So I Went And Done It

[hackmaster]

i've bought myself a new tank with overhead filter and decided to go tropical

i have a 125l/28imperialg, 33us tank currently cycling now

had loads of advice from the net/multiple shops

right stocking:

1 bristlenose pleco
6 black ruby barbs
2 kribensis cichlids
1 red fin black shark

the advice i'm looking for is confirmation on everything and what order and timescale should i introduce the fish

 

[Skins]

i've bought myself a new tank with overhead filter and decided to go tropical

i have a 125l/28imperialg, 33us tank currently cycling now

had loads of advice from the net/multiple shops

right stocking:

1 bristlenose pleco
6 black ruby barbs
2 kribensis cichlids
1 red fin black shark

the advice i'm looking for is confirmation on everything and what order and timescale should i introduce the fish

Hello and welcome to the forum.
How are you cycling your tank?

Keith.

 

[moochy13]

techincally, if the tank is properly cycled you would be able to put all fish in at once. but i would err on the side caution and add them over a week or 2. i assume you've read up abotu cycling and how its done etc ? dont get the red tailed black shark (RTBS), it will get big and aggressive. there are other much better fish to choose. but not silver/bala sharks or black sharks, or clown loach. they will all get too big. get a M/F pair of kribs and give them somewhere like a cave to call their own.

im a bit biased because i think they're great, but i would add 6 cory's to the tank. all the same type. i have a tank very similar size to yours, check out my stocking in my sig below. i never have trouble with my water and no aggression. the black angel probably shouldnt be in there, but he was rehomed from another tank.

 

[hackmaster]

techincally, if the tank is properly cycled you would be able to put all fish in at once. but i would err on the side caution and add them over a week or 2. i assume you've read up abotu cycling and how its done etc ? dont get the red tailed black shark (RTBS), it will get big and aggressive. there are other much better fish to choose. but not silver/bala sharks or black sharks, or clown loach. they will all get too big. get a M/F pair of kribs and give them somewhere like a cave to call their own.

im a bit biased because i think they're great, but i would add 6 cory's to the tank. all the same type. i have a tank very similar size to yours, check out my stocking in my sig below. i never have trouble with my water and no aggression. the black angel probably shouldnt be in there, but he was rehomed from another tank.

currently fishless cycling

i've been told that the kribs would keep the shark in touch (really wanted this) and the barbs would be happy schoaling together

i have a log hide and a shipwreck in 2 halves both hollow also a large piece of bogwood and when the cyclings completed i'll be adding live plants... amazon swords, both rear corners bunched together and a wall across the back with airstone streching the full length...

 

[Curiosity101]

If you want a m/f pair of kribs and a RTBS then I would drop the pleco and not add any other bottom dwellers. This way the kribs can take one side and the rtbs can take the other. It's still a risk, and personally I don't like rtbs's to even consider it lol. However it could work.

The barbs can handle themselves against a rtbs aswell I'd have though.
6 black ruby barbs
2 kribensis cichlids
1 red fin black shark

It's relatively lightly stocked as it is, however if you end up with a breeding pair of kribs this could end up as a good thing. The only thing I would be tempted to do would be to up the number of barbs to 8.

 

[moochy13]

the other thing to consider is apparantly RTBS dont like anything shaped like themselves or coloured like themselves. if you go with the krib/rtbs, i might also be tempted to get another school of barbs. its a decent size tank, and i think would look good with 2 schools of barbs in. my personal favourites are odessa barbs.

 

[Skins]

the other thing to consider is apparantly RTBS dont like anything shaped like themselves or coloured like themselves. if you go with the krib/rtbs, i might also be tempted to get another school of barbs. its a decent size tank, and i think would look good with 2 schools of barbs in. my personal favourites are odessa barbs.

I have a shoal of oddessa barbs and boy do they colour up nice.

Keith.

 

[hackmaster]

If you want a m/f pair of kribs and a RTBS then I would drop the pleco and not add any other bottom dwellers. This way the kribs can take one side and the rtbs can take the other. It's still a risk, and personally I don't like rtbs's to even consider it lol. However it could work.

The barbs can handle themselves against a rtbs aswell I'd have though.
6 black ruby barbs
2 kribensis cichlids
1 red fin black shark

It's relatively lightly stocked as it is, however if you end up with a breeding pair of kribs this could end up as a good thing. The only thing I would be tempted to do would be to up the number of barbs to 8.

Defo want a male and female...

Hmm now there's a thought I quite like the idea o dropping the pleco to keep the shark and adding a couple more barbs

If you want a m/f pair of kribs and a RTBS then I would drop the pleco and not add any other bottom dwellers. This way the kribs can take one side and the rtbs can take the other. It's still a risk, and personally I don't like rtbs's to even consider it lol. However it could work.

The barbs can handle themselves against a rtbs aswell I'd have though.
6 black ruby barbs
2 kribensis cichlids
1 red fin black shark

It's relatively lightly stocked as it is, however if you end up with a breeding pair of kribs this could end up as a good thing. The only thing I would be tempted to do would be to up the number of barbs to 8.

Defo want a male and female...

Hmm now there's a thought I quite like the idea o dropping the pleco to keep the shark and adding a couple more barbs

 

[waterdrop]

Hello hackmaster and Welcome to TFF!

"currently fishless cycling"... hmmm...

There must be dozens of interpretations out there now of what this means! In our freshwater beginners forum here we don't think of this as something necessarily easy to just read about and do.. and so we have many fishless cycling threads where newcomers present their numerical results and interact with the other members to be sure the bits and pieces of this they've heard are really working out correctly in their tanks.

For instance, for us it has worked out that we like to "qualify" a biofilter by ensuring that it can drop 5ppm of ammonia to zero ppm nitrite and zero ppm ammonia within 12 hours after dosing the 5ppm ammonia for a full week. This tough "qualification" is something we've found seems to be roughly around the range of what's necessary to ensure that the biofilter doesn't fail and "mini-spike" on the aquarist after they introduce their first large batch of fish!

Anyway, that's just one example of how our home-grown ammonia fishless cycling process is a bit different here in the TFF beginners section and I just wanted to offer this to you as we so many newcomers immediately focused on their first stocking, when in fact that is something ideally pretty far down the road sometimes.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[hackmaster]

well thanks for all the info i believe i have researched enough info to successfully cycle my tank and i will not be adding stock till the water is safe to do so i.e. tank dropping 5ppm's within 12 hrs stably over a period

i was generally asking on thoughts and views of my stocking choice

many thanks again

 

[OldMan47]

Welcome to the forum Hackmaster.
C101 has stated something without coming right out and saying it. Kribs are bottom dwellers. They are very territorial when breeding and a pair will almost always try to breed. It puts most other fish that spend time near the bottom of the tank at risk. Like C101, I do not care much for the RTBS but to each his own. A RTBS is an aggressive fish in any tank and you must keep that in mind when choosing tank mates. Most barbs can also be quite aggressive so you may have a proper match there.
As to WD's suggestion that fishless cycling means different things to different people, he is quite correct. I have even seen people talk about fishless cycling when they simply meant that they let the tank water reach a stable temperature with the filter running. Here on TFF we mean the process of developing a biological filter capable of handling a full fish stock with no measurable ammonia or nitrites present. There is an article here on the forum that gives basic directions on how to do that. I see that Skins has a link to that article in his signature as I do too. The question of how to go about fishless cycling comes up over and over again so a convenient link in my signature area makes it easy to refer someone to good advice.