New Tiger Barb Tank

[WheelmanCA19]

I would say 6 tigers would be ok in a 20 long. You said 2ft, however, which leads me to believe 20 tall.

I still think the 6 tiger barbs would be ok. I don't know anything of skunk loaches, but from what others have said, i'd chose something else. Perhaps a single rainbow or ret-tail shark.

A larger tank is always better, but, sometimes we don't have the money or the space for them.

HTH, and best of luck with whatever you decide to do.

 

[Luanda Pym]

I can understand where Kev is coming from, but i think his email was a little strong. Although email is not the best media to convey tone of voice (obviously) and so perhaps i just read it in an "angry" tone.
I'm in the same boat with a 2ft x 12" x 15" tank (33gal), and i love discus but advise from TTFs experts say this tank so too small, and i bow to their knowledge. When I'll be paying at least 20 quid a fish I don't want to loose a fish a day due to my inexperience.
Even if the advise is negative, its best to listen and save time and money.
I'm now thinking of lots of little shoaling fish for mine. There are some very pretty rasboras or angel fish have been suggested in my Discus tank size query in the beginner question forum, if you want to check out that string Kev.
My other idea is to seperate the tank into 3 sections and perhaps have 3 seperated bettas that can't see eachother as they are very aggressive but beautiful.
As i'm a newbie too i can't offer advise but could anyone see a problem with a small malawi cichlid tank for Kev's 20gal tank if the filter was up to the job? Very colourful, and need to be slightly overstocked to keep their aggressive behaviour in check, they need territory (rocks with holes in at the back) to defend. Not sure how many you could have in a 20gal tank though as they are only 3inches long the ones i have seen.
Don't dispare Kev, everyone wants to help. i try to look at it from the experts view-they must get really hacked off with the same questions every day from hundreds of different people and don't have the time to write in depth reviews of which fish can go with which every single time.
What fish are you thinking of now to stock your 20gal, let me know as i'm still umming and ahhing about my 30gal hahahah.
happy fishie thoughts
Lu

 

[kjharve]

Hi Lu,

I pretty much change my mind hourly at the moment. I am now looking at tanks which are still 24" long but are taller which will give me about 100 litres (about 26 US gallons.) Don't yet know what to put in, I think the Cichlids would be too much for a tank that size - they prefer longer tanks rather than tall tanks (I think.) At the moment I'm spending a lot of time walking round Fish Shops because I have found you can't make a decision just by looking at books and the internet. Some fish I have seen in pictures and have looked attractive or interesting sometimes aren't when you see them in real life. The same is true the other way round. I didn't like the look of Golden Barbs until I saw one in a shop.

Have you seen a puffer fish? - very intriguing characters. Once I get a bit more experience with fish I will definitely keep a small tank for one of these little fellas (if I can find room and I can persuade her who must be obeyed!)

I'm in the same boat with a 2ft x 12" x 15" tank (33gal),

I think you may be a bit consfused though because the tank that you have is 61cm x 30cm x 38cm = 70 litres, this equates to about 18 US and 15 UK gallons. Are you sure those measurements are correct? I'd hate for you to stock the wrong fish.

Kev

 

[Luanda Pym]

ooooh worried now, i was just going on what the guys in my Discus tank size topic string said.
They said it was 33 US gallons, 127L!!
Arrrgghhh now your doing it, one guy tells you one thing, someone else says no!!
hahahaha
i'll find a volume calculator on the web and find out!

You are right my tank waiting to be filled is 70L!!
Silly me, my fault for not checking in the first place.
I agree with you that setting up a new tank can't be done by purely looking on the internet or just going to fish shops. Takes an awful lot of thinking about. And obviously know what the hell size of tank you have in the first place! teehee
Back to the drawing board!
Lu

 

[dwarfgourami]

Good luck to both of you! At least it is fun, isn't it, to have this empty little world to fill? I can't wait for my big tank to be set up so I can start playing the matching game again. I keep making new plans and scrapping them, and doing more googling, and then deciding I want something different...

And Lu, I think Kev is right about 70 ltrs, sounds like the tank I've got downstairs. Juwel Rekord 70, mine is. Just to give an idea, I've got 4 corys, 4 platies and 1 male guppy (sole survivor of his batch); I reckon that will be pretty well fully stocked by the time they're all grown up. Makes a nice little community. I suppose the guppy is a bit out on a limb, but he seems to get on well with the platies and I can't let him be impregnating his mother and aunt in the other tank.

 

[SexyFishKeeper]

Hi Kev,

In my Juwel Vision 180, I have 9 TB's (1 died the other day as I had a round ten) and they've started from babies really. They get on well with the danios and the two BN's I've got although something has fin-nipped the BN's a little but it could be either the danios or TB's.

They are really active and even the only single green one (I started with a 5/5 mix then 5 died so replaced them with striped TB's) shoals around with the rest. I love to see their fights when they bicker amongst themselves.

There wasn't any problem for the week or two that I was just down to 5 TBs as I think as they were babies they haven't had chance to create any aggression amongst themselves.

So that might be a solution, get smaller ones that will be happier together - for example get from the same batch - rather than putting lots of adult ones together that will have been set in their ways in different tanks for a while.

They are rather active tho, so if you get a 20Gal tank then leave lots of space for them to swim around in. I did find however, that they liked to play within long plants.

Hope that helps.

 

[umlaut31]

Awh. Kev. It's infuriating isn't it? I've recently got a tank and I have spent the last two weeks making lists of my 'ideal' fish then researching and nope - won't work, then another list - post it here and nope, and another until i was eventually thinking maybe I'll just keep danio's. It's so stressful!

After two weeks of research, and I mean hours and hours, cross referencing, asking for advice I think I have my final list. I guess the best way is to not set your aims too high - your always gonna find out your tank isn't big enough or so and so will grow to 4ft or this fish will eat that fish, so keep it simple. I have found a lot of the people here give constructive advice with lots of fishy ideas but it's never what you want to hear. I wanted angelfish, bgk, discus, neons, sharks, a mermaid and the lockness monster in mine...but alas.

And if you decide you hate fish - I have a snake for sale at the moment. she's beautiful.

Let us know what you get in the end!

Haha! Don't we all!

What substrate would you put in with the Loch Ness Monster though!?