Please help with numbers

[Jessica May]

Hi, i’ve got a 60L tank and have decided I would like some guppies and cory catfish, please help me with ratios/numbers of each
Thank you!

 

[Wills]

HI Jessica welcome to the forum What is your water like? And how old is the tank, do you have any fish in there at all?

Guppies and Cory Catfish have different needs in terms of water hardness, guppies prefer harder water and cory catfish prefer softer water but both are bred commercially very widely now and are usually reared in near neutral conditions so if you went ahead it should work out. But if for example you have quite soft water you could look at keeping a group of something like Ember Tetras with some Dwarf Cory Catfish and you would end up with decent sized schools of each, probably 8 of each.

If you can give us some more info on your tank and water Im sure people can give more advice as well

Wills

 

[Jessica May]

Hi Will, thank you!

It is a new tank with no fish, I have set it up today to get the cycle running whilst I decide on fish.

I wanted a variety of sizes, without having too big a difference as I know this leads to fish killing/eating others, three species would be even better but I understand if this isn’t not realistic

Thank you!

 

[Wills]

Thats great news

Before you get fish I would strongly recommend reading this article and going with the fishless cycling route

http://www.fishforums.net/threads/cycling-your-new-fresh-water-tank-read-this-first.421488/

Its takes a bit longer before you get fish but once you have completed it your tank will be set for a long time and it will save you the heartbreak and cost of fish dieing in the first few weeks of you setting up the tank.

You will probably see products in shops that claim to do the same process but in reality most of these products dont work, or at least work to the levels they claim to where as putting in raw ammonia and measuring the levels with a liquid test kit you can reliably see the natural process required in water for fish to live.

Multiple species in a small tank is perfectly doable but you have to think small I had a small tank going with a school of galaxy rasbora, a small group of rosy loaches and a pyjama badis for a while and it was great! But I had to cut down to one tank due to time commitments.

Do you have a water test kit yet? If not I would recommend getting the API liquid one then you can check all the levels in your tank and you can work out what sort of fish are best suited to your water. Your water will have a specific Ph and also a hardness level which will suit certain types of fish from certain areas of the world.

Hope that helps,
Wills

 

[Jessica May]

I have some testing strips that look at Ammonia, Ph, Nitrites and nitrates. I didn’t know about adding the ammonia to encourage the growth so thank you for that article I found it very useful! I don’t plan on adding the fish too soon, to give me time to get the advice I need and get the tank running smoothly.
I read an article that said I should put one flake of food in the tank once every three days to encourage the bacteria to start breaking down the food, does this sound like a good idea?

Really appreciate your help so far
Jess

 

[Essjay]

The ammonia method is better. With fish food you have no idea just how many bacteria have grown so you have to add fish very slowly, a few at a time. And the decomposing food can make a mess in the tank. I don't think 1 flake every 3 days would produce very much ammonia either.
If you let us know which country you are in, members who live in the same country can tell you where to get ammonia - fish shops do not stock it.


While you are cycling the tank, can I suggest you look at your water supplier's website. Somewhere on there it should give your water hardness. Post the number and the unit on here rather than words. They could use any one of half a dozen units which is why we need that. And also test your tap water for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH and let us know those as well. With pH, you also need to test a sample of tap water that's been left to stand for 24 hours. pH often changes on standing so we need both readings. These numbers will help to suggest which fish are best for your water.