New Tank Stocking Advice Required, Please!

[shmikuk]

I recently set up my aquaone 510 tank, with gravel, bogwood, and some live plants. Its a 75 litre tank.
(Been set up two weeks, and we wont be putting fish in until the new year..so approx 5 weeks cycling)
Weve searched the forums, and threads and found some very useful but often conflicting advice on what types, sizes etc of fish to put in. We quite like the pygmy/dwarf puffers, but having done a bit of research think they may be a bit aggresive/nippy and hard work. We also considered hatchet fish, but fear they may get too big for the tank.

We were thinking of adding fish once a month in order to build a community tank, but are now unsure as to whats best, and in which order to add them.

any advice on good 'first fish" which wont outgrow the tank greatly appreciated.

 

[Aprilia997]

You can put two of those Indian Dwarf Puffers in the tank but you should not add anything else. The tank is a little small for more than that and puffers are quite determined to bite the fins of other fish.

 

[shmikuk]

Thanks! Maybe we'll miss out on the puffers this time then, as we'd like a few more fish in there than two 3cm fellas! LOL!

Any other suggestions? Cheers!

 

[dwarfgourami]

So it's really a question of whether you want a species tank (the puffers) or a community tank. If I were you, I think I'd go for the community: if you take to the hobby, you can always get an extra puffer tank later

Adding a few fish once a month to cycle the tank with fish is one way to go, but that does mean you are limited to a small choice of hardy enough starter fish. To get a wider choice, I would recommend doing a fishless cycle with ammonia (pinned topic), or see if anyone can give you mature filter media to clone the tank with (we have a pinned topic with donors on here).

Assuming that you do a fishless cycle, there are quite a few nice community fish you could fit in:
platies or endlers (ask in the livebearer forum about sex ratios), harlequin rasboras, tetras (neons prefer a mature tank, though, but there are lots of other kinds), khuulie loaches, small corydoras. The shape of the tank means you won't have so much surface area, so stocking lightly is a good idea. I would avoid the really fast swimmers like danios.

 

[the_patriot2004]

well if you want agressive fish, stay with a species tank or just make sure you do your research to find ones they will work with. for a community tank, I would recommend finding fish that are all pretty passive. if you want to start one or two fish at a time, start with the hardy ones. one suggestion is, I know they look ugly and vicious, but theyre really rather peaceful, is the violet goby. its commonly called a dragon fish. these guys are extremely hardy, and fun to watch at night (their nocturnal) I work at wal-mart, and I would not recommend buying fish there, and I have been observing these boogers, and the guys there put them in both the warm and cold water tanks, dont feed them the right food, etc. etc., yet they absolutly refuse to die. they outlast most of the other fish their. they can live in cold, warm, or brackish water, though they prefer brackish water, and they prefer it warm. i have mine in a FW tropical aquarium. the downsides to them is A: their freaking expensive. mine cost me 15 bucks from a local dealer. B:they get really big. mines seven inches now. they can get to 15. C: from my experience I have found them to be picky eaters. the only thing mine will eat is crumpled up dried shrimp. some people have had good luck with flake food, somehow to ones at wal-mart seem to live. other options include angelfish, they will pick on each other on occasion but not to bad from what ive seen in my tank. scissortails, guppies, etc. at least for a tropical. mollies and such are good for a cold water. just do your research and find out what fish get along with other fish, and how aggressive they are.

 

[fishcollector7000]

DO NOT DO A FISHLESS CYCLE WITH AMMONIA! IT TAKES FOREVER AND CAN BE REALLY DODGEY!
some people are lucky and the cycle can start write away but from experience!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
IT CAN TAKE MONTHS! and it is a lot of hassel! Hatchet fish are a nice choice as the swim at the surface, although they tend to jump! but you could have a community, with some loaches or something as there are so many varieties along with sum center swimming fishes also!

i have some bumble bee gobies which are really cute and they attactch themselves to the glass!

you have a lot of choice with community! dont limit yourself with puffers!

although they are very cute!

i hope i have kinda helped

 

[Irf]

With respect, I advise reading the forum articles very carefully on the methods of cycling a tank. My first tank (community 50gal) was cycled with fish, and that took much longer to mature than my new second tank (destined to house cichlids) which I cycled by carefully adding small amounts of ammonia. The 2nd tank took around half the time. As for hassle, that's a personal choice I suppose. I didn't mind dosing with ammonia and checking water stats cos I did all the "fishy" stuff at the same time, which included feeding the others, cleaning, etc. I didn't fancy having to try and cycle with hardier fish.

And I also favour the community route at first, specialising later.

Best of luck...

Irf.

 

[dwarfgourami]

The fishless cycle if done correctly should be quicker than cycling with fish. I have done 3 tanks fishlessly within the last 2 years, none of them took more than 3 weeks, and it has the advantage that sensitive fish will not be exposed to harmful chemicals. Another quick and painless method is cloning by using filter media from an established tank- there is a list of potential donors among the pinned topics.

 

[fishcollector7000]

i was just talking from a bad experience with ammonia cycling. i have just reacently set up larger tank to what i had. and i tried the ammonia cycle. When it came to adding my fish i had extreme problems!i had been cycling with ammonia for a month and two weeksbefore. i had brought danios as they are extremely hardy and were reccomended by my lfs. when it got to the point of adding they were fine for about a minute and then they dramatically started to die instantly! i am not slating the ammonia cycle im just saying if it is not done correctly it is not worth it! i had to empty my whole tank and restart the whole thing. it recked my filter media left marks on my glass and it smelled really bleachy!

