Okay New Stocking... Need Suggestions

[fyrefaerye]

So I had my tank stocked then had a death outbreak. Still haven't quite figured out what happened but over three days I lost a rainbow shark and 4 harlequin rasboras. I have a 36 gallon that currently has 4 fancy guppies, 3 dalmatian mollies, 2 harlequin rasboras, and 1 male dwarf gourami. I feel bad for the 2 rasboras I have left and have seriously contemplated bringing that number back to 6. However, after all the deaths before I'm rather anxious about adding more for fear that they will die again. So I'm open to suggestions. I really like colorful fish (I have lots of young nieces and nephews that love to come look at Aunt Lesley's fishies) but the more I look at options the more indecisive I am.
 
Also, as far as the previous deaths it wasn't because of the shark (whose name was Sherbet). Sherbet actually died on the first day along with one of the rasboras then the next two mornings I found one more dead rasbora stuck in the filter.  

 

[laurac94]

How about a pair of Bolivian rams or German blue rams? I have kept both, my Bolivians are my favourite ;-)
Sorry about your losses did you find the cause?

 

[fyrefaerye]

Haven't figured out the cause yet. I've posted on here and we weren't able to come to any definite conclusions. No signs of illness, though the last one had a mangled tail fin. But after like 3 days all the deaths stopped and everything has been fine since. I don't really know much about rams, nor have I seen them anywhere locally. I will definitely look into them though. Thanks. 

 

[laurac94]

Did you use any aerosols like deodorant or air freshener near the tank? Or even powders you use on your carpet to freshen it? Silly stuff Luke that can set off deaths rams are a dwarf cichlid that are a good community fish as long as you don't have any semi aggressive fish in there..which you don't ;-) unless your gourami has abit of an attitude..I had one that was a big bully ;-)

 

[fyrefaerye]

No air fresheners or anything. I actually have that tank set up in the corner of the room away from pretty much everything for that reason alone. My gourami is really laid back. A bit of a loner actually. I will definitely have to take a closer look at  my local shops to see if I can find some. 

 

[jwalser18]

I've always been fond of neons. maybe get 7-11 neons? nice schooling effect?

 

[fyrefaerye]

I'm not a big fan of neons. I've had nothing but problems with them. When I had my 10 gallon set up the first time I put neons in there and within 24 hours they would all die. In about a week (because I didn't buy more every day) I bought around 15 or so neons and they just died. Nothing else had any issues except neons. To this day I don't know what caused them to die (I even bought them from about 3 different stores). They're really pretty, I just seem to have terrible luck with them.

 

[jwalser18]

Hmm, what about possibly platys?

 

[fyrefaerye]

Those I know practically nothing about other than they come in some interesting varieties

 

[The Taffy Apple]

Those I know practically nothing about other than they come in some interesting varieties

 
 
May i ask what your water test results are? The first thing to be sure of when adding more fish are good water results, to prove our filters could handle any subsequent bio-load.
Platys are a livebearer fish and could reproduce at an alarming rate...i had them but bought just females, they were a lovely fish.
 
Terry.

 

[leighton_87]

A trio of Apistogrammas would be stunning

 

[fyrefaerye]

It's funny you ask Terry. Since adding fish to the aquarium the pH has been 7.4 (same as my tap water), ammonia 0, nitrate 0, nitrite 0. I checked the levels about two hours ago and everything is the same except the ammonia is .25. Granted I understand that's not really that much of a difference but I'm still concerned. I'm running two different filters (aqueon quiet flow 30 and an aqua clear 30) and nothing has changed that I can think of that would attribute the change. 

 

[jwalser18]

Fyre, ammonia should always be at a minimal to none. if your tank is cycled this shouldn't be,

 

[The Taffy Apple]

I have to agree. Please don't be tempted to add any more fish whilst your Ammonia is reading '0'.
There should be some sort of reading of NitrAte in your results, a properly cycled filter will be kicking this stuff out as the end result of the nitrogen cycle.
So, start changing water so the Ammonia test results return as '0'.. prolonged exposure to this will slowly harm and/or kill your fish.
 
Terry.

 

[fyrefaerye]

Ok I'm officially confused. My ammonia level and nitrAte level has been 0 for a month. This is the case with both of the tanks that I have. There has never (since I've had fish in it) been any nitrAte. Everything else I have read here has said that 0.25 ppm of ammonia is perfectly acceptable especially since the API master kit I use has rather unclear color charts as long as the fish are okay. Which they are. Everyone is behaving perfectly normally.