90 Litre 2'x18" Tank Fish Selection

[Smart_Blue]

Cheers for your comments guys, I feel slightly 'robbed' that your saying I cant have more fish, I have spent just on £400 and would like more than a couple of fish to home... I'd really like 4-5 different spiecies

1 or 2 'Show Pieces'
1 or 2 'Shoals'
Few Bottom Feeders
A Top Feeder

Something to mesmerise me at an evening rather than watch crap TV

and something to have my daughter Coo over

Cheers

 

[Louiseness]

Cheers for your comments guys, I feel slightly 'robbed' that your saying I cant have more fish, I have spent just on £400 and would like more than a couple of fish to home... I'd really like 4-5 different spiecies

1 or 2 'Show Pieces'
1 or 2 'Shoals'
Few Bottom Feeders
A Top Feeder

Something to mesmerise me at an evening rather than watch crap TV

and something to have my daughter Coo over

Cheers

Let's be honest, it's your tank, you can have as many fish as you like, but it's a question of those fish being healthy and having as problem-free a tank as possible. As someone else has said, 90L is still considered a 'small' tank and limits the size, type and amount of fish it can comfortably hold.

Overstocking your tank can result in stunted or diseased fish, aggression problems, smaller fish being eaten, etc etc, plus you would have to overfilter your tank compared to its size and change more water more frequently.

The stocking I suggested equals about 15-20 or so fish, which isn't exactly a tiny amount. The problem with wanting lots of 'shoals' is that with true shoaling fish the recommended MINIMUM is 6 fish. As someone has already said, fish like neon tetras and cories live in groups of thousands in the wild, and if you keep 'bits and bobs' of tiny numbers they won't act naturally and won't be enjoyable to watch for you. It's no use having tons of fish all hidden away behind plants and ornaments because they're stressed.

The general (and VERY vague) rule is one inch of fish per gallon. My maths is bad but 90L is about 25 gallons, say? 6 x 2 inch cories = 12,+ 1 x 2 inch gourami = 14, + 10 x 1 inch ember tetras is 24 inches of fish. You can see how it all adds up, right?

 

[Tizer]

Small schools of fish, at least for me, look quite naff, so rather than have 6 of each of something x 2, pick one single species and have 12 of them.

There is no reason why a tank this size cant look good, but start stuffing it full of lots of different fish it will just look naff.

You mentioned neons and there is no reason why you cant have 12-15 of them, that sort of number will make an eye catching display, especially if you decorate the tank nicely, with a dark background to bring out their colours.

With this number of neons you can still look at half a dozen corys, but again, you want 6 of the same type. Check out whats for sale in your local shop. The smaller species of Cory would be better, if you can find Panda Corys (very common at the moment) you could probably home about 8 of them. These guys need sand as a substrate, not gravel, thats a rule pretty much written in stone for cory lovers on here. Play sand from Argos is good enough, (washed out well in a bucket) with a few bits of wood to hide under and if you can use a hacksaw, pickup a few coconuts from tescos and chop them in half, they make perfect little caves.

If you like Gouramis, you could look at Dwarf Gourami a pair would do nicely as your center fish.

With this stocking, you would be pretty much maxed out and all you could really add to complement the tank would be an Apple snail or two, which are freakishly quite interesting to watch.

 

[fluttermoth]

I'm afraid your tank is just too small to have very many species in; it can be done, but results in a tank that looks very 'messy' and the fish won't be so happy as if they were in larger numbers.

I'd go for something like;

Asian theme;

a trio of sparkling gouramis; really quite purple once they've coloured up; they never look much in the shop; these can be your centre piece fish and also stay near the top
a shoal of mosquito rasboras; again, quite purpley and are a peaceful, playful shoalers, and as they're quite tiny, you can have a good dozen or so
6 or 8 dwarf chain loach species; your 'fat funny' fish; not as exclusively bottom dwelling as some, but will still stay mostly in the lower levels.

Or;

South American theme

a pair of Bolivian rams; again, sort of purply, bottom dwelling and full of character or a trio (1m, 2f) of one of the Apistogrammas
a dozen ember tetras or green neons for your shoaler
6 or 8 of one of the pygmy corydoras species, or a clown plec (you won't see much of it, but it's always a bit of a thrill if you do spot it out and about) or you could replave with 6 or 8 marbled hatchets if you think you have enough going on on the lower levels with the cichlids

Or;

Fun fish for kids theme;

a male betta (you can get some that are pinky/purple) or five male guppies; you must pick one or the other.
a dozen rasboras or tetras of your choice; something that contrasts in colour with your betta or guppies looks good,so if you have a blue betta or guppies, mosquito or chili rasboras; if you have a red betta, green neons or green neon rasboras
6 or 8 panda cories

 

[Louiseness]

With this stocking, you would be pretty much maxed out and all you could really add to complement the tank would be an Apple snail or two, which are freakishly quite interesting to watch.

Oh! AND let's not forget shrimps. A good few amanos, cherries or ghost shrimp would work great here and add a bit more colour and variety.

 

[fluttermoth]

Good point! Everyone loves shrimps; especially kids

 

[Tizer]

Hopefully from the last few posts in this thread you get the idea of what to aim for and trust me, its good advice.

12 small dither fish, tetras or otherwise
pair/trio of center piece fish which are the interesting fish of the tank
half dozen corys/loaches (for god sake dont buy any that get big, like clown loaches) which will be your amusing fish (your daughter will love them) and something little different in the form of a snail or shrimp.

PS. £400 for a 90 litre tank? Buying new will do you no favours, 2nd hand its only worth £200 tops now and you havnt even touched it yet!

 

[Smart_Blue]

Thanks very much for all the info, was starting to lose the faith... Will research into some of the fish you have all mentioned, I will get a photo up on e I have finished tinkering with the 'theme' of the tank... £400 is including the stand, small type gravel. Ornaments, 3d rock face background, air pump etc... Everything but the fish

Still not got my double 0's yet, so still over a week or two away anyroad...

Thanks again

 

[wirralbull]

2 dwarf gourami
8neon tetra
6pygmy corries
3ottocinclus

or swap the gourmis for a betta or guppies

 

[Tizer]

As you said you have gravel, you might want to avoid corys, or swap it out for sand before you get much further, as i think i mentioned before play sand from Agros is perfect, couple of bags would do the job and only cost £6. Corys would love you forever :>

 

[Smart_Blue]

anyone wanna buy a big bag of white/brown speckled gravel ?