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I'm looking for any thoughts/advice you may have with a conundrum I am facing and one that we have all faced - more fish, not enough room. My issue is I have a terrific opportunity to pick up some desirable/rarer fish - syno pardalis, to complement 2 I have currently. The 2 pardalis I have are ~ 6" and are currently in a 125 gallon/500 litre tank (72x18 footprint) with 3 syno brichardi adults and 3 syno decorus 4,5 and 6". I want to up the pardalis number as I find a fair bit of aggression between the 2 with lots of chasing/squeaking going on especially/mostly at feeding time, this despite the heavy cavework and other fish. Besides that, I really like the pardalis and they are not that common. The eventual final setup will be the pardalis, brichardi and decora in with some congo tetras in a large 250G tank. Other tanks running/available while doing the reorganization/moving are 1 -75G (48" x 18") with 1 granny 6" and 5 petricola, 1 - 75G with 1 granny and 8 small syno flavits and 1 -75G with 1 granny solo and finally a 150G with 1 granny, 6 multipunctatus and 3 polli. The fish in the 75G tanks are there temporarily as moving happens and larger tanks are awaited. They were all in larger tanks but I have been selling-off/downsizing before the move/reorganization and keeping them in smaller tanks. I am not enthusiastic about moving the sole granny in the 75 to another tank with another granny, the tanks are too small and the 150 has been going for 2-3 years with its inhabitants so all hell would probably break loose. So I am thinking about the potential of putting 1-3 newly bought (no QT) pardalis in the 75 with the lone granny. Any other thoughts? Do I need a mental health check? Take vallium and wait for another day? My gut instinct and experience tell me one thing but I don't want to listen to myself. Thoughts?

Are you trying to figure out a way to quarantine the new pardalis...or trying to find the safest least damaging way to keep all these fish in these tanks temporarily?

Birger

I am pretty comfortable with the way the fish are housed right now, interaction seems pretty normal with the exception of the little aggression I described in the 125 between the 2 pardalis - but there have been no injuries. So yes, I am trying to find the best way to QT the pardalis given what I have to work with while trying to mitigate risk, or if I should just pass on the opportunity and leave well enough alone. 2 like fish are often a behavioural issue as we all know - I had originally purchased 3 pardalis but shipping issues reduced that to 2. Options would be to pick-up 1-3 pardalis and put them in with the lone granny in the 75, no QT. The person I am getting them from has had them for 6 months plus in with other fish however I don't know the seller that well - but we're talking about a well respected seller. I know that still doesn't guarantee anything. There is some risk to this obviously in terms of bugs, disease, other, etc. My other option would be to put the lone granny in the 125 for 3 weeks or so and then rearrange once I take the pardalis out of QT. The 125 is pretty well stocked with the decorus, brichardi and pardalis and I wonder how the granny would fit in - the granny is in a largeish hollow resin log in the 75 and I would pull that out and put the granny and the piece of decor in the 125 - then I have the 75 freed up for the 3 pardalis. I fully realize there is no black or white on this but I thought I would throw it out there. I have had both positive and negative outcomes without QT'ing fish but I am hesitating rolling the dice with one of my grannies. What complicates the decision is the fact that the pardalis aren't exactly easy to find.

I have had both positive and negative outcomes without QT'ing fish but I am hesitating rolling the dice with one of my grannies. What complicates the decision is the fact that the pardalis aren't exactly easy to find.

I agree, never a bad idea to quarantine, for all the fishes health...add to that all these fish are pricey to replace.

I was going to suggest the granny temporarily in the 125 ...you should be able to pull it again after a month or so of quarantine and put all the pardalis together after a reaarangement of the furniture of course.

As long as the granny does not do anything crazy looks like the safest plan, hopefully it does not get worked up by the active brichardi and the aggression between the two pardalis.

Just out of interest what do you have planned for all your granulosa eventually?

Birger

Birger, thanks for the comments - I am leaning towards the granny in the 125 and the new arrivals in the 75 for about 3-4 weeks. I guess I'll have to keep my eye on the granny and the 125 - would you agree that I leave the 125 decor as is and add the granny and its quarters - it'll be sitting up around 6-8 inches from the substrate on some of the rockwork. There are lots of caves and such, however - a lot more than fish. I use Carlon PVC electrical conduit boxes - what I like about them is that they are heavy guage PVC and can take a lot of stacking weight when hidden beneath rocks - many of them also have 2 entry points - either on both ends or one on the end and one perpendicular - and they come in up to 8"+ or so sizing - get them at Home Hardware. As for future plans for the grannies, couple of options. One was to house them together in a large tanganyikan set-up with some smaller synos, probably multis and I am leaning towards some benthochromis tricoti or a large group of some cyps - have experience with both. I have downsized my number of tanks ranging from 8-10+ at any one time with the intent of doing 2 large set-ups, one congo setup and one tang setup. I am planning on 225-300 gallon sized tanks (6-8 footers), with lower heights and some larger footprints. Miracles Aquariums is located here in Ontario, just north of Toronto and they do some nice custom work. I had a few 135 customs of theirs in the past that I had purchased used from a breeder of fronts, 72 x 24 footprint with a height of about 18" if I recall but the footprint was really good for that gallon capacity. I bred a lot of petrochromis and tropheus in those tanks - they were easy to work in with their low heights. My other option with the grannies was to try???? and breed them, but that would require some serious dedication to them only and a couple more tanks at the least. I have 2M/2F ~ 6-7" which I got from Peter at Atlantis probably 2 1/2 years ago.