29 Gallon Stocking Advice

[gabrielle7mc]

Hello all! While I'm not *exactly* new to the hobby, after doing a lot of reading I've discovered that I'm new to keeping fish correctly (as in, all those years I was keeping fish as a child, I was basically running to the pet store, thinking 'this is pretty,' and getting extremely lucky that most fish survived with inadequate weekly water changes). Everything was overstocked, I overfed everyone, I once put a krib in with a Bolivian ram... I feel a bit sick at how I treated my fish, and I want to make sure I don't make the mistakes I used to again.

So far, I've got one ten gallon tank with a betta fish (and maybe soon, a mystery snail). Now that I'm back in the hobby, MTS is setting in again. I recently purchased a 29 gallon aquarium, in the hopes of creating an Amazon-themed planted tank. I'm starting the cycling process today, but I was hoping I could get some opinions and suggestions on my planned stocking of the tank.



Here are my water parameters:
pH: 6.4
GH: 100 ppm
KH: 120 ppm

My tank dimensions for the 29 gallons are:
30" long by 12" deep by 18" high.

So far, I know I'd like to include:
1 angelfish
1 Bolivian ram
6 peppered or bronze corydoras

I've never had a tank with sand substrate, or a planted tank, but I want to make sure I'm not putting the corys at risk of breaking their barbs, and I've read that angels prefer heavily planted tanks.

Are there any other fish I should consider keeping with these, or does this max out my tank? I've never had problems with rams and corys (in the past I kept far too few corys at once; they subsequently adopted the ram and schooled with him), but will there be trouble between these two bottom-dwellers? Do you have any advice in general for keeping these three fish types? I really just want to do the best I can for them.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Byron]

This is a nice tank, I have two in my fish room. Your water parameters are ideal for what you intend.

On cycling, if you intend live plants, I would not "cycle" as such. Select the plants and plant the tank. If you have some floating plants, which are pretty much essential for Amazonian fish, they will deal with this for you. Much easier and safer.

To your intended fish...there are some problems. I would not recommend an angelfish. For one thing, angelfish is a shoaling species and is better in a smallish group (5+) for which there is certainly no space in a 29g. I prefer keeping fish as close to their natural expectations as possible. Second, the temperament of individual angelfish can vary, and finding tankmates is not always easy. Third, a mature angelfish will be 6 inches in body length with a vertical fin span of 8 inches--not a small fish. The Bolivian Ram is a much better choice, and this species does very well in isolation; it is believed that they live isolated naturally, except to spawn. And they are about as peaceful as any cichlid can be. I've had this fish twice, and only recently my male of nine years kicked the bucket, so I will be on the lookout for another. Nice fish. Lives close to the substrate, never comes up even to feed, so sinking foods like those for the cories will be his choice. My Bolivian pushed a few cories out of the way when feeding, but nothing harmful ever occurred. The Bolivian will own the tank; mine was in a 5-foot 115g Amazon riverscape, but every other fish species in the tank recognized that the Bolivian was the boss; it was comical at times.

I would up the cories to at least 7 or 8. Have several chunks of bogwood (the Malaysian Driftwood available in some stores is ideal); cories need a place of refuge, and if they have some, they will be out and about more. The wood also gives them more surfaces to browse, and the (minimal) tannins and organics released by the wood will benefit the fish and system. Yoou can also use dried leaves like oak, beech, maple, for a realistic appearance.

Consider upper-level fish now. You do not want any active swimmers, as the Bolivian is a sedate fish and a lot of charging around the tank by racing tetras (danios and barbs are bad for this) will annoy him and lead to stress. Staying with the South American theme, there are still a lot of suitable fish species among the characins. Many tetras, pencilfish, hatchetfish are options. Many of the sedate tetras do prefer the mid to lower level though, so look at upper level species. I have or have had most of these, so feel free to ask questions.

