Fish Choices - Advice

[CitizenErased]

I'm looking at getting 125 litre aquarium for tropical freshwater fish.

I've made myself a spreadsheet to work out how many of what I can put in to this size tank, working on the basis of 1cm of fish per litre as I was advised somewhere.

I would just like to make sure it's a combination that would work

I won't be populating the tank with all the fish at once, will add them over time. Easier on the wallet...but that is what I'd like in the end.

 

[ALW]

Tetras need to be kept in groups of at least 5, Steel Blue Killifish should only be kept in species only tank as they can be aggresive. Zebra Danios also need to be kept in groups of at least 5. If i were you i would go for:

10 Purple Tetras
5 Zebra Danios
5 Galaxy Rasbora
4 Midget Suckermouth Catfish
4 Cherry Fire Shrimp
3 Lampeye Killifish

and maybe 1 Betta

Hope this helps

 

[Esfa]

10 Purple Tetras
5 Zebra Danios
5 Galaxy Rasbora
4 Midget Suckermouth Catfish
4 Cherry Fire Shrimp
3 Lampeye Killifish

i agree with this, but maybe 6 zebra danios, and definitely miss out the betta, it's tail would be eaten but the danios and tetras.

also, read up about Fishless Cycling in you havnt already.

 

[CitizenErased]

Ahh ok, I was trying to get a big variety going, but seems fair enough. Shame about the betta though, I really like the red ones.

That selection would appear to go over the 1cm per litre rule....146cm of fish in 125L.....is that rule accurate? I can always take out a species if needs be.

Yep, been reading about the cycle and all, bought a couple of books how to set up and maintain...etc

 

[Miss Wiggle]

remember it's not a rule, it's a guideline. there's a bit of play in it, it's just designed to give a rough idea what you're aiming for.

one thing I'd say about variety, it's something a lot of people do with their first tanks, want as many species of fish as possible (and with so many nice fish around who can blame them!) and end up with a couple of everything. It all gets a bit noah's ark if you do that, tank's don't always look good with loads of different species in.

In general I think it's best to stick to a handful of species and get larger groups of them and things just look a whole lot better, bit more cohesion.

Remember this may be your first tank, but you could be keeping fish for the next 10 years+, if you get really into the hobby chances are you'll have fish in one way or another for the rest of your life, just slow down, there's no need to get everything you want now. Just put them on you're 'one for the future' list and at some point down the road you can keep them.

Just my personal view mind you though.

 

[tenohfive]

Check out www.thinkfish.co.uk and the community creator on that-its not perfect, but for beginners its a very good guide.

I'd avoid the galaxy rasbora's for now, I was under the impression they aren't very prolific-someone I spoke to suggested that its a fish you should only buy if you intend to breed it, and for beginners thats not neccesarily an option straight away.

 

[Davo86]

Also most people don't include shrimp in their total stocking due to the incredibly small amount they add to the overall bioload of the tank

 

[Miss Wiggle]

bit more info on the galaxies

they are a newly discovered species, only found i think mid 2006. weren't really imported much until maybe spring 2007. The whole fishkeeping community went wild over them and they were imported in their droves, they're hardy, easy to breed, small and very very attractive, who wouldn't want them?!

Unfortunatley the country they were found in were slow to set up export restrictions and they were massivley overfished, towards the end of 2007 after less than a year in the trade they were found to be on the brink of extinction in the wild! Thankfully restrictions on imports are now in place and you can no longer get any wild caught ones. Captive bred one's are popping up in shops now as they start to filter through the process. But because of the damage done to these fishies natural stock's if people have them they ar ebeing enoucraged to breed as much as possible to get numbers of them back up, OK it may only be in the trade at the moment and I don't know if anything is yet in place to repopulate the wild, however hopefully if they become plentiful in the trade then this can filter back into the wild and we can redress the damage that we have done.

 

[CitizenErased]

Yeah, it is just the newbie wanting everything syndrome!

It's good to know I don't really need to include the shrimp and that it is all just a guidline, was just worried incase I got too much and ruined it all ><
I do like the Galaxies a lot, I think I will keep them in.

I'll have a play with that link, thanks.