Starting A Second Tank And Need Some Help!

[NewTankGuy]

I am looking to start a second 29-gallon lightly planted tank, and am looking for some suggestions on what should I put in there.  I want one, or two large fish (obviously large being relevant to the tank size) to be the focal point of the tank, but I also want a few others in there as well.  I really like my barbs, especially because you can mix colors and patterns and they still will school, but don’t think I want more of the same as I already have a school of them in my 75, that I want to keep there.  I want the tank to be busy and active so I was thinking that I would stay towards simi-aggressive and aggressive so they are fun to watch all day while I’m stuck at work. 
 
Now I am new to fish keeping, and I will make sure the tank is cycled, and all that, but I want to put together a fun, visually appealing tank, that all fish can stay in it, without having to be moved when they get older and larger.  Any suggestions that you all have would be awesome, and greatly appreciated! As I have no Idea really where to start, or what to start researching. 

 

[Mamashack]

Hope someone comes along with some suggestions soon. I have tanks from 12L to 60L so not in your league at all!
Good luck with stocking your new tank and well done for going the fishless cycle route!

 

[akainechu]

I currently have a 29 gallon up and running and I have three female bettas and size mollies of varying colors. For the size of the tank, you might want to do larger fish and get less of them, or do a larger school of small fish. Depending on the decorations (wood or rocks and plants) you might want to pick them out first! Some larger fish have specific needs in decorations. What kind of water do you have? Hard? Soft? pH? etc please!
 
A coworker of mine always recommends cichlids, but I haven't fallen in love with them yet. 

 

[NewTankGuy]

Thanks for the tips! I also like the idea of a bunch of smaller fish that will school, or have a couple schools.  I just thought having one, or two large ones (I really was thinking just one, but I know a lot of fish dont do well being alone) would be a cool visual, as in my larger tank this is what I have and its always fun just watching the angles hang out and the school of barbs racing around the tank in the background.  Though being a smaller tank (the new 29-gal) just the small guys might be great!
 
So with the betta's, I thought because they are "fighting" fish they always have to be alone, and have their own tank, or partition of a tank so that they dont kill each other, and the other fish....?  So is that not really true?
 
Decor for my new tank is something that I am completely open too, and do not have any pre-determined plans for what I will do.  I know driftwood is important for almost all tanks, and the live plants always make the fish seem so much happier, even if they are eaten, so that's all I was planning on now...having some kind of wood, and live plants in there. 
 
As for my water, my 75 holds its pH at about 6.6-6.8 with no additives, and in that tank I have 6 live plants, 2 moss balls, and a medium to large piece of driftwood, along with 7 tiger barbs, 3 anglefish, 2 dwarf gourami's and a baby pelco.  

 

[Wills]

Hi sounds like a nice start to a tank.
 
Just want to maybe make you think of "semi aggressive - aggressive" fish - generally speaking fish termed like this are more intelligent and less likely to be a schooling fish they are also more likely to be a micro predator of sorts - as in would usually eat bugs and water insects. It is also quite relative, as in it depends what you keep as to judge how aggressive something is. So for example I have always kept American Cichlids which some would term as aggression but if you balance all the other tank members around this it rarely leads directly to conflict. For me using words like semi aggressive and aggressive to term fish simplifies it down far too much, in a well balanced tank that is well planned etc the levels of dominance, intelligence and interaction should mean that no one fish or group of fish actively displays consistently aggressive behavior as this is when you will loose fish at some point as one day it will just get too much.
 
So yeah... just wanted to put my thoughts on that out there.
 
Personally I wouldnt keep Bettas in a 30 gallon tank, due to how they are bred they are not suited to the currents you get in the bigger tanks they often get exhausted and its just not an ideal tank for them.
 
Anyway back to the tank in hand! 30 gallon tanks are a great size and can be quite flexible, like I mentioned earlier I love American Cichlids, they differ from their African cousins as they ideally want to be kept with other species in the tank to fulfill other roles.
 
For example with American Cichlids it is often best to have schooling fish with them this is for 2 situations, 1 - if you have a shy cichlid a calm school will act as dither fish, this is to show the shy cichlid that there are no threats around and it is safe to patrol mid water where as without the school it would be telling the cichlid that there are no small fish around which means there is something killing them there fore its best to stay hidden and out of trouble. 2 - The other use a school of fish has is if you have particularly tough fish together (though not in this size tank) and you need a school of robust shiny fish to distract the cichlids from each other and be able to take a slight hit when it happens.
 
In a 30 gallon tank I would mainly look at peaceful South American Cichlids. Things like Apistogrammas, Laetacaras, Keyholes, Checkerboards, Nannacaras, Cupids, Bolivian Rams, Blue Rams (if you went down a very specific route). There are some broad groupings in that list but you will find species within most of those groups and how they differ
 
Apistogramms are best kept in hareems with 1 male per tank and a few females, some species I think the females look a bit boring but my favorite is Apistogramma Panduro with their electric blue males and their bumble bee black and yellow females it makes for a nice contrast and they are quite easy to keep. Laetacaras are best kept in pairs but are probably the most peaceful in there and you could keep a few pairs in a 29g. Cupids would be a great addition to the tank, they are best kept in groups, 4 would do nicely in your tank some places state them as getting to 5 inches but that is the absolute maximum and most will stay between 3.5-4.5 with size differences appearing in the group as they grow depending on the hierachy.
 
Rams can be tricky, Blue Rams are hard to keep because depending on how they were bred dictates how they need to be kept and its very hard to know exactly where the ones your buying come from - ie are they close to wild or or are they a long chain of tank bred fish? If you like these the most make sure you get wild caught fish - they need very soft water and a ph below 6.8 and high temperatures around 28c. However by contrast Bolivian Rams are much harider and easier to keep - they do well in groups as well, they are quite gregarious fish.
 
Have a look at the names I mentioned and see which you like
 
The fish I would put with them, would be a school of tetras - maybe something like Cardinal Tetras, Pencil Fish, Marbled Hatchet Fish. You could also look at larger characins like Spotted Headstanders a trio would be nice. A school of Cories for the bottom something like Pandas or Triniliniatus are always nice. And maybe some whiptail catfish like LDA010 Red Lizards
 
Wills

 

[attibones]

You could do a sorority in this tank but you would need around 25 well-bred females all raised together. This is not a tank for beginners. I tried it and it was not the best experience (though when everything was good, it was fantastic). Others can have them successfully. You really need to understand betta behavior for this tank.

I would do a trio of honey gourami and a school of maybe fifteen harlequin rasboras or something similar. Then two or three bristlenose plecos, assorted shrimp and snails. Tons of plants, some driftwood for the plecos, a few caves, and you'd have a stunning display.

 

[Sickbound]

An awesome semi-aggressive fish for a 29 gallon tank would be an African Butterfly fish. Fascinating and beautiful fish. Fun to feed, too. They stay at the surface of the water, and eat anything that floats. Just make sure you have a tight fitting lid so it doesn't jump out and kill itself; they are magnificent jumpers (mine recently died because I forgot to close the lid overnight, and I feel horrible about it 

). You should only have one in a 29 gallon, and be sure to keep some floating plants or decorations so that it can feel somewhat secure. Mine ate floating flakes and other processed foods, but I've read that some do not accept these types of foods. They all prefer frozen or live foods anyways. Bloodworms, crickets, tubifex worms, etc. You should also beware it trying to attack and eat anything that is small enough for it to take a bite out of while you are feeding it, though all fish of mine were fast enough to evade it and also quickly learned to avoid it while it was eating.