My First Tropical Tank

[FreakShow]

Hey guys, hope you all had an awesome festive season !!

I'm writing this post because I just got my first aquarium "Kit" as a gift. Being how I am, instead of just diving in and throwing some water and fish in there I decided to first research the whole aquarium thing and see whats its all about. BOY AM I GLAD I DID THAT !! Turns out there's actually a whole lot of things to consider when setting up an aquarium.

I've basically decided that I definitely want a tropical tank to start off. At the moment this is what I've got to start off with, and would like to know what else I should look at and consider:

I've got a 50 liter tank,
An Internal platform filter which uses some form of carbon(Charcoal),
An air pump with added air stone.
And some gravel.

I'm now looking to add a heater (Don't know which one or how big will be suitable for the tank) and some lighting before starting to assemble the tank.

So far I've decided that a combination of the following fish would be awesome, but I don't know how many of which the tank can sustain or whether these fish would actually work together :

* Neon Tetras
* Guppies
* Dwarf Puffer fish
* Dario Dario
* Algae Eater

Is there any other fish I should/can consider and how many of each would be ideal ? Also what else would I require for my tank setup and which fish should I introduce first after cycling the tank ?

Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[phoenixgsd]

well done for wanting to cycle it properly the link in my signature has alot of info on cycling, as for your stocking i personaly would leave the neon tetras for a bit, they are fragile and often dont survive in new tanks

 

[FreakShow]

Thanx for the quick reply. Reckon I might start of with some guppies. How many would you recommend as a good starting point ?

 

[tanktop]

Congrats on the tank.

For Guppies you will need a heater, you need 1W for every 1L so a 50L tank needs a 50W heater, you can go a bit bigger say 75W as long as it will fit in the tank. Don't go smaller it will not be man enough and will stay on constantly costing money and burning out quickly.

As for your fish

* Neon Tetras - easy to keep needs to be in a group
* Guppies - easy to keep if you get females you need 1M to 2 or 3 F to stop the males chasing the female too much
* Dwarf Puffer fish - I know very little abouit this fish but I know it does not like most other tank mates
* Dario Dario - I know very little abouit this fish but with some reading it might be ok
* Algae Eater - Covers a lot of fish some of which will not be a good choice for a 50L tank, make shore you know what you are buying when you get this.

The key to this hobby is to do your home work if you do a bit of reading before going to the shop you will come out with some thing that will work. If you don't you can have all sorts of problems

 

[eaglesaquarium]

A 50L tank is not a a huge tank, so you need to think very carefully regarding fish, because you can only add about 12 inches of fish to the tank. Personally, if it were my tank, I'd probably go with some microrasboras. A lot of little fish can be far more impressive even in a small tank, than one big fish.

As stated above, Neons are fairly sensitive - as are male guppies. If you really like guppies, why not look into endlers. They are VERY similar to the guppies, but a bit smaller, which will work better in your tank - and a bit hardier too, I believe. Sticking to all males will keep you from being over run with fry, and actually make for a better display. The males will constantly being flaring their finage at each other (not actually fighting, but posturing).

A great idea is the dario dario (Scarlet Badis) - their small size is ideal for a tank like yours. But, I would suggest you get either one pair, or only a male. Males can be very territorial, and your tank isn't big enough for multiple territories.

Good tankmates with the dario dario would be some microrasboras. The microrasbora "galaxy", formerly called the Celestial Pearl Danio would be my top choice. They are MAGNIFICENT! The only reason I don't have some is that I couldn't find a convenient source. Others that would be good in this tank would be Trigonostigma espei (lambchop rasbora) these don't get very big either, and need to be in groups. A group of 8 would be awesome.





Its generally not recommended to keep dwarf puffers with other tankmates, except maybe some oto catfish.


So, I guess the thing you have to decide is whether or not you want a community of some sort, or a species specific tank. If you want a community, then the puffers are out.


If this were my tank I'd go with this:

3 male endlers
3 dario dario (1m, 2f)
8 microrasboras, specifically "Galaxy" aka "Celestrial Pearl Danio"


For algae a group of 3 oto catfish would work. BUT, I wouldn't add them until there was already a food source (algae) in the tank. They are also fairly sensitive, so acclimate them SLOWLY and wait until the tank is about 3-6 months old before adding them. I'd also add some either large plants or a fairly large piece of wood to the tank to break it up and give the dario a place to call home (they need territory) and breed, if they so choose.

 

[NorthEastFisherman]

Im not sure how big that tank is in gallons, im thinking like 5 gallons? If so then a 50 watt heater would be good. I believe tetra makes one that automatically keeps the temperature at 78 degrees.

 

[Questions?]

dwarf puffers have a beak, and can kill and beat up other fish to death. they only eat snails so it could be hard to feed. dario dario i think also only eat live foods? (i dont know for sure). ottos need a constant source of algea. microrasboras and guppies are a good choice though.

 

[sadguppy]

It's about 11 gallons, so you're looking at aroud 11 inches of fish altogether. Obviously this is not a hard and fast rule and I encourage you to experiment with your stcking (slowly!) but you will certainly have problems if you shove in 20 fish on day one!

Fortunately your choices are sensible for the size of tank:

You can have a mix of guppies, tetra, dario dario and maybe a small plec (like a BN plec or a clown - but be careful what type you buy as some reach two feet long!). Once the tank is cycled of course! I would certainly advise male guppies only. Yes, they'll chase each other round, but it is better than having hundreds of babies which will soon happen if you mix sexes. Endlers as suggested would be another great choice as they are smaller so you can get a few more in your tank. Have you considered platies? Very colourful livebearer and I personally have found them to be hardier than guppies. Females are as colourful as the males and they're very peaceful.

OR you could go with dwarf puffers - but dwarf puffers only. They are mean to other fish but if it's just them then they'll be ok

 

[Questions?]

dwarf puffers have to be kept by themselves, or have to have a heavily planted tank. no pleco will be happy in a 11 gallon tank. a bn pleco gets to be 5 nches long. all plecos produce a lot of waste for fish, even at 5 inches. platies also produce a lot of waste (not as much as plecos, etc). i have never kept them, but i heard they always have poo trailing ther body. endlers and guppies are good