Small Tank, How Many Fish?

[beanie.law]

Hi, I am a complete beginner. I have a small 30 litre tank set up for tropical. I wont be getting any fish for a bit as I have just set up the tank and need to cycle it first. I kept goldfish in a much larger tank a few years ago and it was a disaster I don't want to make the same mistakes again. I think I didn't let the tank mature and put too many fish in too quickly so they all died of fin rot which despite treatment from the vet didn't clear up .

When my tank is ready ( I'm going to do the cycling technique described with ammonia drops) I obviously want to add a few fish. I'm looking at tetras and maybe guppies, barbs. Which fish should I start with, how many to start with and how many could I build up to? The tank is 15" high, x 15" x 9". I really don't want to overstock and I want to do everything right. I appreciate any help and advice as I am a complete beginner.

Thanks.

 

[WILDER]

Congo and diamond tetra's are nice, can't keep guppys with barbs as the barbs are fin nippers, so you might have to rethink that, glad to hear you are doing a fishless cycle, good luck and welcome to the board.

 

[emma12321]

Hi and welcome to the forum,

The tank is only 6.5992 imperial gallons (7.9275 US gallons) and so is really too small to keep tetras in a big enough group that they could be happy. The general guideline is to have 1 inch of adult fish per gallon and tetras should be kept in groups of 6+ to be happy.

You could have a betta and a group or dwarf cordoras ( habrosus, hastatus, pygmeous)
or a group of 7 or 8 pygmy rasboras as they only grow an inch long and an apple snail
or a few african dwarf frogs and apple snails
or a group of guppies of the same sex (as there would be no room for fry)
or mosquito fish look nice and stay small but i don't know too much about them.

Research dwarf and pygmy fish, that way you can have more fish. Let us know what you decide.

Emma

 

[beanie.law]

thanks Emma, I'll look into the dwarf fish. I'm a bit disappointed about the tetras but never mind I don't want the same problems I had with the goldfish. I can always get a bigger tank later.

 

[dwarfgourami]

adding to Emma's suggestions, endlers are also nice. They are a smaller guppy relative with very beautiful colours.

 

[Mikaila31]

I suggest that you get endlers too they r very pretty fish