pleco, tank mates

Question
set my 30 gallon tropical tank up about three weeks ago and i have been slowly adding fish. i currently have 6 zebra danio and a albino bristle nose pleco. I have a couple questions. My pleco will not eat the sinking algea wafers i drop in for him, and i cant imagine there is enough algea present to sustain him in such a new tank. What should i do?Also, i am going to add more fish, and i love the colour of gouramis. Will all males be ok or do i need to add females? ( i want to add a dwarf gourami, a flame dwarf gourami, and a powder blue dwarf gourami, all male)(i cant find females) i also love the coloration of boesemani rainbow fish. will they work with my tank? how many would i need? (They are expensive) Do i need females too? if so, are they also colourful? What other colourful fish would you recommend?

Answer
Hi Mike

At 3 weeks old, your tank is not cycled yet. You'll need to wait at least 2-4 more weeks before adding any more fish. Otherwise, you'll be wasting a lot of money on fish that will die from ammonia poisoning, referred to as New Tank Syndrome. In a couple of weeks, test your water ammonia/nitrite/nitrate levels. They should all be at or near 0 before adding any more fish.

Don't worry about the Pleco, if he gets hungry enough, he will find food.

As for tankmates...when your tank is cycled, Gouramis should be kept 1 male to 2 females. Males, even with multiple females in the tank, will always be aggressive with each other. This occurs less with Dwarf Gouramis. Flame and Powder Blue are both Dwarf Gouramis and should work fine in your tank.

Boesemani Rainbows are beautiful fish, but only the males are colorful. They are a peaceful fish that do not bother others. They are best kept in schools of at least 4, in a heavily planted tank with a dark colored gravel to bring out their colors. They should also have plenty of open room to swim.

Your tank will be at capacity with the Danios, Gouramis, Pleco and Rainbows. You certainly don't want to overcrowd the tank.

Hope this helps, good luck!

Richard