Some questions about types of fish in my freshwater tank?

Question

I am just starting out with a nice bow front 50 gallon. I filled it up and dropped two plecco in. After a few day, I went and picked up a few fish for my tank.

I got one small glass cat,

one small puffer,

and two tiger barbs.

On top of these guys, ive also got the two plecco, a small frog, and a fiddler crab.

I have recently heard that when you have less than 5 tiger barbs, they tend to terrorize other community fish in the tank.

So far, my puffy is swimming all over happily, the glass cat sticks to the top, the tiger barbs are teamed together and zip all over. Every once in a while, the fiddler comes out to do his kung fu. The frog was pointless to buy, and the plecco like to stay hidded in their castle.

Whats your opinion about the set up, will it work out ok? What do you recommend I feed them? How many times a day?

I want to keep them healthy and active.

Also, I want to get some small to medium size clown loaches, do you think I should get rid of the tiger barbs?

Answer 1

I'm afraid that what the others have said is right.  Pretty much everything you've done is wrong.  You didn't cycle your tank before adding fish and the fish you have are not good fish to cycle a tank with.  You should never add plecos first, especially not 2.  They should be added to an older, established tank so there is algae for them to eat.  I hope you're feeding them algae wafers and vegetables or they may starve.  They also need some wood to chew on to aid digestion, so I hope you have some of that in your tank.   Also, unless you got the small ones, like bristle nose or rubber mouth or panaques, they are going to get huge (over a foot long).  

Your crab is going to terrorize your plecos (probably why they are hiding) and your cat fish (probably why he sticks to the top) and does not belong in a tank with peaceful fish.  

Puffer fish don't belong in a community tank.  They are very aggressive and should always be kept alone.

Tiger barbs should be kept in larger groups than 2 and clown loaches only come in one size.  Oh, you can buy them in all different sizes, but they eventually grow to be about 6 inches.  And you need at least 3 because they are very social and need others to hang out with.  If you put them in the tank with the fish and critters you have now, you will find that they always hide, too.

You're best off waiting at least a month or so to buy any more fish at this point, because your tank needs to cycle and it will take at least that long to do it and most likely a few of your fish are going to die before it finishes.  So you might as well wait and see what you're left with when it's done.  Even if you took back the crab and the puffer, if you got clown loaches now they'd probably just end up with ich anyways.

Answer 2

Glass catfish need to be kept in groups and need live, frozen, or freeze dried food.

Puffers are NOT suitable for a community tank, only a single species tank. Most, except the Dwarf Puffers, are also brackish water fish that need more salt in their tanks as they grow. Puffers must have snails or their beaks will grow and have to be surgically trimmed.

Get more Tiger Barbs, like 5-6 more since they are schooling fish.

Fiddler Crabs need some land so they should only be kept in a tank that is half water half land.

Clown loaches will outgrow a 50 gallon tank and so will the plecos. If you insist on loaches, buy a trio of Kuhli Loaches instead. They are scavengers but will gladly eat snails.

i think you need to do more research before you just throw fish together in a tank.

Answer 3

I think you need to do a LOT more research. Almost everything you've done so far is wrong. First, a new tank needs to be cycled before you add fish. Second, puffers and crabs do not belong in aa community tank. Tiger barbs need to be kept in groups of at least 6, but you can do that in your tank. Clown loaches get to be a foot long, there's no such thing as small to medium sized ones. Your tank isn't big enough for them. Feed fish flakes and if possible live or frozen foods like bloodworms. Feed them twice a day, no more than they can eat in about a minute. Puffer fish need live snails. You'll probably need algae wafers for the plecos because a new tank won't have algae. Fishkeeping is a great hobby, but there's a lot you need to know. Here's a website that has lots of good info, poke around there for a few hours. Good luck.