Plants Dying And Future Stocking Advice?!

[Pepsidave85]

First of all, thanks for all the help that is available on here, very informative and helpful, especially with regards to cycling. Anyway, tank (35 litre with 4 white clouds, 1 black comet, 1 small oranda, and 1 hong kong plec) has been cycled for a while and has some fish in, and from what I already know one of these fish may have to be returned due to how big he will grow. BUT, this aside I now have two problems....

First problem has been keeping plants alive. I bought some moss and java fern which was already attached to half a coconut shell and some bogwood along with some others. Anything on bogwood or the coconut is fine, however anything I plant dies! Tried to plant some tall thin leaved plants at the back of the aquarium and these died after 7 weeks or so, I've replaced with cabomba (spelling) which seems to be doing ok. Other than these I had some plants at the side of my tank that I can't yet identify, they look like Anubias but with a hint of pink/red in parts of their leaves, twice now have two of these plants died. Pets at home don't sell the plants with roots, they seem to be cuttings, so with this in mind I tried root tabs, along with the ferts I dose weekly, the C02 (disposable aqua gro cans) and the light (15w with a pink tinge), but still plants die on me / the cabomba while doing ok isn't exactly thriving like I thought it would.

So please if anyone can help with this that'd be great!

Problem number 2.... I'm hooked and now want a bigger tank, and I wanna go tropical. But I just can't decide on what fish to have in there, some fish aren't compatible others nip fins Etc so round and round my head goes.

I think I wanted bettas, or at least one to go into a community tank, but that idea limits me and prevents me having the kind of fish I want in my community. I want my community to be mainly a schooling community with a couple of eye catching centrepiece fish and some others dotted around for good measure.

So I plan on having a 200 litre planted tank with substrate yet to be decided. And the following fish....

School of Tetra (either. Cardinal or rummy nose) 10-12 fish
School of Harlequin Rasbora 10-12 fish
School of Tiger Barbs (if they'll work) 6-7 fish
And then was thinking a few endlers and centrepiece fish as well as some algae eaters (plecs/loaches/shrimp etc)

For centre piece fish I was toying with dwarf gouramis but other than that really struggling for ideas. When I'm more experienced I'd like these to be discus fish.

And for algae eaters, I'm not fussed, just whatever's best suited to go with the schooling fish I like, so again any advice/opinions on this would be greatly received.

 

[hogan53]

Hi
My advise would be learn to keep and grow aquatic tropical plants first then add inhabitants.
Plants need fetilization/feed...like all living things.
Most aquatic plant enthusiasts start to realise this when they have spent their hard earned cash and the plants have disintegrated into mush within a few months.
This site is probably one of the best on the planet http/www.ukaps.org/  for aquatic plant advise.
So get reading Dave

........

 cheers hoggie 

 

[Blondielovesfish]

Hi, for the algae eaters I would use either otocinclus or a bristlenose pleco (catfish), it depends on which you would favour, otocinclus's have to be in groups and eat algae pretty much all their life whereas bristlenose's can be on their own but can become a bit lazy when their older. For the plants what substrate are you using? Is your planted tank coldwater? And does it have lighting? A dwarf gouramis would be great centre piece and I'm personally getting one soon. I'm not quite sure off the tiger barbs but everything else looks fine.
Hope this helps
Blondielovesfish

 

[This Old Spouse]

Can't address everything, but if you're going to get tiger barbs, plan to get at least 8-10. The more there are of them, the less likely they are to go after anything else. 
 
This is assuming you're going for a heated, lit and planted tank.

 

[Pepsidave85]

Hogan, thanks for the link, I've registered over there and asked pretty much the same thing, I'm gonna have to find a few more hours now to spend time reading that forum too haha.
 
Old Spouse, it will be a heated/lit/planted set up when I eventually get round to everything, I'm planning on what fish I want/can have in the same tank, then buying a tank to suit my list. Pleased to know that barbs will be ok with the tetras and harlequins. Just need to decide on the tank, and then work out numers.