# Congo tetra stocking question



## Wire Fox Terror (Apr 7, 2006)

I have a 58 gallon (36x18x21) in which I want to add a decent-sized school of Congos. I usually tend towards understocking and don't want to push it now but would like to know how many would comfortably fit in my tank. My current fish are:

12 rummy nose tetras
6 black neon tetras
5 zebra loaches
5 kuhli loaches
6 otocinclus

I was thinking of adding about 8 and wondered if that might be too many but I'd like to add as many as possible to make sure they're comfortable. If I had to choose a fish to part with to make this happen, I'd probably ditch the zebra loaches. Any advice is appreciated!


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## niko (Jan 28, 2004)

Congo tetras are extremely hardy fish. As such they tend to be very long living. They are voracious eaters, very strong and agile. You can keep literally as many as you want in a 58 gal. tank. My suggestion is 10 or so. But do know that they will dominate the view.

They are not agressive toward other fish at all. Even much smaller fish.

Right now I have a 6 ft. long tank with about 60 Congos. You should see how nice it looks with about 150 of them in there! So from my experience you can have 150 Congos in 160 gallon tank. And they grow and look great. Go from that experience but either way you will completely fall in love with these fish when they start displaying their full colors. The only thing needed to a tank housing only Congos is a fish that occupies the bottom because Congos swim mid to high up in the water. 

Your loaches will be fine. The Rummynoses tend to school very tight and occupy the lower half of the water. The otos will look fine and add interest. To me your black neons will not add much to the tank, but being hardy and "athletic" too will not stay hungry with the voracious Congos being around.

--Nikolay


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## tranr (May 20, 2009)

Before adding the congo tetras, I would just make sure you have enough adequate (excess) filtration so that there's enough beneficial bacteria to handle the bioload.


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## houseofcards (Feb 16, 2005)

As you know I recently put seven in my 72g. I added another two the other day so I now have nine. The tank looks pretty full even with the nine sine they are a pretty good size and not even full grown. The Gold tetras don't really add anything IMO with the Congos so I'll take those out, although I do see them schooling with them at times. I have a few cardinals that I'll probably add to since they contrast well.


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## Wire Fox Terror (Apr 7, 2006)

tranr said:


> Before adding the congo tetras, I would just make sure you have enough adequate (excess) filtration so that there's enough beneficial bacteria to handle the bioload.


I think I should be ok, I have the Marineland C-360 filter which is allegedly rated for tanks up to 100 gallons. I imagine I may need to do an extra water change during the week initially.



houseofcards said:


> As you know I recently put seven in my 72g. I added another two the other day so I now have nine. The tank looks pretty full even with the nine sine they are a pretty good size and not even full grown. The Gold tetras don't really add anything IMO with the Congos so I'll take those out, although I do see them schooling with them at times. I have a few cardinals that I'll probably add to since they contrast well.


Given your experience, I'm thinking that maybe I should look somewhere in the neighborhood of 8, rather than 10. If it looks crowded, I may thin out a few of the other fish (maybe the black neons of zebra loaches). Thanks for the advice house, your tank is what inspired me to look at Congos.


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