My Tank

[liam&stacey]

Hi guys ive been doing a fishless cycle in my 48x12x12 for a while now. Ive been slowly adding fish for a couple of weeks now, so far in my tank I have,

4 Peppercorn Corys
1 Bristlenose Pleco
2 Male Guppys
4 Female Guppys
5 Platys (mixed colours)
3 Zebra Danio
1 Leopard Danio
2 Cherry Shrimps

Im looking for somthing to be my "main" fish, somthing like a Dwarf Gourami. Any sugestions would be nice.

Thanks Liam

 

[ajs2294]

Id advise taking out the female guppies unless you want tons of fry fast. Also danios are best in groups 5 or more to avoid fighting and make them happier. As for a main fish maybe a pair of Bolivian rams?

 

[doresy]

You are DOING a fishless cycle and have been adding fish can you clarify?

 

[liam&stacey]

You are DOING a fishless cycle and have been adding fish can you clarify?

Ive been doing a fishless cycle since january 6th, only been adding fish for the last few weeks.

 

[Wills]

Hi yeah cool that you did a fishless cycle but just to check your not still adding ammonia to the tank are you?

With your stocking (providing all your stats are stable now) I can see a few options for you to try out and consider -

2 Bolivian rams or 3 Apistograma Cacatuoides (1 male 2 female) or 2 Honey Gourami or 1 Pearl Gourami or 1 Orange Thick Lipped Gourami
2 Male Guppys
4 Female Guppys
5 Platys (mixed colours)
8 Zebra Danio
8 Peppercorn Corys
1 Bristlenose Pleco
10 Cherry Shrimps

So basically up all your schools replace your leopard danio for more zebras (guessing it was mis bagged at the store) and add feature fish. I agree with ajs a bit with the mix of guppies as you will soon be inundated with babies and you dont have any real predators in the tank to control the population. But the feature fish could eat them but its not guaranteed.

Wills

 

[liam&stacey]

Hi Wills, yes all my stats' are ok now and Ive stopped adding ammonia. uped my water changes to everyday now to keep water ok. Also doin 1 or 2 water tests everyday now, depending on how much time I have.

Apistogramma Cacatuoides, Cockatoo dwarf cichlid? Wow, must get some of those.
Would it be ok if I keep the Leopard Danio, add another 1 or 2, then add more Zebra Danios, so would have say 7 Zebra Danios and 3 Leopard Danios? and drop the ammount of Corys to 6 rather than 8?
With the Guppys, I already have a floating fry trap incase the Guppys have fry.

Cheers Liam

 

[Wills]

If you want to keep the leopards as well I would do 5 of each but one thing to consider. Occasionally you hear of danio killing each other off in small schools I have experienced this myself and had a school of 15 wittle its self down to 3 or 4 in about 3 months but its not too common but it does happen now and again so something to consider.

With the apistos, they sometimes are a bit weak in shops so make sure you look for healthy specimens. This is sometimes because they ideally want soft water but can adapt to tap water. Additionally if you can find local bred fish that would be even better.

One last thing to think about with the guppies, when they outgrow the fry trap where do they go? Do you have a small fry tank available to keep them in until they go to an LFS that might take them in? Just something to consider with fish that give off fry as rapidly as live bearers. I mean if you think about the wild environment they come from those rivers are packed full of predators and they are such small fish that they are an abundant food source hense why they give birth to live as opposed to laying eggs. But then in the home tank with little or no predators your 5 guppies will quickly become 20 then they will become 40 and so on and so on.

Wills

 

[liam&stacey]

hmmm, never heard about Danios killing eachother. I dont have a fry tank set up yet, was going to ask about that, what size tank would I need? They will be going to my LFS once they are big enough.

 

[NinjaSmurf]

Maybe I'm missing something but why do you have to do a water change every day to keep water levels at ok?

 

[liam&stacey]

Maybe I'm missing something but why do you have to do a water change every day to keep water levels at ok?

just to be on the safe side, would rater do 10% - 20% water change every day for the timebeing. just until my tank is more established. had problems before after doin a fishless cycle then adding fish, the bio load was to much for the filter to handle so my stats went up for a short while. i know this may hav been a 1 off, but wud like to keep my fish healty.

 

[Deleted member 55926]

Im looking for somthing to be my "main" fish, somthing like a Dwarf Gourami. Any sugestions would be nice.

I have a pair of red dwarf gouramis - they are fantastic. They easily have the most character of the fish I have. They are very beautiful and elegant, but at the same time extremely inquisitive, and display little personality traits. They have funny terratorial squabbles, with each gourami having established half the tank to himself. They will investigate anything that enters the tank, including my hands, using their tentacles which they hold out in front of themselves like little arms (I find it very endearing). They are the most dominant of the fish in the tank, but in a peaceful way.

I think they're quite nice to have because they glide around the open areas of the tank slowly, and utilise most of the space from middle to top mainly. They're good to watch but I would recommend you get two, as I think you would miss out on a lot if the one didn't have another to interact with.

 

[waterdrop]

Excellent write-up there Mig! WD