Stocking A 26 Gallon

[Dennis232]

Hello,

I am new to this forum so hello!

I am currently fishless cycling my 26 gallon tank and I am looking for stocking ideas!

I was thinking this but I am not sure if I am overstocking:

10 x Neon Tetra
5 x Panda Cories
1 x Albino Bristlenose Pleco
1 x Female Betta
1 x German Blue Ram

I know the betta seems weird but I have a lovely calm female betta in with 6 neons n a 10 at the minute so am not worried about any aggression issues.

Thanks for any advice!

 

[moochy13]

avoid neons until your tank is a bit mroe mature, give it 6 months at least. apparently neons these days are so weak and inbred they have a high mortality rate in new set-ups. you really need a pair of rams i think male and female. either leave room for the neons or get something else a bit more hardy for now. im no expert but i'd say your certainly not overstocked. however 10 tetra of another species will probably be bigger than neons, so will make a difference to your stocking, you may have to reduce the number to 6 or 7 if you go for a larger tetra. if you weant to keep a large number of fish similar in size to neons, try cherry barbs. very peaceful and when settled and coloured up they look great.

 

[simonas]

Hi and welcome to the forum

I wouldn;t have said you were overstocked as long as you maintained regular changes

You have fish for all levels as well there

why only a female ram?

Simon

if the stockings done slowly enough I would still add the neons with regular water changes. I;ve found neons to be hardier than a lot of other tetras

 

[Atrixblue.-MFR-.]

Hello,

I am new to this forum so hello!

I am currently fishless cycling my 26 gallon tank and I am looking for stocking ideas!

I was thinking this but I am not sure if I am overstocking:

10 x Neon Tetra
5 x Panda Cories
1 x Albino Bristlenose Pleco
1 x Female Betta
1 x German Blue Ram

I know the betta seems weird but I have a lovely calm female betta in with 6 neons n a 10 at the minute so am not worried about any aggression issues.

Thanks for any advice!

i would hold off on getting a pleco they are messy! and can have a good impact on water quality! algea as well as other wated foods are their main source of food so when feeding fish and their done the pleco goes to work eating left overs, wich means alot of waste wich has a big impact on newly established filter. give iit 4-6 months before you introduce any pleco.

 

[simonas]

bristlenose don;t produce that much waste in my opinion and eat pretty much anything that goes in the tank. they are very active and great plecs to keep as they remain a manageable size. If you get a male they also look great with their whiskers when mature

 

[moochy13]

BN plecs are the cleanest ones ive ever kept.

 

[Dennis232]

Thanks for the quick replies guys!

With regard to the neons, I am upgrading my ten gallon which already has the 6 neons and the betta so I was just going to increase the shoal up to ten. I have had these guys for about 6 months and haven't lost one yet, but I might now be wary of getting any more! What about cardinal tetra? I have heard that they are a bit hardier. Would they shoal with my current neons do you think? Either way I will definitely wait and put those guys in their last

About the rams - I was only going to get the one for fear of being overstocked! I have also read that they can become very territorial/aggressive when in a breeding pair, is that correct? I would love a pair if this is not too much of an issue!

I definitely plan on stocking very slowly, and I currently do 25% weekly water changes on my current tank! I have a pair of bumblebee gobies in a 7 gallon (the fw species) that I was possibly considering moving into the 26g tank too, but I thought that the bottom of the tank might be a bit over stocked then. Any thoughts on this? would I have to remove anything from the above stocking list to accommodate?

Sorry for all the questions!

 

[simonas]

I;m no expert but keep both neons and cardinals and have over the years. I would have thought the neons may be less demanding in their requirements.

As for the rams again if it was me I;d get the pair. I;ve always well stocked my tanks but always had a regular water change regime which has served me well. You have existing tanks so obviously are a competent keeper of fish. As said earlier stock the tank slowly and I;m sure you will have no problems

 

[moochy13]

i wouldnt think neons and cardinals will shoal depsite their close appreance. id put the gobies in there aswell. i have a M/F pair of rams, and either they're not trying to breed or arent aggressive, either way they give no hassle to any of my fish. also, if iw as you knowing the neons i had were good, i'd probably take the plunge and get the extra few aswell, but as you say later down the line.

 

[Gvilleguy]

With the exception of me being ignorant about plecos, I like your stocking list. I also have a 26 gallon. I would not be too shy about the Neons...I purchased 6 Neons and put them in a 3 month old tank. They did quite well. (I lost two of them last month, but only after I temporarily rehoused them in a smaller Q Tank while making some adjustments in the big tank - so I think that was my fault!) The remaining 4 are back in the main tank and doing well.

 

[Dennis232]

Great!

Thank you for the great advice,

So as it stands my potential stocking list is:

10 neons
1 BN pleco - my brother in law has one of these and I think he is great! Asked my bro in law and he said that he was messier than his other inhabitants but wasn't too messy to reconsider
5 Panda Cories
2 bumblebee gobies
2 rams
1 betta

This tank feels fuller than other tanks I have had, but I should be ok with this if I keep up regular water changes right? I forgot to mention that my tank is fully planted and I am running a U3 fluval filter which can be used in aquariums almost twice as large (40 gallons).

 

[Gvilleguy]

I think you'll be okay with regular water changes and that nice, big filter. Let us know how it goes. That assumes you will somewhat slowly build up to that stock level to allow your filter colonies to keep up.

I've had some fish die off in my tank (but I don't think it was overstocking since my water basic stats were good) - but at one point my full stocking list was:

5 Glofish
3 Zebras
6 Neons
4 Bolivian Rams