I Can't Make Up My Mind

[Man of fish]

I'll have a look at those later thanks

Anyone know on the rainbows?

How about rainbows? Any type good? I know praecox but any others?

 

[alihar]

My friend keeps boesemani rainbow, they are pretty big and have gone pretty dull with age.
I find hers quite ugly tbh!
I keep praecox and they are great, active, colourful fish.
I have 3 male 3 female, they shoal tight and are beautiful when they display to each other.
I would love to add more, a larger group would lOok stunning

 

[onidrase]

http/www.youtube.com/watch?v=sP4NMoJcFd4

Replace "cat" with "fish"

and we've got this thread

In regards to your questions, having a true "top dweller" isn't really possible IME. Unless we're talking hatchets or an african butterfly fish, most fish tend to visit all parts of the water, even danios and such. It's best to get one school of fish that will explore all aspects of the aquarium rather than 2 schools that supposedly stay in one zone of the water.

Tetras will work well, not sure on praecox rainbows, rainbowfish tend to be very active like danios.

I'm also gonna have to agree with ruskull on just changing to sand. I've got a big bucket of very natural looking gravel second hand from getting my 75 gallon and its only purpose is to stub my toe and remind me how much better sand is than gravel. The sand I've got (pavestone play sand) was just 3 dollars, and it looks amazing, the cichlids love it, the catfish love it, I love it. It'll be much easier on -any- bottom dweller to chose, I've yet to see somebody say that they have a species of bottom dweller that benefits from gravel rather than sand.

 

[The Duke]

Neon tetras. The best schooling fish available imo

 

[Man of fish]

Haha love the video
I prefer cardinals to neons as the neons around me are very weak and unhealthy, but the cardinals are a high price because I think they're wild caught.

 

[Man of fish]

Also I understand what you mean by top dweller etc.
On the rainbows I know boesamani are too big for my tank, they need 48" and 100 liters (about 24ish gallons), but the praecox fit my tank. They only get like 2-3" but is there any other types that are good in my tank.
My LFS is getting most types in this Friday and anything they don't gave I can special order in.

Haha love the video
I prefer cardinals to neons as the neons around me are very weak and unhealthy, but the cardinals are a high price because I think they're wild caught.

 

[Man of fish]

How does this sound either it will work, it could work, or it's a recipe for disaster. If a recipe for disaster, how could I make it better?:
3 platys
3 mollys
1 swordtail
3 permanent platy fry (10 ATM but they'll get weeded soon)
6-8 tetras (still trying to decide. Maybe 6 bleeding hearts or 8 of something else like Von rios if I find any or lemons or something I like. Maybe 6 praecox rainbows. Anyone that have them know if they school well?
1 or 2 pairs of bolivians (I assume only 1 pair would fit?)
2 angels or a gourami pair (maybe pearl?)
3 otos as a CUC and maybe a snail.

I know I can't get all of these but if I can that'd be great.

 

[FishFanatic04]

We need a thread for common suggestions!

1. Seachem Prime
2. SAND!!!
3. etc...etc...etc...


I love my harlequin rasboras! They stay together and shoal all over.

 

[onidrase]

try this

3 platys
3 mollys
1 swordtail(I find it kinda pointless to have a loner swordtail in the tank tbh)
3 permanent platy fry (10 ATM but they'll get weeded soon) (wouldn't they just become normal platys? that's a bit much for the tank)
6-8 tetras (still trying to decide. Maybe 6 bleeding hearts or 8 of something else like Von rios if I find any or lemons or something I like. Maybe 6 praecox rainbows. Anyone that have them know if they school well? (need a livebearers person's help on if these will even fit with the mollies and platies)
1 or 2 pairs of bolivians (I assume only 1 pair would fit?)
2 angels or a pearl gourami pair (trio?) (too small for angels imo)
3 6 otos (schooling fish) as a CUC and maybe a snail.

