Need Experienced Advice With Stocking My 200l

[wayne834]

Having finally achieved and maintained my cycle, I`m planning to stock b4 xmas pH 7.6

Tank footprint 100cm L 45W 55H
PH 7.6- 8
GH 12

There are a few must haves but I want to avoid a conjestion zone I have fantastic access to species in the UK, and feel spoilt 4 choice, I am running an eheim 1200 ext + a fluval 404 atm also available is a fluval 303 internal + a fluval 206 ext cannister ..i`m ok there

I want peace,movement,quirkiness and colour in my community My tanks well planted with a sand substrate , my favs so far(all available for delivery) are:

Chain Loach- love the way they move must have
Glowlight Danio Danio choprae
Spotted Cory or peru gold stripe cory
Pygmy/Dwarf Cory a must have
Rummynose Tetra
penguin tetra
Red Wag/mickey mouse platy ...stunning red
Red-Fire Rasbora
Red Cherry Rasbora
burmese rosy loach-perfect must have
Rasbora Espei
Denison barbs
Neon Golden Barb- slightly concerned they may intimidate the tinier fish,great colour though

If this as of now was my desired stock list what would u omit and/or add ,i`m looking for numbers by species, if poss .I`m looking for reasons to be able to reduce my options tbh......... can corys and chain loaches be compatible?

 

[snazy]

That's quite too many species for one tank. I'd cut that in half the least, avoid the tetras/barbs, many are fin nippers early or later( that's just me but certainly some of them are less so) I'd stick to rasboras for schooling top level and the pygmy corys would stay in the upper levels a lot if you get a nice dozen of them but they do eat from the bottom. Platies go everywhere and would recommend just female red platies, you will always end up with pregnant ones anyway but females stick together a lot better than males or when mixed and there won't be chasing to intimidate more skittish fish (red wags and red mickey mouse platies in my signature below)
Wisely calculate how many bottom species you can have in there, I see two types of loaches and several corys, each species need to be in groups so you may end up with way too many for the footprint of the tank. Platies will eat alongside bottom feeders too. They are very greedy and won't stop until the food is gone. I have the reds myself, the red ones do look nice

And then on top of it you've got to look at all other factors like temperature range, etc...

 

[wayne834]

Thnx Snazy, My list is / was all about my fav looking/behaving species, Your spot on with the platy`s I want to see more than the bottom feeders looking for scapss Thnx for the Tetra/barb warning I really like Penguin Tetras b4 a friend warned me off due to fin nipping with hers.I`m def torn between Chain Loaches & Cories

I love the chain loaches charachteristics but corys are more passive!

The rosy loach grows to 1 inch and I feel a rosy/chain or rosy/cory is ideal, thts my toughest call, are rummynose tetras fin nippers? or are they similar to rasboras.

I`m thinking

2 rasbora species total of 16
pygmy cories 6-8
platys 4
chain loach/corys? 6
rosy loach 6-8 would be ok 4 200L i`ll check out ph/temp needs this week.Which would be the best to stock first.....ah,really like those glo light Danios too, need to try to include them!