A picture of my tank and thoughts on what I will eventually get

[Jennet1 59]

I still have to plant the live plants, so will spread them out more, and am really not sure about the two small soft silicone plants. Although the pink mushroom type one glows beautifully with little spots on it under blue lights, I would not often switch to blue light as it's a faff re-setting the light. I still like the little pink one with the green base, so may leave that one in. Also the orange and green in the corner hiding the filter is plastic, so will leave that one in too.

 

[fishorama1 11]

I'm a little concerned about the pink spiky 1 with green base. It looks kind of sharp, is it? I have to say I've never had silcone plants. I have live plants now & firm plastic 1 in days of old.

I know you're considering mostly male guppies. It may be safe for their long tails...or not.

Just a couple bossy things , I can't help myself sometimes (sorry). I prefer not to see pots like on your tall grassy plant. Maybe try it all the way to the right shoved into the substrate or behind the left yellowish rock? Just ideas....

Another thought: maybe Amano shrimp to go with the guppies? Shrimp are quite interesting & can help clean up uneaten food. I've kept small red cherry shrimp (many colors, just choose 1) but the guppies will eat some I bet. Not a big deal, they'll breed enough & hide enough to survive. Amanos don't breed in freshwater & are much larger. Ask around, I haven't kept Amanos.

 

[gimme301]

+1 on the amanos, they can be a lifesaver.
There's some here that may give you grief about the Plasticus Lastforevercus but ignore them. Your tank looks very nice.

 

[Jennet1 59]

I'm a little concerned about the pink spiky 1 with green base. It looks kind of sharp, is it? I have to say I've never had silcone plants. I have live plants now & firm plastic 1 in days of old.

I know you're considering mostly male guppies. It may be safe for their long tails...or not.

Just a couple bossy things , I can't help myself sometimes (sorry). I prefer not to see pots like on your tall grassy plant. Maybe try it all the way to the right shoved into the substrate or behind the left yellowish rock? Just ideas....

Another thought: maybe Amano shrimp to go with the guppies? Shrimp are quite interesting & can help clean up uneaten food. I've kept small red cherry shrimp (many colors, just choose 1) but the guppies will eat some I bet. Not a big deal, they'll breed enough & hide enough to survive. Amanos don't breed in freshwater & are much larger. Ask around, I haven't kept Amanos.

Thanks for your thoughts. The plant you are talking about is a silicone and it is as soft as jelly, as is the other pink one that has lovely little dots that are fluorescent under a blue light. I have started to plant the plants into the gravel base, and it was never my intention of leaving them in pots as I don't believe they will do well in them. I had initially thought about planting them in aquarium soil into some small terracotta pots I have, but am not going to bother with that now.

 

[Jennet1 59]

+1 on the amanos, they can be a lifesaver.
There's some here that may give you grief about the Plasticus Lastforevercus but ignore them. Your tank looks very nice.

On the shrimps, do I have to fish their shed out of the water?? And second thing is I think its going to take me a lot of thought and an awful lot of looking at them to get myself out of my fear of anything that sort of crawls with legs. I have a really big spider phobia, so much so that when one bar steward threw one at me once when I was in my 20's I went out like a light!

 

[gimme301]

There's someone else here... @BlaiseinLondon maybe? that's a little squeamish about shrimp. In a tank that size you're going to need more than a few and even though they're clearish they're not invisible so...We certainly don't want you passing out! They do have some funny habits though so if you can get used to them I think you'll like having them around.
And no, they'll eat their own molts. Which as gross as it sounds is probably better than what you'd experience fishing them out.

 

[Jennet1 59]

There's someone else here... @BlaiseinLondon maybe? that's a little squeamish about shrimp. In a tank that size you're going to need more than a few and even though they're clearish they're not invisible so...We certainly don't want you passing out! They do have some funny habits though so if you can get used to them I think you'll like having them around.
And no, they'll eat their own molts. Which as gross as it sounds is probably better than what you'd experience fishing them out.

Thank you. I think the thought of having to fish them out what what disturbed me most. The only problem is, I put gravel in my tank, and I'm not sure they will be comfortable with that. It seems a lot of people in US don't use pea gravel (which I have), so not sure what these little critters would think of that. I'd probably end up hoovering them up with my water changes.

 

[sharkweek178]

On the shrimps, do I have to fish their shed out of the water?? And second thing is I think its going to take me a lot of thought and an awful lot of looking at them to get myself out of my fear of anything that sort of crawls with legs. I have a really big spider phobia, so much so that when one bar steward threw one at me once when I was in my 20's I went out like a light!

No. Actually you shouldn't remove their molts. They eat them to regain the nutrients.

 

[gimme301]

They'll be fine with pea gravel. That's what I typically use since I prefer to run UGFs and the shrimp don't seem to care. Don't worry about cleaning either....they'll see you coming and scoot out of the way of the vacuum, although not as quick as you'd like once they get used to it. I don't know if you've thought of this yet but you'll need to figure out how you'll feed them too. Your tank doesn't look like it has much in the way of algae so you might want to consider adding some wood, and of course prepared foods are available.