I'm not very knowledgable on livebearers cause they're not my thing

but basically try

3 platys
3 mollies (if they're okay in the tank, I've heard they get pretty huge, maybe stick with either platys or mollies. But once again, not my thing)
1 pair of bolivian rams (don't have to be a mated pair, any two rams would be fine in the tank, but make sure you only get 2. and not 1. 2.)
1m 2f pearl gouramis, (if the tank is big enough) I've heard they do better this way, gouramis to my knowledge don't pair like cichlids do, or just leave it at one pearl gourami
6 otos

I'm usually quick to suggest tetras, but I can't really think of any that "match"
bleeding hearts are more shoaling than schooling, and they get lazy as they mature
maybe try for some glow light tetras, they're good little guys

Also keep in mind that if you're breeding the livebearers, they might hybridize with each other, which just means lower quality fish (and god forbid we get livebearers in even lower quality than most of them already are) unless you plan on syphoning them down the drain or binning them or something.

May be best to thumb out some fish, it may be hard, but it is necessary to pick ones you like more than the other. I don't know why, but the above stocking with tetras or without seems like quite a bit for a 29 gallon tank. since half of it consists of fish that I don't care for, I can't exactly say "no, thats too much"

try for like
1 species of livebearer in group of 5 or 6
2 bolivian rams
pearl gouramis
tetras
otos if you really need them, though they're fragile in new tanks and honestly, your hands make the best clean up crew.

 

[FishFanatic04]

I ended up taking mollies off my list after having one and returning it. It was actually very pretty but I enjoy my platies more. Just personal preference, platies do stay slightly smaller, I hear. They are kind of similar in behavior so having 3 platies and 3 mollies might not be the most interesting use of space.

You could add a few extra of your schooling fish, like 1 or 2 more otos and an extra tetra. Much more interesting.

I was told that I might lose up to a 1/4 of the otos that I buy, because they are caught by poisons being released upstream to flush them out. But I still want them too

 

[Man of fish]

My 3 current platys are pretty old, or at least I think. One is 2 1/2 inches I think fully grown and is kinda lazy. The other two are about 2 inches so idk. With the fry I could put them in another tank I guess but I wanna keep at least 3-5 of them since I'll be raising them from birth.
I'm going to try and get the bolivians to become a mated pair, but if they dont I guess I'll just keep 1 male and 1 female.
The gouramis would be the last additions if I still feel like the tank needs something.
On the otos I'm trying to find 2 putbull plecs. I hear they're not as messy as usual plecs?
Tetras or praecox idk I'll have a look and see what catches my eye.

Oh yeah and my tank is overfiltered. I use a penguin bio-wheel 350 that does 350 gph.

That's about 12.2 times per hour

 

[FishFanatic04]

Opps, you already have the livebearers. I think that got lost in translation. You should see if your lfs will trade out females for you if your hopes are for future breeding. Mine is willing to help me out with angelfish until I get pairs. I still say to take a peek at the rasboras. They really school nicely. But if you are set on tetras the lemons tempt me every time I see them

Sand is awesome.

 

[Man of fish]

Without bottom fish though there's more room for other fish and the sand would tempt me too much into buying more bottom fishies.

I have 3 platys 3 mollys platy fry and 2 otos (8 at one point but they all died)

 

[FishFanatic04]

lol ok then! When you get some rams please take pics I really wanted some and got the apistogrammas instead. But they had some kind of internal parasite {resistant to 4 types of medication} and I only have 2 healthy ones left. I was thinking about getting the Bolivan rams lately since All of the stores around here order from the same fish warehouses meaning that all the apistos for awhile are probably sick.

Sry for the story.. have fun getting your new fish

 

[Man of fish]

Ok yes definately. I'm getting a new iPhone soon. One with a good camera! Will be able to get easy and fast pics up soon. Here's what I'm looking at here:
My 3 Molly
3 platy
3-5 fry that I may keep in another tank
2 bolivians
6-8 tetras/harlequins
3 otos/ 2 pitbull plecs (I am looking for these more)
3 pearls if I can fit them and I think the tank needs them.