Done A Bit Of Research

[charlton]

after doing a fair bit of research of lfs and the internet i think i've worked out what i might put in my tank once its cycled, i've tried to find fish that need the same sort of Ph/temp of the water and that are obviously compatible !! Don't seem to have anything that is suited to the bottom of the tank though, thought about something like a siamese algae eater but don't know much about these or what else is available and realise i'm close to max so might have to do away with something else. I know alot a places say danios should be at least 5/6 but some places say they'd be alright with just 4, what do you think ? mollies will be 1 male and 2 female !! Open to ideas if there's anything you think i might like that i might of missed. Quite like guppies aswell but i think i'm right in saying that they wouldn't go with the betta ?

2 x zebra danios
2x leopard danios
1 x male betta
3 x mollies
1 x red tail shark
1 x dwarf gourami

100l tank with sand a few real plants 3 bits of medium sized bogwood and an air stone.

sorry its a long post but i wanted to try and give you as much info as poss, really appreciate your help

charlton

 

[Mikaila31]

Male bettas don't do good in community tanks. They are best kept solitary in there own tank. He would most likely go after the gourami and some of the other fish.

The tank is a little small for a RTS IMO, but I'm not that familiar with them.

So I suggest switching the betta for a german blue ram and the shark for some small corys.

 

[rdd1952]

I agree on all counts, particularly the betta. The danios and RTBS would harass him to death. The shark is probably borderline on size. At about 4" when grown, he wouldn't be huge for the tank but would still be cramped. The molllies prefer a little salt too so they aren't exactly the best match for a community tank. If you want live bearers, drop the mollies (and the betta) for guppies and maybe the shark for the corys as mentioned.

 

[Hollymolly4]

What about platties? They are a bit smaller than the mollies and come in different colors.
I also agree with the Betta advise, my friend kept a male betta in her tank with guppies, he caused no problems and lived just fine, but that isn't the norm in my experience anyway. My betta will peck and kill anything in the tank with him, including little tiny oto cats that didn't bother him in the first place!
JMO
Good luck!

 

[rocknurworld2006]

that might be a bit too much bogwood youll have to keep on top of ph in case it crashes!

 

[onlinebug]

that might be a bit too much bogwood youll have to keep on top of ph in case it crashes!

This is because bogwood has been known to lower the PH in some cases.

 

[charlton]

that might be a bit too much bogwood youll have to keep on top of ph in case it crashes!

thanks for all your replies, would it be a differnet story if i went for a female betta? i realy like the look of the german blue ram but after a quick research they look quite hard to keep and i'm only just starting out so not to sure about them ! i also looked at guppys and platies but i think my research was right in that guppys and dwarf gouramis don't go well together, so maybe platies are the way ahead ! looking again this morning after not having a few beers and they're actually quite small bits of bogwood but i'll keep an eye on the ph anyway. oh i'm really confused again now

cheers

charlton

 

[Miss Wiggle]

that might be a bit too much bogwood youll have to keep on top of ph in case it crashes!

thanks for all your replies, would it be a differnet story if i went for a female betta? i realy like the look of the german blue ram but after a quick research they look quite hard to keep and i'm only just starting out so not to sure about them ! i also looked at guppys and platies but i think my research was right in that guppys and dwarf gouramis don't go well together, so maybe platies are the way ahead ! looking again this morning after not having a few beers and they're actually quite small bits of bogwood but i'll keep an eye on the ph anyway. oh i'm really confused again now

cheers

charlton

a female betta would debatably be better. In general they are more peaceful than male bettas however it's by no means guaranteed, some of them are fiesty as hell. We have a female betta in a community tank, but it's 220l so she's other fish have a lot of room to get away if she is being a pest, although she's pretty chilled really.

the danio's would probably be ok in a group of 4, but happier in a group of 6+. I'd urge you to decide if you want the leopard or the zebras, while they are essentially the same fish and will school together, it'll look much nicer to have a larger group of one.

It's sometimes called the Noah's ark effect, when you're starting out you often want loads of different species of fish so have a couple of this, a couple of that and a couple of the other and it ends up looking a bit disjointed and overly busy cos all the fish are different. Obviously it's a matter of taste, but it's very often agreed that tanks look considerably better and more dramatic with larger groups but less species. Just a thought anyway, you won't do any harm mixing leopards and zeb's, just a looks thing.

 

[LolaLouie]

Bolivian rams are much hardier than german rams. You could fit a pair in 100 litre. Google them and see what you hink, they're beautiful!

 

[charlton]

thank you miss wiggle its a very valied point which i hadn't thought of, i couldn't decide on which one i prefered so thought i'd go for both but on the othr hand i don't want it to look like joseph's amazing technicoloured dream coat. lolalouie thanks for the Bolivian rams i like the look of them ! this is tuning out to be alot harder than i thought !

 

[SJ2K]

Its not hard just listen to advice and act on it, the betta is a bad idea, full stop. 1 male 2 females? Soon as the initial appeal wears off you'll regret having a tank swarming with fry with no space to put them, try all males instead

 

[charlton]

Its not hard just listen to advice and act on it, the betta is a bad idea, full stop. 1 male 2 females? Soon as the initial appeal wears off you'll regret having a tank swarming with fry with no space to put them, try all males instead

all my research isn't accounting to much, i thought it was best to have to females and one male so the females didn't get constantly harassed !!

charlton

 

[Miss Wiggle]

choosing your fish is one of the most difficult things i think. you want everything and you want to get it right, and all the advice in the world can't help you when it comes down to personal preferences!!

if you're going to mix males and females of livebearers you have to do 1:2 however you can have an all male or all female group. preference would be to all male as the females could be preggers in the shop and not showing yet so it may end up being a mixed group in time anyway!

 

[SJ2K]

Research is indeed import and your reasoning for doing so is infact correct, if you were to keep a mix then yes its best to have a ratio of atleast 1:2 for that very reason. The down side to this is you WILL have far far faaar more fry eventually then you can handle, most LFS wont accept them even for free as there hard to shift (very cheap and common), so id recommend getting an all male group that way you can have your 3/4 pritty live bearers without the constant hassle of fry everywhere.

At the end of the day, its your choice, this is just my recommendation if you want to breed fish, there are far more interesting alternatives open to you, some of which could well bring in a bit of money from time to time, live bearers, will not.

 

[charlton]

right i've had a re think and taken on board alot of what you've advised me, does it seem any better now ? can i choose any sort of tetra ? will the sand be ok with the corys ?

2/3 x male dalmation molly
6 x male tetras of some kind
1 x dwarf gourami
1 x red tail shark
3 x small corys

cheers again

charlton

still in 2 minds about the red tail shark so might lose that of the list !!