Stocking suggestions

[Fishyfriends101]

Hi
I'm posting this on behalf of my sister. She has a 35litre established tank with a heater and filter. She's had it set up for about 5 years now.
At the moment it's home to only 2 fish as over time fish have died and not been replaced.
The two fish are a black skirt tetra and a zebra danio. We know she needs more of each as it's unfair for them to be kept alone.
But we were just wanting some stocking suggestions. How many of each for the tank size and are there any other fish that might go well with them?
Thank you in advance!

 

[Jessie J.]

That's about ten gallons. Zebra Danios need to be in groups of at least six, and you could fit about that many in a tank that size. You could get a pair of guppies instead, or some pygmy corydoras. Can you post a picture of the tank so we know what fish it's good for? What are your parameters/temperature?

 

[Colin_T]

Black skirt tetras (aka black widow tetras) also need to be in groups of at least 6 or more and preferably 10 or more.

If the tank has not been getting regular water changes and gravel cleans, I would suggest doing some water changes before adding any new fish. Do a 20-25% water change and gravel clean the substrate each day for a week. Then do a 30-40% water change and gravel clean the substrate each day for a week. Then do a 50-75% water change and gravel clean the substrate each day for a week.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it is added to the tank.

If you have a power filter then clean that if it hasn't been done in the last 2 weeks. Wash filter materials in a bucket of tank water, and wash the filter case and impellor assembly under tap water.

After you have cleaned the tank and filter then add new fish.

 

[Essjay]

Unfortunately the tank is too small for both zebra danios and black skirt tetras.

Zebra danios may be small fish but they are extremely fast swimmers which need a tank at least 90 cm (3 feet) long. http://www.seriouslyfish.com/species/danio-rerio/
Black skirt tetras (also called black widow tetras) don't need as big a tank as zebra danios, but they still need more swimming room than a 35 litre tank can provide - they need a tank at least 60 cm (2 feet) long. http://www.seriouslyfish.com/species/gymnocorymbus-ternetzi/

Personally I would see if someone who already has some of these fish would take them. Then look to getting fish suited to the size of the tank, and the water parameters.
The first thing to do is find out how hard the tap water is. Look on your water provider's website to see in they give the hardness - make a note of the number and the unit rather than words - we need the unit as well because they could use any one of half a dozen different units. If they don't give it, take a sample of tap water to an LFS and ask them to test GH - again get the number and unit, not words.
If the water is soft, a shoal of one of the small tetras such as ember tetras http://www.seriouslyfish.com/species/hyphessobrycon-amandae/ or one of the Boraras species http://www.seriouslyfish.com/species/search/boraras. For hard water a group of male only enders.

 

[Jessie J.]

The OP said the fish died a while ago.

 

[Essjay]

There are 2 fish left, one danio and one tetra.

 

[Byron]

Agree with essjay. The two species you now have (one each of) need a larger tank than 35 liters (10 gallons), so please do not get more of either species. These two should either be left alone now to live out their days, or re-homed before any other fish species are considered.

Even if the tank were sufficient size for these two species, adding more at this point in time with just one of the species is a real risk, particularly for the Black skirt Tetra. The surviving fish may have been stressed all along from the tank size and insufficient numbers, and new fish of this species may trigger serious aggression. It is one thing to be adding new fish into a group of a shoaling species periodically, but when the group gets down to one fish over a period of several years like here, and it is alone for even a few weeks, it is generally not advisable to add more.

 

[The Lumpfish Guy]

Hi
I'm posting this on behalf of my sister. She has a 35litre established tank with a heater and filter. She's had it set up for about 5 years now.
At the moment it's home to only 2 fish as over time fish have died and not been replaced.
The two fish are a black skirt tetra and a zebra danio. We know she needs more of each as it's unfair for them to be kept alone.
But we were just wanting some stocking suggestions. How many of each for the tank size and are there any other fish that might go well with them?
Thank you in advance!

I agree with the posts above, If you can re-home the fish currently in there, you can get a nice Betta for the tank.