Beginner - Advise Needed Please

[jlb1924]

Hello,

We purchased our first tropical tank a couple of weeks ago, it was a starter tank by Tetra which measures 22in by around 14in.

So far we have purchased a leopard danio a zebra danio, a male guppy, a female guppy and 5 neon tetras.

Dont know if I have the right amounts of each species? ie someone said I should have about 3 female guppies to 1 male? Also should I have purchased more than one of each of the danios? I am also getting a bit confused about the amount of fish I can have in my tank, I have been advised that its only around 10-12 is this correct? If so I cant put many more in there and I was hoping to have a bit of a variety.

Any advise would be greatly appreciated.

 

[scubadoo]

Welcome to the forum. In my opinion this is about the best place to come for advice.

Its a bit late now, but I assume you haven't cycled your tank ?

You can either do a fishless cycle (see the pinned topic above in the beginners section) or you can cycle with fish.

As it seems that you have quite a few fish already, I assume your going to do that.
Normally you would start with only a few hardy fish (danios are fine) and very fradually build up your fish stock over a period of weeks / months to give your filter a chance to cope.

I suspect that given the numbers of fish you have in the tank you are likely to experience some losses (the neons are particularly at risk since they usually like stable and mature tanks) , but I'm sure others will know more than me.

Please spend some time reading the topics in the beginners section and the FAQ pinned topics - this will help you out a great deal.

good luck

 

[Miss Wiggle]

OK as far as stocking goes

your basic guideline for stocking fish is 1 inch per gallon. So if you can get all the dimensions of your tank you can work out how many gallons of water it holds, then this gives you an idea to work from. Then you need to find out the adult size of these fish (the fish index on here is a great place to start) add them all up and it should come out about the same as the number of gallons. However this is only a guideline and there are loads of exceptions, bear in mind 10 small thin bodied 1 inch fish does not equate to the same as 1 big fat 10 inch fish! You can also stretch the rules with bottom dwelling fisha nd it's fine to overstock slightly as long as your tank is overfiltered and you have a very good maintenance and cleaning schedule.

Yes guppies you need to have 3 females for every 1 male, danio's I think are best in groups of 5/6 or more, as are tetra's.

But before you even think about what goes in your tank, you need to find out about cycling the filter, there's some really good pinned topics on fishless cycling in the beginners section, I'd advise you to have a look at these.

 

[jlb1924]

Hi and thanks for you replies.

I have cycled my tank, I took all the advise from the shop and from the Tetra book I got with the tank and after two weeks took in a sample of water to be tested. I did not add fish to my tank until the water was tested and the shop assistant gave me the go ahead, so I hope my fish dont die!!!!!