I made the typical newbie mistake of get 1 of this, 3 of that, a couple of those.... I was afraid to commit to 5 or 6 of something that I may not like or turns out to be a problem. Not knowing any of the species well, it seemed good to "play it safe" and not over commit to any one type. MISTAKE.

So now I have a hodge podge of fish having the problems you'd expect. I need to salvage this, make the fish I have happy, make a tank of fish that is visually appealing, and finally have peace in my tank! Not all these fish are in the same tank yet, (37 gallon) but what I already have that I'm committed to is:

1 male Dwarf Neon Blue Gourami
1 female Dwarf Neon Rainbowfish
1 male Angel Ram
3 Blue Platy
9 Cardinal Tetras
3 Otocinclus

If you have words of advice to fix this mess I would appreciate it! (I know some people have, and like, a tank of one or two of many different species, but for several reasons I don't personally want to do this.)

Zambize

so you're not going to continue keeping your betta in there?

I'd like to help but I'm not really sure what your problem is. ;) Unless its more fish getting picked on by whom/whatever.

I'm lucky enough to have friends with bigger tanks and fish that cleaned up my messes in the past. Usually naturally. I'm not really proud to say either..lol

That being said, a few weeks ago, I went to petstupid and picked up 3 Striped Raphaels which are inherently fine by themselves, and grow to 6" a piece. Now picture a 30gal 26" tall and the bottom covered with just 3 fish. head to tail they could easily go from one side to the other of the tank in adulthood. I'd like to thank petsmart, and myself. Petsmart for telling me they were going to reach 4" and myself for not researching them, and getting 3 fish that would be 4" in a tank nearly twice as tall as it is wide, regardless.

My solution: give two of them to a LFS a bit out of my way (not petsmart) for free. I don't even expect store credit if it means someone more sensible then myself can care for them.

T-83 -- I may keep the Betta in there but she's been relocated because when I removed the super active Zebra Danios she became more of a presence in the tank and started to bite some Blue Platies. For now I put her in a puny 2.5 gallon Betta setup :( with hopes to move her back to the main tank when the dynamics will allow it.

And as for what my problem is, I'm noticing that the slightest fish change in my tank is likely to really upset the peace. Normally peaceful fish become aggressive, normally gregarious fish are hiding, that sort of thing. I think their temperaments would be more true and consistent with more of each species. Then if one of them is removed it doesn't necessarily impact the tank so much. And I've had my lfs fix my petstupid messes, too..... The fish I've turned in so far were clearly happier to get out of my tank, but the fish I currently have are sort of ok so it's hard for me to turn them in to be sold to god knows who....

More tanks?!?!? I just got a Q tank and I was lucky to get that!

Zambize

a1 --

I tried that with my 20 gallon. I snuck it into my office knowing that she goes in there about once a year. The tank was in my office less than an hour and I heard "Is that a new tank!" Sigh....

Z

my wife is nodding with agreament as i read these tales of sneakery to her . i have the same problem . NOT ENUF TANKS.