Does This Look A Solid Plan?

[wickedvoodoo]

Hi. So I posted last week about being offered a bargain on a tank from a guy who bit off more than he could chew. I was having an issue with rehoming the inhabiting, innappropriate fish. Well the good news is, happy ending, a local fish shop agreed to take the cichlids and now I can take on the tank and get a project going.

Quick background - Not experienced in tropical fish, I have always been a reptile guy that wanted to start a fish aquarium one day. Now I can! I do have one aquatic animal, my chubby axolotl. I understand the basics, cycling etc. Now I am happy the large cichlids that were in the tank are rehomed, I think I should be good to start a peaceful aquarium.

Would you guys/gals mind casting an eye over my rough plan, and pick out any places where I might get into trouble? Many thanks in advance.

I finally got proper measurements for the tank. 4ft long, 200L volume.

I want to do some simple planting, Java Moss and Ferns most likely. I want some shoalers, and some shrimp, and then a centre piece.

So my theme is loose, but is that I want Asian origin over South American. Just because it feels like it will be more fun to theme slightly and the shrimp I want and the Java plants fit. I realise there are sub biomes within "Asian" but for me, General Asian rather than South American is fine.

So, my steps

- get the tank and filter set up and start cycling. It's an external filter, which I haven't used before. Should be okay though, can always add a bit more filtration along the way if needed. Should be able to kick start the cycle with a little bit of filter media from the Lotl tank, right?

- get some rocks and other decor in, start planting the ferns and picking one end of the tank to be the mossy end.

- once the cycle numbers are getting there, add a bunch of Red Cherry Shrimp. I am really hoping these little guys will utilise the moss and I will be able to get a stable population once the fish are added. I really like the look of the shimp on mossy rocks etc.

- once the shrimp are settled in, add the first of two shoalers. Then when they are settled, a second group of different shoalers. 8 to 10 in each group should be good, right? I haven't fully decided on which two kinds yet. I like dwarf neon rainbowfish a lot, they're definitely on the shortlist. I like the rasboras too, both the harlequin and the galaxies. Possibly danio, though I think the rest of my community would like it warmer than they do, so maybe not. Any suggestion here?

- finally once those guys have all had chance to bed in, a centre piece fish. So far the best option looks to be a larger gourami, maybe a pearl, or the blue. I'm not sure on a Betta, I prefer the look of the gouramis, and I'm not sure of any other fish that are suitable to be solo in the community tank. Also a bit wary of the impact any larger fish might have on the shrimps. Again, any suggestions?

- another fish I had considered was a single red tail or ruby shark, they hang out around the bottom usually right, shouldn't clash with a gourami?. But what are these guys like with shrimp and little fish like rasboras? I like the look of them, but not if they are going to wreck the group harmony.

So yeah, that's my rough plan. Does it seem legit? Does that stock level sound okay for 200L? I want an active tank, but not an overcrowded one. I realise I will have best results if I space these steps out over a couple of months. Are there any big no-no's amongst the species combos I am looking at? And it is probably worth noting I have quite hard water.

Sorry for the long post, I tend to ramble. Foreknowledge is always good though, so thank you very much for any input.

Rock on
-Martin

 

[LyraGuppi]

I want to do some simple planting, Java Moss and Ferns most likely. I want some shoalers, and some shrimp, and then a centre piece.

So my theme is loose, but is that I want Asian origin over South American. Just because it feels like it will be more fun to theme slightly and the shrimp I want and the Java plants fit. I realise there are sub biomes within "Asian" but for me, General Asian rather than South American is fine.

So, my steps

- get the tank and filter set up and start cycling. It's an external filter, which I haven't used before. Should be okay though, can always add a bit more filtration along the way if needed. Should be able to kick start the cycle with a little bit of filter media from the Lotl tank, right?
 
Yep, this will give the new tank a boost.

- get some rocks and other decor in, start planting the ferns and picking one end of the tank to be the mossy end.
 
Java ferns? These guys need to be tied onto something, and not planted in the ground. Just checking you knew

- once the cycle numbers are getting there, add a bunch of Red Cherry Shrimp. I am really hoping these little guys will utilise the moss and I will be able to get a stable population once the fish are added. I really like the look of the shimp on mossy rocks etc.
 
Sounds good.

- once the shrimp are settled in, add the first of two shoalers. Then when they are settled, a second group of different shoalers. 8 to 10 in each group should be good, right? I haven't fully decided on which two kinds yet. I like dwarf neon rainbowfish a lot, they're definitely on the shortlist. I like the rasboras too, both the harlequin and the galaxies. Possibly danio, though I think the rest of my community would like it warmer than they do, so maybe not. Any suggestion here?
 
