Newbie (probably) Asking The Same Opinions/questions!

[dant1875]

Hi,
I've recently bought a 90l tank, which is going through a fishless cycle at the moment. I have decided on an 'Amazonian' look, with sand as a substrate - I have plants & bogwood hopefully coming tomorrow, but the question (and sorry if it's been repeated loads) is...does anyone have any suggestions/opinions on what to stock it with? I'm after a community tank that looks good & isn't trying to kill each other every 2 minutes! I'm only a week into the cycling so I've got plenty of time to take all responses on board, but with only ever keeping Goldfish before I'm pretty much a novice!
Thanks in advance to everyone who helps .

 

[DJ ArKaDaRkA]

Hi,
I've recently bought a 90l tank, which is going through a fishless cycle at the moment. I have decided on an 'Amazonian' look, with sand as a substrate - I have plants & bogwood hopefully coming tomorrow, but the question (and sorry if it's been repeated loads) is...does anyone have any suggestions/opinions on what to stock it with? I'm after a community tank that looks good & isn't trying to kill each other every 2 minutes! I'm only a week into the cycling so I've got plenty of time to take all responses on board, but with only ever keeping Goldfish before I'm pretty much a novice!
Thanks in advance to everyone who helps .

danios are small and are very active

ive got a gourmai very nice colourful fish

corys for the bottom of the tank

 

[mic8310]

Without meaning to sound rude there are many threads like this, it seems like you have time to read a few whilst you wait

 

[Davo86]

5 cardinals
5 black neons
5 otocinclus
5 corydoras
2 Rams

 

[Inchworm]

Hi dant1875

Welcome to the forum!

Once your cycle is complete, you could add some corydoras. They must be kept in a small school but are a delight in any peaceful community tank. They come in a variety of colors and patterns. I'm sure you'll find a species just right for your tank.

Bronze C. aeneus:

C. schultzei (gold shoulders):

C. similis:

 

[dant1875]

Without meaning to sound rude there are many threads like this, it seems like you have time to read a few whilst you wait

And read I have been - but what's the quote? One man's trash is another man's treasure...

Hi dant1875

Welcome to the forum!

Once your cycle is complete, you could add some corydoras. They must be kept in a small school but are a delight in any peaceful community tank. They come in a variety of colors and patterns. I'm sure you'll find a species just right for your tank.

Bronze C. aeneus:

C. schultzei (gold shoulders):

C. similis:

Thanks Inchworm I've been looking at some of these - leaning towards Panda or Leopard Cory at the moment

 

[Truck]

i wouldnt add cardinals, rams, or ottos to a new setup

 

[dant1875]

Hi,
I've recently bought a 90l tank, which is going through a fishless cycle at the moment. I have decided on an 'Amazonian' look, with sand as a substrate - I have plants & bogwood hopefully coming tomorrow, but the question (and sorry if it's been repeated loads) is...does anyone have any suggestions/opinions on what to stock it with? I'm after a community tank that looks good & isn't trying to kill each other every 2 minutes! I'm only a week into the cycling so I've got plenty of time to take all responses on board, but with only ever keeping Goldfish before I'm pretty much a novice!
Thanks in advance to everyone who helps .

danios are small and are very active

ive got a gourmai very nice colourful fish

corys for the bottom of the tank

I do like the danios - gouramis are very pretty but I've read they prefer peace & quiet - I've got a 2yr old that wouldn't know how to do that if I begged him lol is there much you can put with Guppys or Mollys? Got a friend who has offered some when the tank is cycled

 

[dant1875]

i wouldnt add cardinals, rams, or ottos to a new setup

Ok - thanks for the heads up - what's a good 'hardy' fish to start with? (don't want to start explaining 'belly-up' to the nipper until I absolutely have to!)

 

[mic8310]

leaning towards Panda or Leopard Cory at the moment

Panda corys arent hardy corys (according to several other threads) so might want to rethink that one

 

[waterdrop]

Its tricky because Davo's list would make for a very beautiful and nice community but none of those fish would be ones you'd usually "put in first" right after a fishless cycle. In fact, for the hardier cories we'd ofen say wait two or three months after the cycle, for panda cories and all the others we'd probaby say wait 6 months (sounds awful but 6 months goes by surprisingly fast.)

The ones I can say with confidence are great first starters in terms of hardiness are zebra danios and harlequins (rasbora heteromorpha (?)) and those zebras are a must if you've got "nippers," as they are quite entertaining for them.

I hear rams (well the different rams vary) often need really clean water (whatever that means, although usually just that you're cycled and filtered well.)

Personally, I usually recommend against livebearers like guppies, platies, swords, mollies and endlers for beginners with their first tropical tank simply because it throws a whole extra set of problems into the picture when you've got to immediately deal with lots of babies and they threaten to mini-cycle your tank and force it into being overstocked. The last thing that hassled parents need is to be driving around trying to get people to take live fish off their hands. This decision is of course very hard because those same livebearers are very hardy, easy, colorful fish and are great for kids to look at. Sometimes you can take advantage by getting male swords and/or maybe platies or guppies but you've got to be very, very sure you're only getting males. And if you get only females they usually come in already gravid and ready to have babies for the next 6 months despite no males which surprises people.

Not saying livebearers aren't wonderful. I've always liked them a lot, just want people to go in with there eyes open!

~~waterdrop~~

 

[JenCliBee]

think most have been covered here m8 so wll just add ive always kept and added cory's 2 a newly cycled tank and never ever have i had a death because of it but ive never had a death from adding any livebearer 2 a newly cycled tank anyways ...would advse aganst panda's as a first fish tho they do tend 2 be very timid sickly fish and really dont do well in a new tank but other than that its pretty much covered by others


all thats left 2 say is welcome 2 TFF enjoy ur stay m8


jen

 

[Inchworm]

think most have been covered here m8 so wll just add ive always kept and added cory's 2 a newly cycled tank and never ever have i had a death because of it but ive never had a death from adding any livebearer 2 a newly cycled tank anyways ...

I agree with JenCliBee. I never had any corys die by adding them to a new tank either, and I have 30 tanks running right now, mostly full of corys. In fact, I've never even heard of anything like that until recently.

 

[OldMan47]

I'm with Inchworm on this one. I have cories in almost all of my tanks and have put most of them in soon after the tank was set up. I tend to clone filters so that a tank is ready in less than 2 weeks and do not hesitate to add almost any cory to it. I have been reading lately that pandas are less hardy than others but that is a cory I have never tried. Unlike WD, I think the world of livebearers and find them very easy to keep. In a community tank, very few fry will survive the predation that goes on, so all the stories about population explosions leave me wondering what folks keep with their livebearers. If you don't want this, you don't separate a pregnant female.

This same female has delivered at least 5 fry drops to my community tank and only had one fry survive so far in that tank. A separate breeding tank is another story altogether as the picture above proves.

 

[dant1875]

Thanks everyone , got a few more hours researching to do out of all that , I keep changing the filter media round from the small tank I've got so hopefully sooner rather than later I can let everyone know how it's going