Under stocked 29 gallon long?

[PandaCrush]

Hello friends!  New to the hobby but thriving and loving it (mostly due to the amazing advice and teaching from Aquarium CoOp!! 🥰)

I currently have a 29 gallon, long, acrylic aquarium that I found at GoodWill a few months back for $9.99!  

In this am keeping:

 3 black Molly’s (all female, spawned from 3 original Molly’s in my daughters tank)

3 fairly small neon tetras (LFS)

6 Cory’s (3 Julii and 3 Panda that all stick together, (LFS)

1 Nerite snail

Many, many...rams horn snails.

Right half of tank is sand substrate with large rocks and drift wood, planted with Java fern, and a couple different types of anubias’s. Left half of the tank has Fluval planting type substrate and is planted with more anubias’s, Cryptocorne wendetti green, a small bit of Hydrocotyle tripartita Japan that’s just maybe starting to propitiate, and 12” tall x 5” base castle decoration that has anubias and some sword plants attached to form some cover and cave system type area.

I run one medium size Aquarium CoOp sponge filter on sand side of tank, and one bubble stone behind castle plant feature, heater set to 82°, and a Nicrew top of tank light, half a cap of Seachem Flourish Excel every other day. 

My big question is...is this aquarium under stocked?  I am happy with the fish in there now and definitely don’t want to crowd anyone, BUT I wouldn’t mind adding a few guppies IF it would still be ok. Or maybe just one male guppy to keep the female Molly’s company? Or maybe one more show piece larger type of fish?  OR am I at a healthy capacity where I am at?

 

In this sort of set up, planted and 29 gallon long aquarium, what would be your max number of community fish and ratios?

 

Thanks so Much!
Nancy

[PandaCrush]

Couldn’t figure out how to attach the photos 😅 Here they are!

[SWilson]

Welcome!  As I always say, newbie here myself so I defer to others with more experience.  That is a lovely tank!  You're going to get a looooot of different opinions about tank over/under stocking 😅 

It would be helpful to know how long the tank has been up and running?  And how many water changes do you want to do? But, based on the info you gave, it does seem like you could add more fish.  I might recommend adding a few more neons first - to get them to a minimum group of 6.  I don't keep them but I always hear 6 or more of these schooling fish.  They are also small and won't add as much bioload as the guppies or possibly a centerpiece you may be considering.   I feel like you could get a bigger school of neons to make the ones to get that cool schooling behavior and still get a centerpiece fish. 

I've always heard that cories will group just with their own sub-species, but that's cool that yours stick together! 

Also, totally don't mean this to be patronizing or redundant, but quarantining is recommended before adding new fish to your main tank.    

[FrozenFins]

Your aquarium seems fine!

one or two guppies wont add a tone of bio load, and neither would a center peice fish like a Bolivian Ram.

 

[PandaCrush]

8 minutes ago, SWilson said:

Welcome!  As I always say, newbie here myself so I defer to others with more experience.  That is a lovely tank!  You're going to get a looooot of different opinions about tank over/under stocking 😅 

It would be helpful to know how long the tank has been up and running?  And how many water changes do you want to do? But, based on the info you gave, it does seem like you could add more fish.  I might recommend adding a few more neons first - to get them to a minimum group of 6.  I don't keep them but I always hear 6 or more of these schooling fish.  They are also small and won't add as much bioload as the guppies or possibly a centerpiece you may be considering.   I feel like you could get a bigger school of neons to make the ones to get that cool schooling behavior and still get a centerpiece fish. 

I've always heard that cories will group just with their own sub-species, but that's cool that yours stick together! 

Also, totally don't mean this to be patronizing or redundant, but quarantining is recommended before adding new fish to your main tank.    

Thanks for all the info!  I started the tank in the beginning of Jan. (After bleach/water scrub and a million rinses and dry out periods because I don’t know what it had been through before finding it at Goodwill) and added the original 3 toddler Molly’s and 1 grown Cory in Feb. after cycling the water empty with food/used substrate for a month.  
Then, the 5 new Cory’s survived quarantine and were added, and those 3 neon tetra were what was left of a school of 9 that I quarantined and medicated with the suggested med trio. 
After most of the tetras passed in quarantine, I am honestly nervous to try them again, as these 3 ‘seem’ to be getting along happily. 

[SWilson]

1 hour ago, PandaCrush said:

After most of the tetras passed in quarantine, I am honestly nervous to try them again, as these 3 ‘seem’ to be getting along happily. 

Ah - that’s totally understandable. I’m sorry the other ones didn’t make it. I’ve been there, I got 7 habrosus cories and 3 died in quarantine. 😞 I want to get more bc the internet says 4 is too small of a group for them but I am also worried about going through that again. 

Whatever you do, it is a great tank and hope you have fun! You got an awesome deal!! 

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

i agree with @SWilson, maybe try again with the neons. Sadly fish loss does happen- if they were sick maybe try another source? Then once they're settled in and the tank takes the load you could consider something else! It is really nice to have a group of schoolers!