OUT OF PERSONAL CHOICE I PREFERE A MORE NATURAL WAY AS I FEEL IT IS MUCH BETTER FOR THE CARE OF THE FISH. MATURE MEDIA IS A VERY GOOD METHOD OF KICK STARTING THE BACTERIA THOUGH PREFERABLY CERAMICS. YOUR LFS MAY SUPPLY THIS IF YOU ASK THEM NICELY.

I really would recommend a community tank though your tank looks awesome!

 

[Miss Wiggle]

tank looks really lovely mate well done!

i'd go for a community set up to begin with, you can always get more specialised later when you've built up some more experience.

i'd recommend getting a shoal of cories (not panda's though, they need a tank at least 6 months old) 2 small shoals of tetra's/rasbora's (not neons, they're quite weka) then a pair of slightly larger 'centerpiece' fish such as a pair of rams or dwarf gourami's

well if you want agressive fish, stay with a species tank or just make sure you do your research to find ones they will work with. for a community tank, I would recommend finding fish that are all pretty passive. if you want to start one or two fish at a time, start with the hardy ones. one suggestion is, I know they look ugly and vicious, but theyre really rather peaceful, is the violet goby. its commonly called a dragon fish. these guys are extremely hardy, and fun to watch at night (their nocturnal) I work at wal-mart, and I would not recommend buying fish there, and I have been observing these boogers, and the guys there put them in both the warm and cold water tanks, dont feed them the right food, etc. etc., yet they absolutly refuse to die. they outlast most of the other fish their. they can live in cold, warm, or brackish water, though they prefer brackish water, and they prefer it warm. i have mine in a FW tropical aquarium. the downsides to them is A: their freaking expensive. mine cost me 15 bucks from a local dealer. B:they get really big. mines seven inches now. they can get to 15. C: from my experience I have found them to be picky eaters. the only thing mine will eat is crumpled up dried shrimp. some people have had good luck with flake food, somehow to ones at wal-mart seem to live. other options include angelfish, they will pick on each other on occasion but not to bad from what ive seen in my tank. scissortails, guppies, etc. at least for a tropical. mollies and such are good for a cold water. just do your research and find out what fish get along with other fish, and how aggressive they are.

why are you suggesting them for a 75l tank then, they're obviously way to big for it.

DO NOT DO A FISHLESS CYCLE WITH AMMONIA! IT TAKES FOREVER AND CAN BE REALLY DODGEY!
some people are lucky and the cycle can start write away but from experience!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
IT CAN TAKE MONTHS! and it is a lot of hassel! Hatchet fish are a nice choice as the swim at the surface, although they tend to jump! but you could have a community, with some loaches or something as there are so many varieties along with sum center swimming fishes also!

i have some bumble bee gobies which are really cute and they attactch themselves to the glass!

you have a lot of choice with community! dont limit yourself with puffers!

although they are very cute!

i hope i have kinda helped

hatchet fish are notoriously delicate, definately not one for a freshly cycled tank. they need a mature set up to survive.

i'd ignore this advice about not doing a fishless cycle, IMO it's the safest most humane way of preparing your tank.

 

[fishcollector7000]

miss wiggle i do not think you read my through whatn i am saying before judging
i am saying the add ammonia is bad as if you do not know how to it goes drastically wrong

 

[Miss Wiggle]

miss wiggle i do not think you read my through whatn i am saying before judging
i am saying the add ammonia is bad as if you do not know how to it goes drastically wrong

i'm not judging you at all, please don't think that.

but i've heard hundreds of examples of people completing fishless cycles with no problems whatsoever. law of averages is that every once in a while somethings gonna go wrong, maybe this has happened for you, i'm very sorry you had this bad experience but i don't think you have reason to discourage anyone else from doing it. the overwhelming body of evidence is that it's a safe quick and easy method to cycle a tank. if it was otherwise i wouldn't advise people to do it.

we all have bad experiences from time to time, but we shouldn't be put off or let others be because we are the exception to the rule.

hope you haven't taken offence to my comments but i would hate to see more fish going through the horrible process of cycling a tank when there is a much better alternative out there. in discouraging people from fishless cycling you are encouraging (consciously or not) them to cycle with fish and IMO this is cruel.

 

[shmikuk]

Thanks for all the advice and for th nice comments re: the tank! A sunday afternoon well spent setting that lot up. Nice when more experienced folks think we've done OK.

Well, we've done a load of research...here, online, and around the local (and not so local) aquatic shops and yet again, weve had LOTS of different advice/opinions. Still, a lot of it has been backed up more than once, so we'll let you know what we decide, and keep you up to date.

Thanks again,,,much appreciated.

Soph and Ian

 

[dwarfgourami]

i was just talking from a bad experience with ammonia cycling. i have just reacently set up larger tank to what i had. and i tried the ammonia cycle. When it came to adding my fish i had extreme problems!i had been cycling with ammonia for a month and two weeksbefore. i had brought danios as they are extremely hardy and were reccomended by my lfs. when it got to the point of adding they were fine for about a minute and then they dramatically started to die instantly! i am not slating the ammonia cycle im just saying if it is not done correctly it is not worth it! i had to empty my whole tank and restart the whole

Are you sure you did the large water change at the end of the fishless cycle? And are you sure the nitrite spike was really finished and ammonia and nitrites both returning to zero within 24 hours before you did the large water change? If the answer to either of those two is no, then of course you will have poisoned the fish. Also, how did you acclimatise the fish? I am not trying to criticise but genuinely concerned to pinpoint what went wrong, as I've never heard of this happening with a fishless cycle done according to the rules.

I share miss Wiggle's concern about the fish you recommend, definitely not appropriate for the original poster's tank.