I have my heart set on obtaining a 75 gallon tank in the near future. However I cannot afford that quite yet nor do I have the space at the moment, so I am planning to instead revamp my 40 gallon.
The current residents are:
5 green corys
1 Rainbow Shark
1 Golden Algae Eater
6 Neon Tetras
I am looking to switch the substrate over to sand, and to plant the tank. I am a complete newb about plants, I had tanks as a child but looking back they were always over stocked and indequate. Only recently did I even learn people put live plants in tanks. So any suggestions on some basic plants would be appreciated - I will do research as to lighting, water specs, etc, as I know there is more that goes into it than just putting in some plants.
Also, I attempted to have a pearl gourami as my 'centerpiece' fish, but it ended with him jumping the tank - I believe the shark bullied him to the point of suicide. He dislikes any fish with fancy fins, he even killed my serpae tetras one by one. At first I didn't make the connection that he was the culprit, because he is so docile among other fish - doesn't care about the neons or corys, though will somtimes tussle with the algae eater over territory. He doesn't even eat my ghost shrimp
I would like to have some sort of centerpiece fish, but it would have to either be able to hold its own against the shark, or have short fins. If it comes down to it I could simply add some more neons and have the school be the centerpiece, but I would like a large bright fish, perhaps a cichilid..
Any advice on how to go about the revamp would be nice, basically. Right now I have two skull hideys, a ship, and one plastic driftwood/cave piece. Each end of the tank has a little 'jungle' of fake plants, with the middle open swimming space.
The current residents are:
5 green corys
1 Rainbow Shark
1 Golden Algae Eater
6 Neon Tetras
I am looking to switch the substrate over to sand, and to plant the tank. I am a complete newb about plants, I had tanks as a child but looking back they were always over stocked and indequate. Only recently did I even learn people put live plants in tanks. So any suggestions on some basic plants would be appreciated - I will do research as to lighting, water specs, etc, as I know there is more that goes into it than just putting in some plants.
Also, I attempted to have a pearl gourami as my 'centerpiece' fish, but it ended with him jumping the tank - I believe the shark bullied him to the point of suicide. He dislikes any fish with fancy fins, he even killed my serpae tetras one by one. At first I didn't make the connection that he was the culprit, because he is so docile among other fish - doesn't care about the neons or corys, though will somtimes tussle with the algae eater over territory. He doesn't even eat my ghost shrimp
I would like to have some sort of centerpiece fish, but it would have to either be able to hold its own against the shark, or have short fins. If it comes down to it I could simply add some more neons and have the school be the centerpiece, but I would like a large bright fish, perhaps a cichilid..
Any advice on how to go about the revamp would be nice, basically. Right now I have two skull hideys, a ship, and one plastic driftwood/cave piece. Each end of the tank has a little 'jungle' of fake plants, with the middle open swimming space.
