better. Thank you!

Update for you all: I gave most of the guppies away, and put the stragglers in my 10g with an African dwarf frog. Now the 55g just has 2 baby angelfish in it. It was just too difficult to feed them with so many guppies around them, plus the water quality got bad enough that fish started dying and I had to do a big water change to correct course.

Yes, here is a picture from this morning. This tank is a 10g with one African dwarf frog (hiding), and I just added the ~20 guppies. But the Elodea are pretty small. You can see some new growth in the back left, but other than that, I think they’re staying short. Do they have to lay down roots first before they can grow?

Ok, so it sounds like if your tank is cycling properly, then that puts Elodea at a disadvantage and makes it grow slower?

Do you use waterweeds (Egeria densa and Elodea canadensis, formerly Anacharis) in your aquaria? How are they for removing ammonia and reducating nitrate buildup? How demanding are they in terms of lighting and nutrient needs? Are simple LED lights enough for them, or do they need some kind of special grow lights? I had a bunch of Elodea in my 55g, but most of them dissolved away. I don't think that's due to nutrient deficiency, since the bioload was pretty high in there, so I think that was because the tank was too dark. So, I moved some to my 29g which had better lighting, and they seemed to grow a bit better there. I recently put some in my well-lit 10g African dwarf frog / bladder snail tank, to help absorb nitrogen from uneaten food, and they seem to be growing better still. Do you think that's mostly due to more light, more fertilizer (waste), or both factors about equally? Nevertheless, I'm kind of surprised they're not growing super-fast in the well-lit 10g and 29g tanks. I thought waterweeds were some of the hardiest and fastest-growing aquarium plants out there. Are they pickier and more slow-growing than I thought? Would you recommend some other kind of plant instead?

My recommendations for a 10g: - African dwarf frogs! You can keep up to 5 if your filtration is good. - I also used to keep a darter in a 10g. Mine was a swamp darter. They’re native fish, and they’re super cute and interesting to watch! Some of the species have amazing colors that rival any tropical fish. - Guppies/Endlers! They’re small, beautiful, and as long as they’re not inbred, also quite hardy. Just don’t let them overpopulate.

Neat idea! I’ve had ADFs in a 10g with bladder snails for years, too. Gotta have the snails to clean up after the messy frogs. Mine get frozen brine shrimp and blood worms, both of which they love, especially the brine shrimp (although I gather that’s not as nutritious). I’ve also offered ADF sinking pellets, but they don’t really like them; sometimes they’ll take them if offered along with the thawed invertebrates. ADFs are very tricky to keep with fish, which usually outcompete them for food (in nature, amphibians typically go where fish cannot). I like the ADF-snail combo in a nice, shallow 10g. Maybe someday I’ll try a 20-long, which is the same height as a 10g (1 foot), but the same area as a 29g (20” x 10”). I’ve learned the hard way to keep up the water quality, because if that deteriorates, the frogs get sick with bloat / dropsy and die. Looks like your technique is a good way to help prevent ammonification from uneaten food, so that’s great!