Stocking A 30 Gallon?

[Kelsyann]

I'm going to buy a 30 gallon tank later this week. I'm fairly new to fishkeeping and currently have a 10 gallon with one male betta and 4 cory catfish in it.
I know all about cycling and the importance of it, just did it for my 10 gallon. I intend on keeping freshwater tropical fish and I would like a nice community tank. I have no idea of what I want yet, so any ideas are great! I'm thinking some kind of Gourami and tetras and I believe I want more cories in this tank too, they're just too cute
Since I still have to set up and cycle this tank I have a lot of time to decide on stocking and I don't want to make any bad decisions.
Any suggestions?
Thanks in advance!

 

[keeton]

hi, im in the process of sorting everything out for my new 29gallon tank.
from what i've read, you get
3 honey gouramis (2 female and 1 male)
10 neon/cardinal tetra or something similar
5 or 6 harlequin rasbora
5 or 6 cory catfish
a bristle nose pleco
and some shrimp

im going for:
2 honey gouramis (1male 1female)
10 neon tetra
5 peppered catfish
5 tiger barbs
5 harlequin rasbora
2 bristle nose pleco
and some shrimp

hope this helps

 

[Kelsyann]

Keeton your tank sounds perfect! Instead of the harlequin rasboras, I think I'd like to add a few more neons, corys, and tiger barbs, to end up with this:

2 honey gourami or 2 dwarf (I like the dwarf better, can they still work out?)
12-15 neon tetras
6 cory catfish
6-7 tiger barbs
1 bristlenose pleco

Would this be overstocked? If not, then I think this is the setup I will stick with.

 

[Honeythorn]

Dwarf gouramis are quite sensitive, they seem to die for no reason at the drop of a hat so you may want to go with the Honey variety. Neons are also quite sensitive and should be the last group of fish you add once the tank has been fully cycled and running for acouple of months. I would add the neons in two groups of 6-8 a couple of weeks apart , to allow the filter to adjust with the increase in waste.

That stocking should be fine but I would suggest trying to get hold of an external filter to run it. More media capacity, so with the usual regular weekly water changes you can get away with that stocking a little better than if you had a Fluval 3 or something.

 

[Kelsyann]

Okay so I guess no Dwarfs, Honey it is! I was aware that the neons should be added last, thanks for reminded me to split them into groups though. So which fish species should I add first? Or does it not matter, besides the neons? And I'm going to Petsmart today, in about half an hour in fact, so I'll look at external filters while I'm there.

 

[keeton]

i would say add your catfish first, and maybe yoiur tiger barb but im not 100% about adding them yet.

 

[fishncan]

Watch those tiger barbs... they can be nippy

 

[keeton]

i thought as long as you have 5or6 you'd be alright as they would keep it within there selfs

 

[lordofthesea]

well, it's taking a risk. tiger barbs can be very nippy - however many you have.

 

[keeton]

would they be nippy with neons, harlequins, corys, BN's or honey's? its the honey's that i would be worried about?

 

[tenohfive]

I don't know about the tiger barbs, though pentazona barbs are a safe alternative. I've never noticed them before, but bought 5 the other day on a whim (I've read about them, and knew they'd be fine in a community tank) and they're great little fish - I'm looking to add a few more to their numbers soon.

You could get away with a Bolivian ram pair/GBR pair, or some apistogramma - apistogramma cacatuoides ('cockatoo cichlid') or apistogramma agassizi are both beautiful fish.)

As Honey mentioned, add a few groups at a time once the tanks cycled, not least because some of the fish you've mentioned (neon's, corys, gourami) tend to struggle sometimes in a newly setup tank - better to wait a few months. Barbs would be fine though.

 

[Kelsyann]

Wow I really like those pentazona barbs, I'm going to have to look into them. They aren't as agressive as the Tigers? Are they common in LFS or would I need to go to some specialty store?