Stocking quandry

[Bombalurina]

So, as some of you know, I have a desperately overstocked 16 gallon tank. I have 6 female bettas, 5 ember tetras, 12 Endler's Livebearers (unless some of the pregant females () have dropped fry that I haven't noticed), 1 albino cory, 1 bronze cory, 1 peppered cory and 1 panda cory. And some RCS. I am currently dealing with this (sucessfully, but it can't last forever) with an absolute buttload of live plants, some of which are fast growers to suck up waste more efficiently, two filters (a Fluval U1 and a Fluval U2) and 25% water changes every second day. The ammonia is staying at 0, so far so good.

If life still loves me, then we will be getting a pond this summer, and my sister's goldfish will be moved into it, freeing up the 90 litre/23 gallon AquaOne 620. With any luck, I will be inheriting it. Now, this is my quandry: which of the following options do I go with?

OPTION ONE:
90 LITRE: The female bettas, the 12 Endlers, 4 bronze/albino cories, 4 peppered and 4 panda.
60 LITRE: Odysseus (my male betta), 8 embers and 6 pygmy cories.

OPTION TWO:
90 LITRE: The female bettas, 6 ember tetras, 4 bronze/albino cories, 4 peppered and 4 panda, and 6 kuhli loaches (I have wanted these fish forever).
60 LITRE: Odysseus (my male betta), 12 Endlers and 6 pygmy cories.

OPTION THREE:
90 LITRE: Odysseus, the 12 Endlers, 6 ember tetras, 4 bronze/albino cories, 4 peppered cories, 4 panda cories, 10 kuhli loaches.
60 LITRE: The 6 sorority girls and 6 pygmy cories.


OPTION FOUR:
90 LITRE: All the fish currently in the 60 litre, plus boost the cory schools to 4 brzone/albino, 4 peppered and 4 panda and add one more tetra.
60 LITRE: Odysseus and 6 pygmy cories.

My favourite option is number 3 (and yes, it is slightly overstocked, but I will happily do the water changes, will have millions of live plants and boost the filtration, and move the tetras to the smaller tank if necessary), but there are a couple of problems. I've never tried Odysseus in a community tank, so I don't even know if this will work. There is also one overlying problem with all of the plans - the tank depth. The 60 litre is 18 inches tall and only 14.5 wide. My girls cope with the depth no problems at all, but Odysseus is a halfmoon, used to his long, shallow 5 gallon. I don't know how he'd cope in the 60 litre or the 24 inch deep 90 litre. Of course, I could have option 4 and just leave Odysseus in his 5 gallon, but that is less fun, because there is less water. :p

So, apologies for the length of the post. I would love opinions from people! :)

[Bombalurina]

Anybody?

[hedgehog]

I'm not necessarily the best with stocking advice but I can try to be a sounding board. I think of the options listed I like one and four the best, with a slight preference to number one since it's not so heavily stocked. I don't know the footprint of the 90 liter and my concern is for the cories. Bronze and peppered are pretty big cories and even though pandas are smaller they aren't really tiny. The footprint of the tank needs to be quite large to accomodate 12 bottom feeders. That's why I'm not really a fan of plans 2 and 3. Adding 6-10 more bottom dwellers is really stretching the already stocked footprint. I would say that if you are willing to do option 4 with all the necessary water changes than go for it. The fish are already used to living in an overstocked tank and are doing fine.

Again this is just my idea and it's not necessarily even that good. I've only kept cories with bettas and I've come to love the cories a lot. My next planned upgrade is either a 15 gallon tank with my betta and 1 more green cory to make it 6 or a twenty long with 5 bronze cories and 5 pandas. This is why I say that my stocking advice really isn't that great lol.

[Bombalurina]

Pfft, you are better than me. :p
I also have an option 5, which is the sorority and the pandas in the 60 litre, adding two more to make 6 pandas. In the 90 litre I'd have Odysseus, the tetras and Endlers, 4 peppered cories, 4 bronze/albino and some kuhlis. I HAVE to have kuhlis. :p I've heard that when you have enough (I'd have 10 in this stocking plan) they don't actually spend much time on the bottom and swim all over the tank, so hopefully the bottom wouldn't be too crowded. The kuhlis would wait until everyone else was settled, of course. :)

[Myrtaceae]

I am by no means a stocking expert, and will gladly cede to those with more experience, but I think I'd go with option #5 (sorority + pandas in the 60 litre & everyone else in the 90). I'd keep the 5 gal ready in case Odysseus decides he's a killer. I know nothing about khuli loaches, so I wasn't really factoring them in.

When I had a male betta in a community tank, he dealt with the depth by just not swimming very far down very often, lol. I had ghost shrimp in there that lived pretty fearlessly because they knew he almost never came down that far. Make sure you have some floating plants so he's got some hidey spots near the top, and you're golden (disclaimer: all fish are different and so on).

[hedgehog]

I'm going to agree that I like option 5 the best. If the loaches don't actually spend that much time on the bottom it doesn't make that much a difference. I think switching the cories around will be better because everyone will then have a little more room to move around.

[Bombalurina]

Thanks guys, I think I'll stick with that one, then. :) Maybe when my pandas pass, I'll replace them with pygmies. :)