I'll attach a photo of my 40g which I renovated two weeks ago, thinning out the plants as the chain sword completely covered the substrate in layers. I have no cories in this tank, as it houses my Characidium fasciatum pair, though a group of cories is in the works. There are pencilfish and false/green neon tetra, and another pencil is planned if I see them.

 

[Woody781]

This is a nice tank, I have two in my fish room. Your water parameters are ideal for what you intend.

On cycling, if you intend live plants, I would not "cycle" as such. Select the plants and plant the tank. If you have some floating plants, which are pretty much essential for Amazonian fish, they will deal with this for you. Much easier and safer.

To your intended fish...there are some problems. I would not recommend an angelfish. For one thing, angelfish is a shoaling species and is better in a smallish group (5+) for which there is certainly no space in a 29g. I prefer keeping fish as close to their natural expectations as possible. Second, the temperament of individual angelfish can vary, and finding tankmates is not always easy. Third, a mature angelfish will be 6 inches in body length with a vertical fin span of 8 inches--not a small fish. The Bolivian Ram is a much better choice, and this species does very well in isolation; it is believed that they live isolated naturally, except to spawn. And they are about as peaceful as any cichlid can be. I've had this fish twice, and only recently my male of nine years kicked the bucket, so I will be on the lookout for another. Nice fish. Lives close to the substrate, never comes up even to feed, so sinking foods like those for the cories will be his choice. My Bolivian pushed a few cories out of the way when feeding, but nothing harmful ever occurred. The Bolivian will own the tank; mine was in a 5-foot 115g Amazon riverscape, but every other fish species in the tank recognized that the Bolivian was the boss; it was comical at times.

I would up the cories to at least 7 or 8. Have several chunks of bogwood (the Malaysian Driftwood available in some stores is ideal); cories need a place of refuge, and if they have some, they will be out and about more. The wood also gives them more surfaces to browse, and the (minimal) tannins and organics released by the wood will benefit the fish and system. Yoou can also use dried leaves like oak, beech, maple, for a realistic appearance.

Consider upper-level fish now. You do not want any active swimmers, as the Bolivian is a sedate fish and a lot of charging around the tank by racing tetras (danios and barbs are bad for this) will annoy him and lead to stress. Staying with the South American theme, there are still a lot of suitable fish species among the characins. Many tetras, pencilfish, hatchetfish are options. Many of the sedate tetras do prefer the mid to lower level though, so look at upper level species. I have or have had most of these, so feel free to ask questions.

I'll attach a photo of my 40g which I renovated two weeks ago, thinning out the plants as the chain sword completely covered the substrate in layers. I have no cories in this tank, as it houses my Characidium fasciatum pair, though a group of cories is in the works. There are pencilfish and false/green neon tetra, and another pencil is planned if I see them.

 

[gabrielle7mc]

This is a nice tank, I have two in my fish room. Your water parameters are ideal for what you intend.

On cycling, if you intend live plants, I would not "cycle" as such. Select the plants and plant the tank. If you have some floating plants, which are pretty much essential for Amazonian fish, they will deal with this for you. Much easier and safer.

To your intended fish...there are some problems. I would not recommend an angelfish. For one thing, angelfish is a shoaling species and is better in a smallish group (5+) for which there is certainly no space in a 29g. I prefer keeping fish as close to their natural expectations as possible. Second, the temperament of individual angelfish can vary, and finding tankmates is not always easy. Third, a mature angelfish will be 6 inches in body length with a vertical fin span of 8 inches--not a small fish. The Bolivian Ram is a much better choice, and this species does very well in isolation; it is believed that they live isolated naturally, except to spawn. And they are about as peaceful as any cichlid can be. I've had this fish twice, and only recently my male of nine years kicked the bucket, so I will be on the lookout for another. Nice fish. Lives close to the substrate, never comes up even to feed, so sinking foods like those for the cories will be his choice. My Bolivian pushed a few cories out of the way when feeding, but nothing harmful ever occurred. The Bolivian will own the tank; mine was in a 5-foot 115g Amazon riverscape, but every other fish species in the tank recognized that the Bolivian was the boss; it was comical at times.