I've no experience in rainbows, but harlequin rasboras are a lovely fish. Danios seem too active for this tank IMO, they may be a distraction from the quiet environment.
Also, I would add in all the shoalers at once, so none can believe they are the kings of the tank.

- finally once those guys have all had chance to bed in, a centre piece fish. So far the best option looks to be a larger gourami, maybe a pearl, or the blue. I'm not sure on a Betta, I prefer the look of the gouramis, and I'm not sure of any other fish that are suitable to be solo in the community tank. Also a bit wary of the impact any larger fish might have on the shrimps. Again, any suggestions?
 
All gouramis, paradise fish, and bettas will like the look of shrimp, but with alot of cover they should be okay. Have you looked at paradise fish? It's like a betta and gourami mixed.
If you do choose a gourami though, I would suggest a single pearl.

- another fish I had considered was a single red tail or ruby shark, they hang out around the bottom usually right, shouldn't clash with a gourami?. But what are these guys like with shrimp and little fish like rasboras? I like the look of them, but not if they are going to wreck the group harmony.
 
I've no experience with these, but I've read they can be nasty.

So yeah, that's my rough plan. Does it seem legit? Does that stock level sound okay for 200L? I want an active tank, but not an overcrowded one. I realise I will have best results if I space these steps out over a couple of months. Are there any big no-no's amongst the species combos I am looking at? And it is probably worth noting I have quite hard water.
 
What is the reading?
Here is the profile from seriouslyfish for all the fish you are looking at:
Harlequin Rasboras:  1 – 12 °H
Neon Dwarf Rainbows: 5 - 15 °H
Paradise fish: 5 – 30 °H
Pearl Gourami: 2-30 dH

 

[Akasha72]

the only thing for me would be that most of the shoaling species that I'm aware of are South American - all of the tetra species and the Rasbora's prefer soft water but they shoal beautifully if you have enough of them. I have some lovely gold headed purple harlequin rasbora's (sometimes labelled as Midnight Rasboras) and they are a stunning fish. 
 
I know very little about gouramis nor the paradise fish but I'm fairly certain the shark would need a tank larger than 4ft as they get big and are fast swimmers.
 
What kind of pH do you have? It may be that your water lends itself better to soft water fish or it may be that your water is hard. I'm one of those that thinks we should stock our tanks to suit the water parameters rather than try and force a fish to live in an unnatural water enviroment

 

[wickedvoodoo]

@ Akasha - well my water in on the harder end, I have been told that tetras in particular don't like the harder water, that Asian shoaling species adapt better and live better in harder water. Whether this is entirely true I am not sure. But a couple of people have recommended this to me.

@ Lyra - yeah, I know about Java fern needing mooring rather than planting. I should be okay with that. And the Paradisefish does indeed look pretty in pictures, though I'll wait to see one in the flesh at the fish shop before making a full judgment.

You mention about adding all the shoalers together to stop bullying. Well, My worry would then be that I am adding too many fish in one go.

So, if I am wanting two species, 8 to 10 if each, would be it better to add half of each together, then the rest later, rather than all of one species then all of the other?

Cheers for the feedback so far!

 

[Akasha72]

shoalers need to be added really in one go to reduce stress. You can't take away their natural instinct which is to huddle together when stressed. When first added they'll be stressed so adding the group of one species in one go is the best idea and then the group of the other species that you want later.
 
Tetra's won't do well in hard water, it's doubtful whether rasbora's will do well either as they are generally a soft water species too. You could try softening your water with plenty of bogwood and/or some peat if you really want some soft water species - but then your detracting from your theme. 
 
I'm in a soft water area and so talking about hard water fish is a bit out of my depth. Research is the key I think. Have a look what fish prefer hard water and then see if there's any shoalers amongst them. The only one's that spring to my mind is the Siamese Algae Eater - they are a shoaler and from Asia (I think?) so their preference would be on the harder end but ... and it's a big one ... they grow pretty large. I've got 3 in my 4ft and they've taken it over. I keep considering re-homing them but they are great algae eaters and that is what's stopping me.
 
 
I'm just throwing something in here ... you might not want to go there ... but what about some Milawi cichlids? Beautiful colours and if you get it right you could have a lot together. Again, I'm no expert on them but there's some beautiful set ups for Maliwi's out there with the mixture of bright blue's and bright yellow's of the fish against the rocks .... simply stunning ... and they lurve hard water