KathyM
Fish Herder
Hiya you lot
A while back we set up a tank for my son, Dan. It's a Rena 60l. He had, originally, 4 female platies and a single bamboo shrimp in there (he was the only one at the shop and the plan had been to get a group and put them in the extra tank we had running, which is sadly now in many pieces). Obviously platy numbers exploded soon after (not a prob as I've put extras in other tank). We then added Poofish (a 2.5" unidentified ancistrus) to the tank, and a couple of applesnails. As we felt we were a bit overstocked, we've been doing lots of water changes, which to be honest aren't a problem in such a small tank.
However, Poofish is most likely returning to the big tank, and I'm hoping to replace the smashed tank and remove Shrimp Bizkit (in the long run) to there so I can add some friends for him.
Dan and I were talking today about his tank and how it looks. It's sand with fake plants, but we've decided to plant it properly. He's also expressed the wish for me to take the platies (as they seem to be the messiest fish in there) and get him some fish that won't breed. I was thinking some dwarf (?) cories and some rasboras, or something along those lines, but I thought I'd come on here and ask your opinion? Maybe I could add more bamboo shrimp in his tank? Not sure of the stocking levels for them?
What would you have in a 60l? What's cool yet inexpensive and not too messy? Bear in mind this is for a 9 year old lad, so it needs to be fairly interesting.
The other question I have is about filtration. Ideally we'd like better filtration on his tank (he has a small Rena internal). We saw some mini externals on eBay (Eden 501) but noone's selling them any more. Can anyone else recommend an external for a small tank? I realise they're not really necessary but the good filtration + getting some extra space internally would be of great benefit.
Any tips much appreciated
A while back we set up a tank for my son, Dan. It's a Rena 60l. He had, originally, 4 female platies and a single bamboo shrimp in there (he was the only one at the shop and the plan had been to get a group and put them in the extra tank we had running, which is sadly now in many pieces). Obviously platy numbers exploded soon after (not a prob as I've put extras in other tank). We then added Poofish (a 2.5" unidentified ancistrus) to the tank, and a couple of applesnails. As we felt we were a bit overstocked, we've been doing lots of water changes, which to be honest aren't a problem in such a small tank.
However, Poofish is most likely returning to the big tank, and I'm hoping to replace the smashed tank and remove Shrimp Bizkit (in the long run) to there so I can add some friends for him.
Dan and I were talking today about his tank and how it looks. It's sand with fake plants, but we've decided to plant it properly. He's also expressed the wish for me to take the platies (as they seem to be the messiest fish in there) and get him some fish that won't breed. I was thinking some dwarf (?) cories and some rasboras, or something along those lines, but I thought I'd come on here and ask your opinion? Maybe I could add more bamboo shrimp in his tank? Not sure of the stocking levels for them?
What would you have in a 60l? What's cool yet inexpensive and not too messy? Bear in mind this is for a 9 year old lad, so it needs to be fairly interesting.
The other question I have is about filtration. Ideally we'd like better filtration on his tank (he has a small Rena internal). We saw some mini externals on eBay (Eden 501) but noone's selling them any more. Can anyone else recommend an external for a small tank? I realise they're not really necessary but the good filtration + getting some extra space internally would be of great benefit.
Any tips much appreciated
I think to be honest though the size of the tank says no to dwarf gouramis and to larger tetras. But I still like the dwarf cory idea 
