This is a fluval flex 32.5
Stock
1 Honey Gourami
2 Candy Cane Tetra
6 Black Phantom Tetra
10 Ember Tetra
6 Dwarf Chain Loaches
4 Cardinal Tetra
3 Amano Shrimp
Several Ramshorn Snails
1 Cherry shrimp I found living in the filter space somehow.
Ever since I got this tank is been a rollercoaster. It started as a dream tank. I know it's exspensive but I love everything about this tank.
Now, the Poppy the Honey gourami came later, so did the coaches. This was originally the stock for a 37 gallon top fin tank (which I plan on turning into a plant tank), but it was at my parents. So instead of moving my 37 gallon tank and all of it's plastic structures I decided to plant a new tank. Taxes had just come in. The tank was on stock. I chose happiness over financial stability. 😀 so the tetras moved in. I quickly realized I didn't have enough plants. Fast forward 2 weeks. I get 3 nerite snails. 1 snail was moved into a betta tank, her name is Oxide and she is 5yo now :). The other two promptly died :(. I had no idea what happened but I was just thinking about how I had never owned bottom feeders and the post snail population was indeed getting out of hand. Enter in the 6 Dwarf Chain Loaches known as Reginald and the Bubblers. They happily acclimated to the tank and begin devouring the snails. Enter problem number 1. My Red Rio Tetras in my 10g were dying and I suspected the tank was crashing. Not owning a hospital tank and needing a water world, I put them in the Flex. That 10g is now housing about 50 Assassin snails that I never knew about. I plan on making them a long tank soon. The red rio tetras seemed to be happy in the larger tank so I kept them there. That was my mistake. The stock became heavy and I needed more plants and more frequent water changes.
Stock of the tank so far
9 black phantom
9 cardinal
9 candy cane
9 ember
9 red rio
6 dwarf chain loaches
7 amano shrimp
Less snails
Fast forward 6 mo ths. Enter Poppy. I had always wanted a single nice fish in the flex. I had the parameters under control again and I was ready. I grabbed a small female honey gourami and placed her in the tank. Fast forward 3 months. Problem number two. Heater failure. I came home from a bachelor party to find a dead red Rio. Not a big deal. Then I found a cardinal. OK, 2 isn't the worst, then I found a third. I put my hand in the water and it was HOT I immediately made several batches of defending temperature water. I saved poppy into a Tupperware and proceeded to dismantle the tank. I didn't feel I had time to catch all of the fish and I didn't have extra equipment to keep them long term in another setup so the dismantling went slowly. I found fish after fish. And after an entire dismantle, I had lost half my stock.
This was awful and sort of a wake up call at the same time. The stock was heavy anyway and this gave me a chance to escape the tank. Gotta make the best out of the worst.
After a quick count I came to the numbers above. The red Rios had been completely wiped out, all of my older tetra's didn't survive.
I don't know what I'm going to do with the cardinal or the candy canes. I know they need a shoal but maybe it'd be better to keep the stock low and hope they live out there days peacefully. The Candy cane's seem to shoal with the black phantoms and the cardinals are always separated from each other (any advice is welcome)
This is the tank now. I plan on doing another escape soon. This was hastily done to get plants and fish back in.
Posted by Chinmeister9001