Help With New Fish Choice

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Tigz

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Hi everyone.

New to the forum, and to fish ownership so please excuse my limited knowledge.

I have been buying fish with my daughter for our friends tank for some time now so decided its time for our own.

We have bought a 130 litre, 62cm x 38cm x 53cm tank, with plenty of natural plants and a nice little cave for the Catfish to hide.

The Catfish I'm fine with, what I am trying to work out is how the rest of the fish we like could get on together.
Any help would be much appreciated.

The short list is:

Tinfoil Barb
Kribensis
Firemouth Chichlid
Silver Doller Fish
Marble Hatchet Fish
Kissing Gourami
Gardneri Killifish
 
i think most of those fish get too big for your tank. the kribs and i think the killifish would be able to fit in there though. the hatchett fish too
 
For your size aquarium you can have Hatchets, kribensis, and gardneri. The question is if they can be together. If you want to put gardneri with the kribensis, make sure the kribensis have some caves and such in a corner to establish territory. They can be peaceful but if another fish strays into their territory, especially while spawning, they will kill. 130 liter should be enough room so that the gardneri won't get killed, but I am not completely sure, you may want to watch them at first. Hatchets should be fine with kribs as they mainly stay near the surface, away from the kribs.
 
tinfoil barbs get huge, so do kissing gourami and silver dollars, which apparantly also like to munch plants. firemouth cichlid i dont think is a community fish, if so it would only do in a cichlid only tank. certainly a trio of kribs and at least 6 hatchets would be fine.

which catfish are you getting ? there are loads. i suspect you may possibly be referring to corydoras (corys), which are great little fish, again at least 6 of them. only if you have sand or small smooth gravel though, as they like to dig through the substrate to eat. there are lots of different cory types, they are generally very attractive fish. also you may look into some kind of plec or 2. bristlenose are a good safe choice, though personally i find them a bit bland. plecs vary greatly in price, rarity, and looks, but id suggest an expensive plec isnt a good place to start for somebody new to a tank. just dont buy a common or sailfin plec. or clown loach, or silver/black/red tailed sharks. generally cheap, but get far too big. and also, dont believe what your local fish shop tells you without checking first.

most would happily sell you all the fish you asked for, bar the cichlid, without saying you need a tank 3 times the size of the one you have.
 
Thanks for the advice.

I have a Synodontis Catfish.
It's around 5" long at the moment, it was in a small tank with lots of Neons and the owner got sick of losing fish to it in the night.
Hence why I'm looking for fish that are larger than it's mouth lol
My fish shop wouldn't like it if I was using them as fish food ;-)
 
to be honest, only something as small as a neon is at risk. most normal size tetra will be fine. ive got 3 syno's in my tank of various sizes (largest being about 6"), the smallest fish being cherry barbs which arent much bigger than neons, but i have no problems with fish being eaten. as well as 3 different types of tetra that are all fine. you dont need to have big fish to go with the syno, just not something as tiny and pathetic as neons :lol:

if i was you id think about

syno catfish
3 kribs
6 hatchets
6 cory's
6 smallish barbs or 6 normal size tetra
1 or 2 plecs
 

Thanks for the tip dude.
Two of my first two fish :)
 
Not too keen on the pink, but nice looking tank.

Looks like you have live plants that are weighted and wrapped in wool? These need removing and planting so their roots can grow in the gravel. You may also find that you will need to feed them nutrients or else they wither away.

I think with moochy's suggestion you might get a bit crowded at the bottom of your tank. I would ignore the plec and his advice is pretty good. Maybe just a pair of kribs too. Other dwarf cichlids that are cool and would suit your tank are bolivian rams, apistogramma cacatuoides and checkerboard cichlids (the spadetailed variety are gorgeous). These are all slightly less boisterous than kribs from what I hear although have never kept kribs myself
 
Im adding a sand beach so the pebbles will be moved at the weekend, going to plant them at the same time.
I have a 6 girl old girl who has a fish tank rather than a puppy, hence the pink ;)

I grabbed a couple more fish today, a golden gardneri, Dwarf gardneri and a red gardneri I've forgotten the name of now.

There is so much to learn!
 

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