A place 4 my questions & ponderings as I build a 34 Gallons (127L) tank

[Ch4rlie]

Forktails are a slightly skittish specie of fish, so would be best to avoid larger bold fish such as tiger barbs and odessas as they may nip the fins of the forktails.

They do best with similar sized shoaling fish.

Plecos and BN are lovely but are basically poop factories!

So be aware you may need to do more siphoning of poop from the substrate surface, increased filter maintenances since may fill with more gunk than usual due to the amount of debris and poop they will kick up in the tank and of course keeping an eye on parameters in first few weeks to ensure all is ok and no spikes in ammonia etc should be fine though but better safe than sorry really.

 

[AilyNC]

I would have said everything he said Only I'd have been less concise and waffled on more - it's a problem, I can't help it.
Nicrew lights have a good rep. Affordable, but still great for your every day planted tank. A youtuber I sometimes watch who has beautiful planted tanks recommends them too. He's sponsored by them mind, so biased, but he does actually use them too, and I've seen others recommend them. If you were doing a high tech set up with really demanding plants you'd need to delve much deeper and invest in super fancy lights, but most of us just want a cheap-ish but half decent light that works well for most basic plants.

Cool, I'll check that out. I want to to keep it low tech with the plants. In my current tank I really like the broadleaf plants the most. I've already 3 new Anubis plant

 

[AilyNC]

Forktails are a slightly skittish specie of fish, so would be best to avoid larger bold fish such as tiger barbs and odessas as they may nip the fins of the forktails.

They do best with similar sized shoaling fish.

Plecos and BN are lovely but are basically poop factories!

So be aware you may need to do more siphoning of poop from the substrate surface, increased filter maintenances since may fill with more gunk than usual due to the amount of debris and poop they will kick up in the tank and of course keeping an eye on parameters in first few weeks to ensure all is ok and no spikes in ammonia etc should be fine though but better safe than sorry really.

I'm ok with keeping it smaller peaceful fish and a Pleco. The False Zebra is a pretty small pleco so one on it's own mightn't be the biggest poop monster. I'm quite into the idea of having lots of small groupings. So apart from the mini pleco, the biggest might be a platy or Molly... Would that work with Endlers and Forktail?

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

Possible Fish stock: ph 8, hardness is 307ppm

Forktail Blue-Eyed Rainbowfish shoals 8-10

L129 Columbian/False Zebra Pleco
(Could two co-exist? Or one L129 with an Albino Bristlenose? Is Lemon Ancistrus L144 same as Albino Bristlenose??)

Platy (currently have 2 adult {1F, 1M} & 8 Fry)

Endlers (5-10?!) I really love their movement

Other possible fish:
Odessa barb
Zebra/celestial Pearl/turquoise/LFWC Danio
Molly lyretail silver & black
Barb (denison/green tiger)
Killifish (SF says tank size, pH & hardness ok)
Dwarf Pufferfish
Rainbow fish
Kribensis Cichlid

Were you hoping to have all of these in the same tank? Or is this a list of possible fish you're considering?
Celestial pearl danios are nano fish, shy and not able to compete for feeding with larger, fast fish, even endlers might spook them. They're best in a species only nano tank. They'd also be at risk of being hurt or killed by any barb species or some cichlids. Not good for a community tank, I'd rule those out now. Zebra danios are another matter, they're fast and tough enough that they're often used as dither fish in cichlid and barb tanks, but they can also spook more shy species like celestial pearls, and would probably be a problem with killifish too, since they share the same areas of the tank and they dart about and can be nippy.

 

[Ch4rlie]

If you have not already done so, have a read and see what you think -

Pseudomugil furcatus – Forktail Blue-eye (Popondetta furcata, Popondichthys furcatus) — Seriously Fish

www.seriouslyfish.com

 

[vanalisa]

Forktails are real nice, dazzling blue eyes and lovely colours especially in peak conditions, very much a underrated fish species by lots of keepers but for those who have kept them, they loved them

Am very certain you will love those guys!

Think your choice of forktails will be perfect for that tank to be perfectly honest!

I nearly got forktails years ago but went with Threadfins instead as I liked their trailing fins a little more but it was close and took me ages to finally decide which of these two specie to get

Threadfins are elegant. I had to pass on them because I didn't have a big enough tank, but I did linger, yes I did...

 

[vanalisa]

Y

I finally ordered my tank! I'm so excited I danced around the kitchen & my husband is like "eh... You ok?!"

I've ordered the Clearseal (L)36" x (W)18" x (H)12" tank. It's 127 Litres (34 US gallons). I've ordered a custom glass sliding lid too.

