Hello all. I would be grateful for some advice.

We have a 260litre cycled tank juwel vision 260l -(about 85 us gallon I think...bow front ) that we are going to gradually build up the stock .

We have 2 mollies, 4 platys, 1 pitbull plec (will only grow to 2 inches), 3 albino bronze corydoras (did have 7 but don't seem to do well in our tank for some reason -even those bought after cycled).

We are going to get 6 denisons barbs (red line torpedo barbs) over the next few weeks.Also want a pecoltia plec (will grow to about 11cm).

It is a planted tank with very fine 1-2 mm gravel. Temp 24-25, pH 7.5.

We want to have activity in all levels and would like some small, peaceful shoaling fish . I love colour most of all.
We would prefer no more live bearers - worry about too many babies!

Any ideas anyone, advice would be greatly appreciated.



This post has been edited by 2excitedkids: May 7 2008, 10:07 AM

Try giant danios, or any species of danio really. They are very hardy fish, will shoal and most species have very vibrant colors and patterns They are very active as well and will add alot of movement to your tank. I have 7 giant danios in my cichlid tank and along with the silver dollars, both are perfect dither fish very peaceful and alot of personality i think. Once settled in, they will begin to breed like crazy, but they will usually eat their own eggs if other tank inhabitants don't get to them first.... I've had mine for over a year, and only one baby has survived to date so no need to worry about ending up with 90 of them

Thanks,
Will have to look on the internet. Is there a particular danio that has bright colouring as a place to start looking?

I've only kept giant danios (don't get worried by the name, they reach 4" max in adulthood)and they have a silver and orange stripe pattern. I love it, but there may be some other species out there that you might like the patterns more. Just goole "danios" and I'm sure you'll be able to find info on most species

This post has been edited by ox5477: May 7 2008, 01:24 PM

Anybody any other ideas?

ive always likes the dwarf / neon rainbow fish.

Tetras, stay small and school together, come in all differnt colours. need i say more

I assume that neon rainbow fish are different to neon tetras (very stupid question I know).

I have heard on many threads that neon tetras seem to die very easily -so have been put off a bit because of that. May be unfounded worry though ,I guess.

Also my pH is 7.5 -is this too alkaline for tetras?

This post has been edited by 2excitedkids: May 7 2008, 04:21 PM

neons are quite fragile these days, cardinals are very similar, they get a little bigger and are a lot hardier

and are they OK with pH 7.5 ( hard lincolnshire water)

I've looked up the dwarf neon rainbow fish...very nice fish which seem compatible with our water...definately high up our list now. Will go and look at some to see how well they shoal.

excitedkids, apologies if you aready know this or have a different system of doing it, but if you have a "tabbed" web browser (IE7 has tabs for instance) you can create a "group" in your favorites, such that whenever you open TFF, another tab page opens with the Google "Images" page (Images in upper left of google home page) and then whenever someone mentions a fish, you just put the name in and google will usually give you a dozen pictures of the fish right away. Its very handy when you are having stocking questions.

~~waterdrop~~

Thanks for the tip-I didn't know that ..I am a computer dunce. I will certainly give it a go.

One of my personal favorites for a community tank is black neons. They get a little larger than the red and blue colored ones. For a good schooling fish, look at rummy nose tetras. There are few fish that school together as well as they do.

Thanks

You could get some Boesmani (spelling) Rainbow Fish, They shoal and are very colorful...

A big shoal of Cardinal Tetras with plants in the background.

I second the Giant Danio suggestion. i have 5 in my tank, they are not fully grown yet but already quite beautiful -and so shimmery in the sunlight! And they are so playful and quite quite mad! I swear they never sleep......

How about Congo tetras? They're abit larger than other tetras and look beautiful. They'll also solve your livebearer fry problem!