Fish Recommendations From This List

Warehouse · Feb 21, 2011

Between the family and myself, we have whittled our list of possible fish down to these. Any advice is welcome.

Tank = 125 litres. External filter is an Aquamanta EFX 200. Substrate is sand. Doing a fishless cycle at the moment. Intend to get a fair few plants.

We definately want:
Cory pandas.
Tetras, possibly neons despit the fact they like 6 month old tanks.
Cherry shrimp.

Then the other possibles or perhaps are:
Zebra Danios
Harlequin Rasboras
Balloon Mollys

Any advice on possible issues, fish numbers recommended or anything else that comes to mind is welcomed.

Doc7 · Feb 21, 2011

I have 7 cardinal tetras, going on 2 weeks now for the first few of them and i have had no problems yet. my water chemistry is double-0ing, and the only death was one that the big-box-pet-store employee basically abused as she sold it to me, i won't be shopping for livestock there again...

so the 6-month-old-tank thing may or may not apply in all cases

Joshwainwright · Feb 21, 2011

12 Neon Tetras - Same as I plan to stock. They're supposed to like established tanks but I suppose they will do well in pristine water conditions.
8 Panda Corydoras - The more, the better. They're much livelier in numbers and I guess your children want liveliness?
5 Cherry Shrimp - I don't have any experience with these so I'm not too sure, sorry. :unsure:

2 Bolivian Rams or A pair of Dwarf Gouramis - A nice centre piece fish or two would be nice. I think a pair of Dwarf Gouramis would do nice...

Biulu · Feb 21, 2011

125 litres uh? Well, that can give you more than 12 neons....

I wouldn't take the mollies as these can get nippy, but most of all because they prefer brackish water, so a little bit of alt in it. I would go for the harlequin rasboras or the rasbora hengeli (more beautiful coloured than the normal harlequins) as these are the best shoalers I have seen. It is really amazing to watch them swim through your tank like a regiment...

Cardinals are considered more hardy than neons and basically look the same. This would be another option...

Warehouse · Feb 22, 2011

Joshwainwright said:
12 Neon Tetras - Same as I plan to stock. They're supposed to like established tanks but I suppose they will do well in pristine water conditions.
8 Panda Corydoras - The more, the better. They're much livelier in numbers and I guess your children want liveliness?
5 Cherry Shrimp - I don't have any experience with these so I'm not too sure, sorry.
2 Bolivian Rams or A pair of Dwarf Gouramis - A nice centre piece fish or two would be nice. I think a pair of Dwarf Gouramis would do nice...

Wow, that's more fish than I thought the tank could handle. Thanks for the advice above so far. It's good to have plenty of time to fine tune the residents!

Joshwainwright · Feb 22, 2011

It's nice to plan your stocking but it can also cause problems. Many people often plan to stock fish that their LFS rarely sells therefore they have to spend quite a lot of money online. Most of this money is postage costs

Warehouse · Feb 22, 2011

Joshwainwright said:
It's nice to plan your stocking but it can also cause problems. Many people often plan to stock fish that their LFS rarely sells therefore they have to spend quite a lot of money online. Most of this money is postage costs

I've already had this conversation with the good lady Wife. We won't order fish online, it just seems to be wrong to send fish in the post to us, (and were not tree huggers)! If we can't get them in the local fish places then we won't get them, or will wait. Luckily we live in the Watford/Rickmansworth area and within 30 minutes drive there are loads of places to buy fish.

Joshwainwright · Feb 22, 2011

Great! This kind of thing is a problem to me as I can't drive and my town only has 1 fish store, well 2 if you count Pets at Home. I have to buy locally or online, luckily I haven't had to buy online yet. :unsure:

Warehouse · Mar 3, 2011

Since the original post I've looked at many fish, and still can't get the final peice of the jigsaw, any advice on the follwoing is welcome.

Definately getting Panda Corys, minimum of 4.
Definately getting a small shoal of Harlequin Rasbora or Cardinal Tetras, (or a bit of both if advised)
Definately getting Shrimp, but the exact type not yet decided.

It's just the last centrepeice breed as Josh mentioned below that I can't decide on. I admit to liking the Dwarf Gouramis I've seen, but does anyone have any recommendations that can be added to the above as something standout that will be safe and that the tank can handle?

ajs2294 · Mar 3, 2011

Bolivian or Blue Rams would go well as a centerpiece.

Curiosity101 · Mar 3, 2011

Only problem with dwarf gouramis is that they can be extremely territorial. However in a 125l you could try two (a male and a female, check out sexing online... it's pretty straight forwards), so if you like the gouramis then definitely get a pair.

They'll be safe with all your other fish, it's only other gouramis/anabantoids that they tend to be territorial towards. So hopefully with a male and a female (or even 2 females) you shouldn't have too many issues.

Edit: Oh and just to add that the earlier comments about mollies being brackish isn't true. It's one of those 'old wives tales' so to speak. They do much better in hard/high pH water but are infact completely freshwater fish.

Biulu · Mar 5, 2011

With dwarf gouramis DON'T get a pair. Dwarf gouramis are one of the most agressive gouramis (towards each other, not other fish)and if you have a macho male, he will hassle the female too much. Better get a trio, your tank is big enough for it. If you want a pair of gouramis try the pearl gouramis, these are very laid back and can easily be kept as pairs.

Another possibility that I highly recommend are the honey gouramis (Colisa chuna). They are a bit smaller than the dwarfs, are not as inbred as the dwarfs and are less territorial. Again, you can easilty keep a trio in your tank.

Warehouse · Mar 11, 2011

What about guppies? Are they compatible with rasbora, tetras and cories?

chesterjohn · Mar 12, 2011

Warehouse said:
What about guppies? Are they compatible with rasbora, tetras and cories?

Guppies will be fine, make sure you have only males or lots more females than males as they really do get hassled a lot.

Definately getting Panda Corys, minimum of 4. - 6-8 would be better
Definately getting a small shoal of Harlequin Rasbora or Cardinal Tetras, (or a bit of both if advised) I'd go for one bigger shoal, looks much more impressive. Cardinals are my favourite, but either are nice
Definately getting Shrimp, but the exact type not yet decided.

Bolivian rams would be a nice centre piece fish, as would cockatoo apistogrammas. I have a pair of rams and they are really interesting. I also have a pair of Spadetailed Checkerboard cichlids, these would be suitable for you also.