The tank (€114) will arrive with Seahorse Aquarium on Tuesday, they'll then build the custom sliding glass lid (€70!). I know that's a costly lid but I've very specific requirements for the space & don't trust myself to DIY it. I could order a hinged glass Aqueon lid from at ~ €35 inc delivery but want sliding lid.

At €184 I thinks it's a great price for the tank size. A 125L Fluval is €305 & Jewel Rio 125L is €270.

EDIT: forgot to add an additional €100 for lights, filter & heater so less that Fluval but bit more than Jewel. More capacity than both.

Tank will arrive around Tuesday 15th September. Woohoo

you had me at "custom glass sliding lid"

 

[Essjay]

I think external (canister) filters have to be below the level of the tank don't they? As you intend putting the tank on a kitchen worktop, this may not be possible.

I have the smallest Eheim Pickup filter in my shrimp tank. This too has an adjustable flow direction and speed and has just sponge as the medium. It's a very new filter but so far it seems very good.

 

[Ch4rlie]

Celestial pearl danios are nano fish, shy and not able to compete for feeding with larger, fast fish, even endlers might spook them.

Sorry AdoraBelle, going to contradict you slightly, my CPD‘s coped absolutely fine with endlers and Lambchop rasboras.

I think it’s mostly down to how the tank is set up, as long as the tank is pretty densely planted and not too much open space, they will cope just fine and with similar peaceful shoaling species, I cannot see why this won’t work with most species of fish, not just CPDs.

If the tank has few plants and few hiding spots, this makes even the most peaceful shoaling fish more skittish as they get more nervous in wide open spaces with no place to escape or hide to.
Hope that makes sense.

If you use slow sinking micro pellet foods, such as hikari micro food, they will feed as there is plenty of time for them to swim around while the food slowly sinks and choose what they want to eat, no problem.

I kept all three species in the exact same sized tank as AilyNC for 4-5 years without too much issues.

Of course, planning ahead and researching etc is the best method and doing what you think works best for you and your tank

 

[vanalisa]

I have minnows and CPDs together and they get along great. CPDs became more social than when I had them alone.

 

[AilyNC]

Were you hoping to have all of these in the same tank? Or is this a list of possible fish you're considering?
Celestial pearl danios are nano fish, shy and not able to compete for feeding with larger, fast fish, even endlers might spook them. They're best in a species only nano tank. They'd also be at risk of being hurt or killed by any barb species or some cichlids. Not good for a community tank, I'd rule those out now. Zebra danios are another matter, they're fast and tough enough that they're often used as dither fish in cichlid and barb tanks, but they can also spook more shy species like celestial pearls, and would probably be a problem with killifish too, since they share the same areas of the tank and they dart about and can be nippy.

I basically went through all the fish from two reliable, highly rated places. Locally I've LFS from hell or PetStop. And then I checked every single fish against Seriously Fish for water hardness my eyes feel like they'll bleed if I look at that site again I do love research so this is more like the quarter finals and I'm hoping from this list (or suggestions) to come up with a nice community set up. There's no rush with stock choices but my preference is to keep my Platy gang, get Forktail, Endlers & L129 Columbian Zebra Pleco. So I guess whatever else works with those guys assuming they work together.

 

[AilyNC]

And of course next I'll be fawning over aqua plants and looking for low key plants

 

[vanalisa]

I haven't been able to find a Forktail Blue-Eyed Rainbowfish but as luck would have it Seahorse Aquarium are getting some today. They said they can send one out with my order & he can live in my 58L tank for 2 weeks while I cycle the new tank.

Very excited as I prefer fun looking fish & I'm very limited with my hard water. Internet pic of mohawk cutie View attachment 115131

 

[AilyNC]

Possibly shrimp. Possibly not. Still on verge of cute/terrifying. But I'll throw the idea in here to revisit.

SHRIMPS » MIDLAND AQUATIC SOLUTIONS IRELAND

midlandaquatic.ie

Shrimp

Shrimp

www.seahorseaquariums.com

 

[Ch4rlie]

Just like fish species, you need to do some research into shrimps to see what’s suitable with your water parameters.

For example RCS are the hardiest shrimp specie of the bunch next to Amanos who will cope fine in hard water and are more forgiving to slight fluctuations in water parameters.

However crystal shrimps fare much better in soft water but they’re very sensitive to changes in water parameters.

I’ve has both black and blue shrimps, the blue shrimps fared better and bred in my hard water but the black shrimps never bred and they were expensive.

So there was a lesson learnt right there for me as I stupidly assumed they look like neocardinia like RCS and would be fine in my water parameters

So it definitely pays to research around and find out what shrimps would work best for your water parameters and tank set up.

But definitely well worth it as shrimps are the best additions to most tank set ups and add that little bit extra