I would up the cories to at least 7 or 8. Have several chunks of bogwood (the Malaysian Driftwood available in some stores is ideal); cories need a place of refuge, and if they have some, they will be out and about more. The wood also gives them more surfaces to browse, and the (minimal) tannins and organics released by the wood will benefit the fish and system. Yoou can also use dried leaves like oak, beech, maple, for a realistic appearance.

Consider upper-level fish now. You do not want any active swimmers, as the Bolivian is a sedate fish and a lot of charging around the tank by racing tetras (danios and barbs are bad for this) will annoy him and lead to stress. Staying with the South American theme, there are still a lot of suitable fish species among the characins. Many tetras, pencilfish, hatchetfish are options. Many of the sedate tetras do prefer the mid to lower level though, so look at upper level species. I have or have had most of these, so feel free to ask questions.

I'll attach a photo of my 40g which I renovated two weeks ago, thinning out the plants as the chain sword completely covered the substrate in layers. I have no cories in this tank, as it houses my Characidium fasciatum pair, though a group of cories is in the works. There are pencilfish and false/green neon tetra, and another pencil is planned if I see them.

Thank you so much for your response! Your tank is absolutely beautiful, and your advice with the plants regarding cycling helped me help the dying betta fish my best friend fell in love with yesterday in a Petco. He's doing much better now in a 3 gallon with a filter and lots of live plants, and I'll be finding a small heater for the friend next weekend.
I'd seen some people saying that it's okay to keep angels alone, but I did some further reading and found that the people saying that were saying so because they don't believe that the fish's needs matter next to the aquarist's wants. I really appreciate you advising me against putting an angelfish in a bad situation.
For the corys, I picked up a piece of Malaysian driftwood, and I have no problem increasing their numbers as they're one of my favorite kinds of fish. I love cory cats.
My original stocking was not including tetras because I generally don't like them (I find fish that are either very odd-looking or with personality to be my favorites). A lot of them look really good in other people's tanks, but they're not my personal favorites. I found blue emperor tetras buried in the Google images search for tetra, and I kind of like them, which I think is the best I can hope for when it comes to tetras. That's sort of an option there, but I don't know if I'd be able to find them.
I also looked at pencilfish--I have no experience with them. Do they have any sort of individuality between them? I like the bright colors, but I'm *really* picky when it comes to schooling fish.
I think marbled hatchetfish are my favorite of the three types you recommended, but again, I don't know if any of my local fish stores have them. I'm going to go get plants at an aquarium superstore next weekend, and I'll keep an eye out.
Do you know of any really unusual Amazonian fish? All my searches have come up with tetras, hatchetfish, pencilfish, rams, armored cats, and angels. I love the look of angelfish--when I can get a 55 gallon or larger, it will probably have them--and I adore corys and rams (cichlids of all kinds, really), but none of the others have made a strong impression on me.
I redid my stocking, and I'm currently looking at:
7x marbled hatchet
1x albino bristlenose pleco
7x cory cat (julii or peppered)
1x Bolivian ram
I like both the hatchet and pleco (I actually really like plecos), but if there were other Amazonian fish that I haven't heard of before, I'd definitely want to look at them. I'm not going to get fish for about six weeks, since I start school again in less than three weeks and want to get my feet under myself with that before I have another tank to be cleaning and feeding.
Again, thank you so much for your help! I really, sincerely, appreciate it.

 

[Byron]

That latest fish list is on the right track. I would add a couple more hatchetfish though; the species in Carnegiella do better in larger groups. A group of 8-9 (I like odd numbers, usually no reason other than aesthetics) is OK here, 9 preferablee.

I do not know where you are, and I probably would not know local fish stores anyway, but if you're in the USA there are some good online retailers and that is an option if local stores are few. You need something in the mid/upper level with what you have. Anything "odd" is not going to be likely. The blue emperor, if you mean the species Inpaichthys kerri [see here: http://www.seriouslyfish.com/species/inpaichthys-kerri/ ] is a lovely fish, but very active; I had a shoal several years back in my 5-foot Amazon tank; they would find a 29g at 30 inches quite confining.

