Help Please! Need Advice On Stocking

[LindseyH]

I'll be adding more fish to our 125 litre, 33 gallon tank over the next few weeks. It's a 40" long tank

The ph is quite high (around 7.6) and the water is hard. The tank is well planted.

We have:

• 8 cherry barbs
• 4 albino congo tetras
• 4 sailfin mollies (on order)

We're considering something from this list of fish. I'm not sure what would suit the tank best, or how many more we can add. I'm open to all ideas! We're particularly keen on the more exotic-looking fish.

• Rainbowfish (only dwarf?)
• Gourami (several Honey or just 2 banded?)
• Bolivian ram
• Catfish of some sort
• A quirky, black, solitary fish (my daughter's odd request)
• Apple snails or shrimp (ghost?)

Thanks for any advice! I've been going round in circles with my research and it's all starting to blur.

 

[MBOU]

•Rainbowfish (only dwarf?) - Dwarf Neon Rainbows, Forktail Rainbows, Celebes Rainbows, Threadfin Rainbows, Southern Blue Eye Rainbows and all the tiddlers...

•Gourami (several Honey or just 2 banded?) - Red, Yellow or Wild Type Honeys, Blue, Banded or Red Dwarf Gouramis, Croaking Gouramis, Thick Lipped Gouramis or Sparkling Gouramis

•Bolivian ram - Nice! Or Apistogrammas, Blue Rams, Gold Rams, Nannacara Anomala, Discrossus filamentosus, Laetacara curviceps... and so on...

•Catfish of some sort - Could combine this with the dark oddball and go for a species of Tatia catfish, though they will prey on shrimps and possibly really small fish? Cory Catfish, so many species to choose from!

•A quirky, black, solitary fish (my daughter's odd request) - See above post or maybe black mollies or a cute dark little bristlenose catfish? Great little algae eaters and lovely to watch them grow!

•Apple snails or shrimp (ghost?) - Asassin Snails are cute! like little bumblebees and keep down those horrible pest snails you get on plants! Or there are some fancy Ramshorn snails... saw someone selling German Pink Ramshorns on this forum a while back, they are gorgeous! Shrimps will depend if you want the tatia catfish, if not... Algae Shrimp aka Yamato or Japonica Shrimp... Bamboo Rock Shrimp, Cherry Shrimp... well... any shrimp really! Just avoid lobsters/crayfish and long armed shrimp of the Malarbrachius family

EDIT: This forum is determined to be a complete pain in the butt today and screwing up all my posts and not letting my change colours. GRRR!

 

[LindseyH]

•Rainbowfish (only dwarf?) - Dwarf Neon Rainbows, Forktail Rainbows, Celebes Rainbows, Threadfin Rainbows, Southern Blue Eye Rainbows and all the tiddlers...

•Gourami (several Honey or just 2 banded?) - Red, Yellow or Wild Type Honeys, Blue, Banded or Red Dwarf Gouramis, Croaking Gouramis, Thick Lipped Gouramis or Sparkling Gouramis

•Bolivian ram - Nice! Or Apistogrammas, Blue Rams, Gold Rams, Nannacara Anomala, Discrossus filamentosus, Laetacara curviceps... and so on...

•Catfish of some sort - Could combine this with the dark oddball and go for a species of Tatia catfish, though they will prey on shrimps and possibly really small fish? Cory Catfish, so many species to choose from!

•A quirky, black, solitary fish (my daughter's odd request) - See above post or maybe black mollies or a cute dark little bristlenose catfish? Great little algae eaters and lovely to watch them grow!

•Apple snails or shrimp (ghost?) - Asassin Snails are cute! like little bumblebees and keep down those horrible pest snails you get on plants! Or there are some fancy Ramshorn snails... saw someone selling German Pink Ramshorns on this forum a while back, they are gorgeous! Shrimps will depend if you want the tatia catfish, if not... Algae Shrimp aka Yamato or Japonica Shrimp... Bamboo Rock Shrimp, Cherry Shrimp... well... any shrimp really! Just avoid lobsters/crayfish and long armed shrimp of the Malarbrachius family

EDIT: This forum is determined to be a complete pain in the butt today and screwing up all my posts and not letting my change colours. GRRR!

Thanks, MBOU. I rather enjoyed the red

The tatia catfish does look nice. I don't recall seeing one in any of our lfs but I'll ask about ordering one.

The rainbows ... the problem is that we want some larger ones. I love the 4" + types but obviously our tank isn't quite large enough. On the other hand, I've read that the dwarfs are prone to a virus ... and I'm not sure how many we could have, once we have the mollies.

I'm still googling some of your other suggestions (trying to gen up on the Latin names!). The kribs are appealing but again, I'm not sure how much we can have before we're overstocked. It'd be easier if my daughter weren't so keen on the mollies. I really want something large and exotic (wish we could have a larger tank — I do love the rainbows).