Fish Selection, The Difficult Choice

[Rorie]

Hi folks,

So i am all set to add some fish to my aquarium. I have done LOADS of reading about the different fish etc, and i have now settled down to a short list of fish i want to get. I am going to have a community warm water tank.

Originally i was all set to have a few Mollys (they are cool, a decent size and good for a start), but now i am having second thoughts.... I have a 90L tank, but after putting in a couple things the fish can use to hide in, the tank looks (looks can be deceiving i guess) very small. Mollys can theoretically grow to 4 inches....how likely is this? I want a few different fish in my tank, so am considering not putting in Molly as i dont want to be in a situation where my 2 (thats all i have in mind due to size - unless someone can advise otherwise) mollys take over my whole tank and i have no room for anything else!

So, can anyone give me some useful advise on the size and space mollys will get to/need?

The other fish i want to get are: Platys, Black neon tetras (i hear smaller neons will be eaten by mollys?), Danios, glass bloodfin, Khuli loach (a must!), Hillstream loach (another must), and some sort of shark (i like the rainbow and albino).

Can i have some views on stocking levels please? I also think a wee frog would be really cool, but some people have said no, due to mollys, others have said no problem!

Generally i am just quite confused with all the conflicting views, and i am worrying about the size the fish will grow to. Some reassurance or good advise would be appreciated!

Many thanks in advance

 

[Twinklecaz]

I think you'd be fine with the Mollies. Im planning to get 4 Platties, 5 Harlequins, 3 Guppies and 6 Pygmy Corys. My stocking is fine and I have 30l less than you! I don't know about the other fish though.

 

[chrisbassist]

I'd stay away from the sharks, they can get pretty big.

 

[roadmaster]

I would maybe go with platys,tetras,and kuhli loaches maybe blood fins as well. The shark can become territorial and may cause the kuhli loaches to be even more shy than they are and could possibly inflict damage as they both compete for food.
Mollies in my view should be in species only tanks due to the hard alkaline waters that they need to do well in the long term ,and slighly warmer water than tetras,loaches,and platy's would appreciate.IMHO

 

[Rorie]

Thanks for your replies. I appreciate them!

Does anybody know how a molly would be with a wee frog?

 

[Wills]

I have never kept mollies for the simple reason that there is so much mixed information about them, they can grow to 4 inches but if they breed a lot their energy will be going elsewhere. If you get a male and a female you will get lots of babies, but I have heard of lots of problems between male and female mollies being kept without the opposite sex.... And I have heard tons of stories about really aggressive mollies in the past. Have you thought about platys as an alternative? Much smaller similar shape and available in just as many colour varieties if not more, they are much smaller and calmer than mollies.

Of the list of the rest of the fish you were speaking about there are a few issues in the options you have listed. Firstly the hillstream loaches, they need to be in groups and have to have very fast flowing water they also need cooler temperatures than most other community fish but.... Im wondering if you could do a tank for them with some of the other fish you have on your list but more on that in a sec. But for now if we say they are unsuitable ill move onto the sharks, again no sharks are suitable for this size tank the rainbow and albino that you have seen will grow to 6 inches and get pretty nasty with fish so the stocking list I would do for this tank would probs be

Platys, Black neon tetras (i hear smaller neons will be eaten by mollys?), Danios, glass bloodfin, Khuli loach (a must!), Hillstream loach (another must), and some sort of shark (i like the rainbow and albino).

3 Male Platys
8 Black Neon Tetras
8 Glass Bloodfin Tetras
5 Khuli Loaches

I say male platys because females are sometimes already pregnant in the shops or are holding sperm and will then have babies in your tank. I also left out danio as they are really active and in my experience need a really big school, I once had a group of 15 and they killed each other off till I was left with 3. Heard of some similar experiences but I would say stick with tetras as they are much calmer.

Now onto what I was saying on Hillstream Loaches, you could actually do a fast flowing river style tank to accommodate these, so this would mean having a powerhead running alongside your filter something like a koralina 1 which will make the water flow really really fast and give the loaches exactly what they need. This tank would become almost a species tank with a group of the Hillstream Loaches and a large group of Zebra Danio, in this set up the school would be of sufficient size to avoid what I was talking about before. You may also be able to mix in a few other species but a bit of research would be required Im going to dig out an old PFK if I can find it as there was a good article about this kind of tank before.

Wills

 

[waterdrop]

Nice post Wills! I am like Wills, I consider mollies to be a livebearer that needs significant extra consideration before adding it to one's stocking list. They need really hard water (that's usually what the salt stories are all about but people don't realize that's what's behind it.) AND, they can indeed be pretty aggressive as outlined above.

The other more basic thing is just that we get an awful lot of beginners who simply do not have the experience to realize how much work livebearers can be in terms of immediately increasing your bioload and causing you to go begging for people to take all the fry off your hands! Some beginners do not even yet have the information to know which fish are livebearers and that's a very basic starting point.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Rorie]

Hey everybody,

Thanks for the replies, i did not realise there was so more replies as i do not get notifications.

My tank has been going for a few weeks now. I actually ended up getting a 90L tank. (see my picture). I started off with a Dalmation molly and a black lyretail molly - both Females. The Dalmation gave birth to 11 babies, but only one survived. But a few weeks old it seems to be doing fine.

We then added 3 Glowlight Tetras and 2 Guppys. They were all doing great too.

Today i just added the next batch, 2 corys and 3 Danios.

The tank is looking great and it is full of life. Our Dalmation molly can be a bit of a moody..fish.. she has days when she chases all the other fish, but they all seem to be ok and non hide from her.

THaks