I don't usually suggest fish, as it should be your aquarium not mine, but I will comment on any species you think of to help out. The wrong species in a community aquarium can be disastrous. It is easier when you are like me with a fish room of tanks, as I have usually tanks to move a problem species into if it doesn't work out, and some species can go "off the rails" contrary to the norm. But when one only has the main tank, you have to bee careful; disposing of problem fish is not always simple or easy.

Byron.

 

[gabrielle7mc]

That latest fish list is on the right track. I would add a couple more hatchetfish though; the species in Carnegiella do better in larger groups. A group of 8-9 (I like odd numbers, usually no reason other than aesthetics) is OK here, 9 preferablee.

I do not know where you are, and I probably would not know local fish stores anyway, but if you're in the USA there are some good online retailers and that is an option if local stores are few. You need something in the mid/upper level with what you have. Anything "odd" is not going to be likely. The blue emperor, if you mean the species Inpaichthys kerri [see here: http://www.seriouslyfish.com/species/inpaichthys-kerri/ ] is a lovely fish, but very active; I had a shoal several years back in my 5-foot Amazon tank; they would find a 29g at 30 inches quite confining.

I don't usually suggest fish, as it should be your aquarium not mine, but I will comment on any species you think of to help out. The wrong species in a community aquarium can be disastrous. It is easier when you are like me with a fish room of tanks, as I have usually tanks to move a problem species into if it doesn't work out, and some species can go "off the rails" contrary to the norm. But when one only has the main tank, you have to bee careful; disposing of problem fish is not always simple or easy.

Byron.

Thank you for the advice. I think I'll stick to hatchetfish; they've grown on me as I see more of them and read more about them. I really appreciate the advice. I'll up the hatchets to 8-9, like you suggested. I know one LFS carries Bolivian rams and the albino bristlenose, and another the corys. The store I'm going to this weekend may have the marbled hatchets. I'm learning so much with this tank, so thank you again.
The one "odd" fish that I'd been thinking of but unable to remember is the farlowella twig catfish, but with my current stocking, I think that that would probably be an unwise addition and crowd the bottom of the tank.
I think this will be the finalized stocking:
9x marbled hatchet
7x julii corydora
1x albino bristlenose pleco
1x Bolivian ram
I'm very excited to make this tank happen!

 

[Byron]

You could add a Twig Catfish, provided it is the smaller fish, Farlowella vitatta or one of the other species in this genus; the "Royal" Farlowella are different fish in the genus Sturisoma, and they get larger and in small tanks can be problematic.

I like Farlowella vitatta; I acquired a trio in 2008 and happened to get one male and two females. After a couple years, they began spawning, and have continued to spawn every couple of months since then. Very interesting fish, though not to everyone's taste as they do not move about much and can be "boring" to some. I've made the effort to raise the fry a couple times; if you lived close I could give you several.

They spend most of their time off the substrate; they will browse every surface, from the most delicate plant leaves to chunks of wood, the tank glass (particular favourite), filter tubes, even heaters. They are rarely on the substrate. A true vegetarian, and expert at dealing with common green algae or diatoms (brown algae), not problem algae though. Feed them algae or kelp-based sinking disks a couple times a week, which they quickly learn to eat. They also love dried leaves; oak, beech, maple can be collected after they fall from the trees in thee autumn provided the area is safe (no pesticides, etc). The leaves allowed me to raise the fry, as providing algae is not as easy as one might think.

One downside to this fish is that delicate or soft-leaf plants can be harmed. They are fine with older and tougher plants (large swords, Java Fern, Anubias, etc) but when I had five fry in my 70g I noticed the chain sword leaves were full of holes, and someone alerted me to the Farlowella; they were right. I've had no issues in tanks with the tougher plants.

Byron.