More Stocking Advice....

 Hi All,

I have a 35L Arcadia tropical setup with the following...

6 x Cherry Barbs (2 Male, 4 Female)

2 x Amano Shrimp

2 x Male Endlers

1 x Male Yellow Gourami

I would like to add a bottom dwelling species and have considered adding 3 Panda or Pygmy Cory's, in addition to this I would like to up the number of endlers to a total of 4 males.  The tank is planted, has a coconut cave and contains a sand substrate.

Would this be ok? Also I have read mixed reports regarding keeping a single male honey gourami, some say that they are best kept alone in a small tank and others disagree with this.

Any thoughts and suggestions would be much appreciated.

 hi welcome to FC,cant really help,it wont be long before u get a reply.

Stocking levels should be about 12-14" in that tank in my estimation. Therefore you are really just about there I would have said (barbs 1.6" each, endlers 1.75" each, Gourami 2").

Depends on your water parameters and water change regime - if they are OK and you change 25% a week religiously then you might be able to add some more. You might get away with 3 pygmy cory's?

As to the Gourami, either one on it's own or groups of 5/6 or more.

Your stocklist says "yellow gourami" but you mention "honey gourami" below. Are theses the same fish? Are you confused in some way? Yellows will grow too big for your tank where as Honey's won't grow anywhere the size the Yellows do.

could you clarify please :)

Panda's and Pygmy Cories, you need a pretty small grain gravel or sand  better to keep these, smaller aimed more at the pygmies.

More info please

 Blue Dave - I have always done 25% water changes on a weekly basis since I set the tank up in Jan,

Richy - Its a honey gourami, the yellow kind, not the red kind.  I also have sand as a substrate, I have googled yellow gourami and all the results seem to display honey gouramis??

So I could get away with 3 pygmy's? Are they smaller than Panda's? Is there any other differences?

Olly.

My opinion is that you are close to being fully stocked. However every tank is different and the "stocking level calculators" are only a guide.

Your water quality will tell you if you are overstocked and so testing to ensure nitrates are not going through the roof and ammonia and nitrites are zero is important.

If it was me, i would go for it 'cause three pygmy cory's should be oK. Pygmy's are smaller than panda's.

Hope that is a bit more clear!!!

My fault, i mean't golden gourami but keep hearing people in the shop asking for "that yellow gourami" that i posted wrong lol

 Ok, thank you very much for your help so far.  I quite like the pygmy's, however my girlfriend really likes the pandas, as they are only slightly bigger than pygmy's could I get away with these?

I think I will carry out tests during this week before purchasing at the weekend.

Olly

 panda's get to about 2", pygmies get to 1&1/4" so so two pandas are roughly the equivalent of three pygmies.

You'd probs be alright with the panda's.

definitely test your water before adding any mate

 Ok.  Thanks ever so much for the advice.

Olly