Octagon stocking

[soap]

I have just got out my 100 litre octagonal tank after 5 years in storage, and would love some advice about what fish to keep....

I'm looking for a peaceful community tank, but I am aware that as the tank is very tall (4ft) and not very wide/long, I'm going to hit issues of overstocking/ oxygenation/ planting/ swimming space. I've spent a little while looking through this site, and found out ALOT about the different species of fish, but I was wondering if anyone has any specific advice relating to tall octagonal / hexagonal tanks? I'm trying to work out a combination of fish that are peaceful together, but also inhabit all levels of the tank.

To try and keep the water quality good, I've got a couple of airstones, a tall plant and I've just added an internal filter to supplement the under-gravel filter. The only fish I have so far are the two plastic ones which my 2 year old daughter added....

So - I am hoping to cycle with fish (probably a couple of danios), and would like to finish with a mature tank containing something like 2 angel fish, some zebra danios, neon tetras, and a couple of clown loaches. I would also consider some platys, mollies...

Because the tank is tall... do you think the danios will keep off the angels? Will the angels bother the tetras too much? Would the clown loaches be happy with such a small ground area? Could I get away with adding a betta (assuming the tank is not overstocked!)

Any feedback appreciate...

 

[Inchworm]

Hi soap

Welcome to the forum.

I'm going to move your thread to the Tropical Chit Chat forum where it will get a bigger number of views and responses. If you would like to start a new thread in the Newbies forum to introduce yourself, you are welcome to do it.

Good luck to you

 

[Earthgirl]

Hi soap and welcome to TTF!
In my past with tanks, I find that a hex tank is good for cichlids.
You can have some beautiful rock formation in the middle of the tank tall, and many crevaces and holes for the fish to swim through. you can get many beautiful colours to compliment the dull rock colours too. I know nothing about cichlids, but maybe someone else does if you are interested.
Plants are really hard to grow in deep tall tanks unless you spend a little fortune on lights!
good Luck in future endevours!

 

[clutterydrawer]

heya

is the tank really 4' tall? that's...very tall! do you have the other dimensions of the? it would help people advise on what types of fish would be suitable if thehy know how much space these fish will have to swim in. I think it would be a bitt small for clown loaches though, sorry. maybe you could try a different type of loach?)

also a betta might not be such a good plan as they need to be near the top of the water to breathe, and constantly swimming 4' up and down might stress him out.

for plants you could try vallisneria, a very tall, narrow leaved plant, which would provide vertical plant-ness without taking up too much horizontal space. Im not sure if you lights would be strong enough to grow it from such a depth but it's worth a try!

Oxygen might be an issue but you can solve this by not overstocking your tank and by not choosing especially sensitive fish which need very-well oxygenated water. having bottom-dwelling fish might be an issue because of how deep underwater they will be but I will leave judgement on that to someone who has actually done it...

 

[The-Wolf]

Oh 4ft tall! then it is one of those collum tanks, IMO they cannot hold many fish due to the problems you have already stated IE not much width, also there is very little surface area in comparrison to the volume of water.

I'd go for small fish (but not danios) like neon tetras or that sort of size.

 

[Ben]

neons, glo lights maybe some cardinals and maybe some guppys

 

[CFC]

With a height of 48 inches and a volume of 100 litres (26 US gallons) i have worked it out that your tank has a width (radius) of around 14 inches? This gives you a suface area of around 127 inches which when divided by 10 gives you a fish stocking capacity of just 12.7 inches based on the 1" of fish per 10 square inches of surface area to meet oxygen demands. The tank would be suitable for no more than 10 small fish such as neon tetras.

 

[clutterydrawer]

you could always sell it and get a bigger tank...

 

[Ben]

yeh you actualy could

sell it on ebay or in your local newspaper and you mite get a good deal out of that

 

[Zenn]

My first tropical fish tank was one of those, however mine is 2 foot tall...

I put 8 neons in and two swordtails, and they got along just fine, as a peaceful community