Community Tropical Fish?

[jim54]

Hello,

I'm currently cycling a 29 gal tank for tropical small schooling fish.
Waiting for cycling to complete before adding fish.
The tank currently has an aquatech 20-40 filter and also a tetra 30 filter
I've done some research and have put together the following list:

6 - zebra danios
6 - Cherry Barbs
6 - Cory catfish (Bandit cory, Blackfin Cory and Peppered Cory) for choices.
3 - Oto's

Any suggestions as to additions or deletions from the list above?

Thanks,
Jim

 

[WILDER]

I would rethink the cherry barbs I had them chased the corys around the tank, had to remove them to another tank.
They can be nippy cherry barbs.
Oto's are not very hardy plecs.

 

[groovitudedude]

5 or 7 - zebra danios (odd numbers for schoolers!)
0 - Cherry Barbs
3 - Cory catfish (Bandit cory, Blackfin Cory and Peppered Cory) for choices.
0 - Oto's
9 - Neon Tetras
1 - Regular Pleco

 

[Biulu]

I would only add otos if you have live plants (and in sufficient numbers), so they can eat the algae of them.

Instead of the neon tetras, I would take the cardinal tetra as they are more hardy, and not as fuzzy with their water as the neons.

Have you looked into rasboras? I love these fish, and they are good shoalers too!

Instead of a 'regular' pleco, try to find one that stays smaller, so you can keep it forever in your tank. The regular ones get quite big. You may want to ask in the catfish subforum for a good species.

 

[celaeno]

for the pleco, you can get a bristlenose plec. males are larger than females and the albino strain is smaller. many say they need wood to graze on, but some disagree.

 

[funkycat]

I think oto's are awesome little fish which love to school, however they are hard to acclimatize and really do need an established tank, but after you get your tank going for a long while u might want to look at getting them.

IMO oto's dont need live plants if u give them veggies like zuchini

 

[Iron Man]

I wouldn't recommend either cardinal or neon tetras but that's up to you as they do have a lot of color to add if they survive. You could get the oto's and try them, they work for some people. I would never put a regular pleco in a 29 gallon tank though, he's just going to outgrow it, and very fast.

You could try something else besides the barbs like dwarf rainbow fish. But they are very shy even in a number of 6 of them.

There are lots of tetras (not serpaes) you could consider.

 

[rocknurworld2006]

for the pleco, you can get a bristlenose plec. males are larger than females and the albino strain is smaller. many say they need wood to graze on, but some disagree.

bristlenoses are great plecs to have. Albino strain isnt smaller than the brown ones!!!!!!

ottos are great but need a mature tank

if you can i would keep ottos in groups of 6+ as they like to shoal

 

[loachman]

for the pleco, you can get a bristlenose plec. males are larger than females and the albino strain is smaller. many say they need wood to graze on, but some disagree.

bristlenoses are great plecs to have. Albino strain isnt smaller than the brown ones!!!!!!

ottos are great but need a mature tank

if you can i would keep ottos in groups of 6+ as they like to shoal

Bristlenose plecs are pretty good. IME a bit shier than ottos. They're certainly bigger as well.

Ottos are great little community fish. Only issue I've had with them is I've never had one eat anything other than natural algae. Never consumed prepared foods/veggies at all IME. I have had pretty good luck with them though. The only ones I've lost were to a broken heater that got the tank to over 90F.

 

[wolfwolf]

I wouldn't recommend either cardinal or neon tetras but that's up to you as they do have a lot of color to add if they survive. You could get the oto's and try them, they work for some people. I would never put a regular pleco in a 29 gallon tank though, he's just going to outgrow it, and very fast.

You could try something else besides the barbs like dwarf rainbow fish. But they are very shy even in a number of 6 of them.

There are lots of tetras (not serpaes) you could consider.

Why not Serpaes??

 

[loachman]

I assume it is because they are known to be nippers

 

[Iron Man]

Yes they are notorious nippers. I don't know how well a school of them would do with a school of regular danios (not long finned). And then if i put anything else with the serpaes and the danios it would be a good number of tiger barbs.

 

[Biulu]

I have kept my shoal of serpaes for over a year now without any nipping problems. Normally when the shoal is big enough, they direct their agressiveness towards their own kind. I am more than happy keeping these fish!

 

[Iron Man]

I don't mean to get off track, but what fish did you keep them with? They are very attractive fish.