Hi All,
Brand new to the wonderful world of tropical fish.
I've just bought myself a Fluval Edge with a heater to enable to to keep tropical rather than just cold water.
Its had its cycle etc and I've been slowly introducing fish.
First - 6 Neon Tetra
Second - (Siamese Fighting Fish) Betta
Third - 6 Zebra danios
I'm not planning to add much more but I'd like to get a bit more colour in there or something with a different shape (danio's and tetra's are fairly standard!)
The tank is 23L so not massive but am told it can take up to 20 fish depending on their size but not really planning on going quite that far.
Any suggestions as to what I can add to give more colour or structure that will get on ok with my current fish?
Thanks
Webmoose
Heya,
Sorry to say but you are already hugely overstocked for such a small tank. As the others have pointed out, what we recommend as a sensible stock level based on the innumerable factors of each tank and what a fish store recommends is often very different.
Fish stores tend to be about one thing - making money - and I have direct experience of a company that while considered fairly knowledgeable will happily create policies that mean the staff just can't recommend what is best for your fish, even if they know what you should be doing. Even when they are well meaning and seemingly knowledgeable, the staff can be very stuck in their ways and may not be keeping up with the new developments in fishkeeping, especially the information relating to chemicals found in the water and the impact their environment has on fish, aquatic amphibians and inverts.
The Fluval Edge, due to it's small size and very small surface area exposed to the air, is a tank that needs to be stocked lightly with small fish.
In the long term I would even say your neon tetras will need a larger tank. When full grown they can reach 1.5 inches and are pretty active little things. This, combined with their need to shoal, means they really shouldn't be kept in much less than 40 litres. I keep my 7 in a 65 litre tank and they sure make use of the space!
The danios are also not suitable for the tank. Unfortunately they are one of those fish that is cheap to supply and regarded as hardy so despite a highly active nature and adult size of 2-2.5 inches, they are often recommended for small, beginner tanks. Poor things are often drawing the short straw!
Hopefully by the time they are starting to put some size on (i.e by the time they are about 1-1.25 inches, you'll have been bitten by the bug and will be getting a bigger tank anyway! If you can't see yourself upgrading to at least a 24"/2 foot tank in the near future, they would be best off being rehomed.
In the Fluval Edge, I generally recommend the following for an active tank with loads of colour:
6 x microrasbora or "micro tetra" - these little guys come in many colourful species and you can find them as small as 0.5 inches. A max size I would suggest, shoaling fish wise, would be 0.8-1 inch
adult size. Some species to consider are galaxy rasboras (A.K.A celestial pearl danios), chilli rasboras, ember tetras and green neon tetras.
10 x small shrimp - again, many species to choose from in everything from ghostly and translucent to blues, blacks and reds. Pick all the same species as they have the same commuity needs as shoaling fish. 10 is a good starter number (to be added once the tank is fully matured) and you could even creep up to 15 or 20 if you find a nice, small species. I really like red cherry shrimp!
If you get your tank matured and all the fish are thriving (so I would say after 6 months or so), you could consider pushing the stock up a tiny bit more with a male scarlet badis. Very pretty little fish!
The great thing about these suggestions is they all stay tiny - even smaller than neon tetras - and will thrive in the more limited space in a way even "normal" tetras and other supposedly small fish won't.
There are other fish that are suited to the tank, even the much larger betta splendens (A.K.A siamese fighting fish) so if you would like any other stocking suggestions (including some more unusual stuff), just ask!
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