I Just Can't Decide!

[Thomas 2507]

Okay, so I have an empty 80l that I am in the middle of scaping. It will be heavily planted with rocks and bogwood, so loads of hiding places.

Thing is, I just can't decide what fish to stock it with! These are my thoughts:

1. A livebearer tank. I like the thought of buying a few guppies and a few mollies and letting them breed naturally without taking out the fry. There will be plenty of hiding places so two or three fry are bound to survive from each drop.

2. A tank with either a breeding pair of angels or kribensis.

So...which would you choose?

 

[Truck]

personally the livebearers are easier to breed and you can get more in your tank if i wouldnt get mollys they grow to big IMO but platys are also nice
good amount would be

3 guppies 1 male 2 female
3 platties " "

 

[Thomas 2507]

Bump.

 

[Shrimper]

Out of those two choices i would probably go for the livebearers, probably guppies and platys would be best as mollys prefer brackish water and grow a bit bigger.

I think 80l would be too small for angelfish, no idea about the kribs i know nothing about them.

If you want something different i can recommend shrimp

 

[Thomas 2507]

Thanks, yeah I'm leaning more towards the livebearer option. I'm also thinking about having a shoal of neons and cories to spruce things up a little. If only there were more livebearer options... I'm basically limited to guppies, mollies, swordtails and platies. I've never seen any endlers around here, I don't really like platies and swordtails for some reason and mollies are quite big, prefer different and sometimes destructive so my only option is really guppies but I love them.

Any other fish suggestions apart from the ones I have given are welcome.

 

[mhfan06]

I would add some otocinclus catfish to prune the algae off your plants (feed them cucumbers and squash at first until some algae develops) are you actually looking to breed fish? as for angel fish it would be hard to tell which is male and which is female until their organs "drop". And as shrimper said, a 80 liter would be a little small for angel fish. (you can keep them in a 29-30 gallon though...i have, and they were happy for years until a blizzard knocked out power for days at my house) poor angles!!! (their bodies were as big as my palm!) very sad...they got sick afterwards........anyways, egg laying fish are not a bad choice either. If u have plants, then egg layers can spray their eggs into them (or in ur gravel) and they should survive. Shrimp are awesome though they will eat fish eggs. Zebra / leopard danios are fast fish and reproduce easily. They lay eggs and some might survive. Look into them, they have long fin verities and they are cheap/hardy. its pretty easy to isolate the fry of egg layers too. Just syphon ur gravel during your water changes and look in the bucket for them. (let the bucket settle and look for them near the surface or plastered to the side of the bucket) (white buckets make this a lot easier). Sorry for not listing suggestions but im just saying that egg spraying fish are a good choice too. I've raised some danios w/ the method i told you about in a clear flower vase! (once they get big enough so that parent can't eat them u can put them back in the tank) i think fish breeder nets work better because it was a little hard to change the water in the vase. Good luck to you

 

[Thomas 2507]

Thanks. I've kept Zebras before and I'm not too keen on them. I definately want a shoal of six Neon Tetras, but that's all I've definately decided on. Maybe a few Clown Loaches or another bottom-dweller...

 

[Truck]

DEFINATLEY NO!!!!!!!!!!!!! for the loach or any kind of plec they grow to 12"+

 

[mhfan06]

yeah, plecos and loaches wont work very well, the closest thing to a pleco u can get is otocinclus for your tank. (they are sucker mouthed catfish but rarely grow very big) As for loaches, they need a lot of room and they need to be in groups so 80 liter wont work.

 

[connorsbala]

There are certai type of L number plecs you can have... Look in the catfish section where theres a pinned topic on plecs nder 8 inches. I still think the L134 Leopard frog Pleco is one of the nicest freshwater fish ive kept

 

[mhfan06]

Still, i think a pleco produces too much waste for a 10 gallon tank. The tank would have to be well established. As for the leopard frog pleco, they are about 4 inches when mature. However, they are a little expensive. (at least in my lfs) make sure u have driftwood!

 

[connorsbala]

Erm, 80 litres isnt ten gallons mate....
Get your maths right before you advise yeah?

 

[Truck]

its a 15 gall

 

[prankster705]

80:3,6=22,2

therefor 22,2 us gallons...

that's big enough for a number of small plecs (bristlenoses, clown, queen arabesque, etc.) and smaller loaches (polka dots, vietnamese, zebra, etc.)