How Many Fish?

[AdAndrews]

I am buyng a 72 Litre tank how many fish would you recommend i keep in there, some of the species i want are:

tiger barb
red tailed shark
discus
gouramis-dwarf
guppies
silver dollar
clown loach
tetra

are any of these fish no compatable with each other?

 

[Miss Wiggle]

hi there and welcome to the forum and to fishkeeping.

i will answer your question about the species you can keep but there's some other stuff you need to learn before you start out. People sometimes ask the wrong question because they don't know that they need to know the answer!

anyway, the most important thing to learn when keeping fish is how the filter works to keep the water clean, this process is called cycling. when the filter has been prepared we say it is cycled. if you don't go through preparing the filter correctly before adding fish you'll find that it doesn't keep the water clean and therefore the fish can die or become very ill from poor water quality. we are not fish keepers, we are water keepers, look after your water and the fish will look after themselves!

So anyway, bit of reading for you, there's lots of links in my sig and to be honest if you have the time you should try to read all of them, but initially make sure you read the links 'whats cycling' and 'fishless cycling' these explain the whole process, why it is dangerous and what you need to do. Have a good read through, digest the information and come back to us with any questions.

so onto stocking your tank, there's a general rule of thumb we use to calculate stocking the tank, this is 1" of fish per US Gallon of water, your tank holds roughly 19 gallons so you can have around 19" of fish in total. So you research the species that you like, work out their adult sizes, add it all together and your total list should be around 19. Now it's flexible, you can go a bit over but I'd say your ceiling for the initial stocking should be about 22/23". Once the tank is 6 months old you would be able to increase it to around 30" of fish in the tank. Now it's just a guideline, not a rule, there's a lot of situations in which it doesnt work, for example if you imagine one 10" fish and ten 1" fish, you can immediately see how the same size tank would not be suited for them. Some fish also have special requirements. There's another link in my sig 'guide to stocking lists' which explains some more and tells you how to work out the compatibility of the fish you like.

Unfortunately most of the fish you like get too big for your tank, these are the ones that you can't have

tiger barb - The tiger barbs need a very large group, 10 of them at least, to have a group of 10 of them would be the tank completely full, no other species, sure you don't want that! Also it would be a bit crowded for them
red tailed shark - gets around 6".... needs a bigger tank
discus - very sensitive, need a large mature tank
silver dollar - too big
clown loach - get to 16" long! waaaay too big for your tank


now onto the ones that you can have

gouramis-dwarf - unfortunately the DG's are a very weak fish, they are susceptible to a particular disease which is incurable, as such a lot of people have difficulty keeping them alive, by all means try it but I wouldn't recommend it.
guppies - these would be fine, i would suggest an all male group though, they breed like no ones business and because of that you soon becomes swamped with fry that you can't get rid of and don't have the space for.
tetra - depends on the species, can you be a little clearer which ones you are after?

 

[joshjames]

tiger barbs, discus, redtailed shark and clown loaches are definatly avioded
mayb some dwarf gouramis when u tank has matured a bit more
tetras would be fine and mayb some bottem dwellers such as corydoras or anamo shrimp
i hav 3 amano shrimp and they keep the tank very clean and would recommend them
other livebearers like guppies are platies and swordtails who are very easy to keep and look after themselves pretty much as long as the water is gd
if u want barbs then mayb try cherrybarbs which would b ok in a group of 6 and are less agressive than tiger barbs
hope this has helped

 

[AngelOfDeath]

i dont know what a discus is so i wont comment, the rts will be fine in that, but may need a bigger tank down the line as they can get quite territorial, i have a 2.2inch one in my 16 gall and he is fine

The tiger barbs may be aggressive so i wouldnt realy recommend them, but i know a lot of people that keep them in small groups, (my dad kept two in his 40 gall and had zero problems)

if you want, follow the 1 inch per gall rule, but i wouldn't bother, becuase i'm sure you will be doing loads of water changes resulting from a new interest in fish keeping.

If you are going to get barbs, buy them last, as they will bully new fish, as for the rts, they are docile when little, (not with other rts though)

the only fish that i would say no to is clown loaches, as they grow massive and need to be kept in large numbers to be happy

if you want guppies, i would get like 2 males and 4 females, this way you can experience the fun of livebearers and fry, I wouldn't worry about getting overstocked with fry, becuase most of them will be eaten by other fish if you choose not to use a breeding trap.