Stocking a 54 liter tank

[KaiDragon]

I am new to fish keeping and am trying to decide on how to stock my 54 liter tank. I like tetras, Cory catfish and guppies. Do you have any combinations or new suggestions. I was thinking 4-6 Pygmy Cories and 4-6 guppies.

 

[Byron]

Welcome to TFF.

The first info we like to know concerns your source (tap) water parameters. Parameters refers to the GH (general or total hardness), KH (carbonate hardness or Alkalinity), pH and temperature. Thee latter you can obviously deal with via a heater in the tank, and for the present the KH is not that relevant. But the GH does impact fish, and pH is related, so it is important to know these two values. If you don't already know, you may be able to find this data on your municipal water authority's website, or you can call them. You want the number and the unit of measurement they use (there are several).

Once we know that, suggesting suitable species will be easy. Just commenting on the two species you mention, guppies require moderately hard (or harder) water, while the pygmy cories need water on the soft side. GH impacts fish because it either helps or hampers their internal physiological processes and avoiding stress is key to healthy fish.

I will also just mention another aspect, shoaling species. These are fish that must be in groups as they have an inherent need for this for one or several reasons. Corydoras catfish are shoaling fish and have a high social development so this is important. If pygmy cories are suited to your water, a group of 8-12 would be advisable in a 54 liter (15 gallon) tank. This species of cory is particularly sensitive when it comes to such things.

 

[KaiDragon]

My water is on the harder side as I live in London so how would that effect things?

 

[Essjay 135]

If you live in London, it is probably very hard!

If you enter your postcode here https://www.thameswater.co.uk/help-and-advice/water-quality/check-the-water-quality-in-your-area it will hopefully tell you how hard your water is. There should be a number in ppm calcium carbonate (I typed in their registered address postcode and it gave a number for there )

 

[KaiDragon]

It is 259 ppm
Degrees Clarke: 18
Degrees German(DH): 14
Degrees French: 26

Not really sure what this means

 

[KaiDragon]

259 ppm

 

[KaiDragon]

259ppm
What does that mean?

 

[seangee]

Its worth checking anyway. Guppies are usually fine in London's water as well as most livebearers, platies, mollies, swordtails etc. Corys are not such a good idea. They will have significantly shortened lifespans as their bodies cannot cope with the amount of minerals in such hard water.

 

[KaiDragon]

259 ppm

 

[KaiDragon]

In that case what fish would you suggest?

 

[Essjay 135]

That is very helpful. That list is just the hardness given in different units. There are two units used in fishkeeping so you only need to bother with these two:
259 ppm
German degrees (DH) 14.
Some websites use one unit, other websites use the other.


As seangee says, good for livebearers but not good for cories or almost all tetras.

 

[KaiDragon]

Also is there a way I could change it?

 

[KaiDragon]

So any ideas on stocking for my tank then? Thank you for the information it is very helpful. Should I just do players and guppies or something?

 

[KaiDragon]

Platies not players sorry also should I stick to Livebearers and if I wanted more variety any ideas? Sorry if I’m being difficult. I’m not trying to be.

 

[Essjay 135]

seangee said
"Our earlier posts crossed but your water is what we expected. I usually advise people to get fish that suit their water because it really is easier (and cheaper) that way. If you were set on keeping corys and tetra or rasbora you can mix your water 50/50 with RO or distilled water. So on day one you would have to buy 25 litres of RO water. Then if you change 50% every week you waould need another 15 liters (approximately) per week. You would also need to have spare RO water available in case you need to do an emergency water change. If you do go this rote it means you can't keep guppies.

It is worth bearing in mind that 54 litres is pretty small (in fishkeeping terms) so the so called nano species would be best. if you see some you like you can look up their requirements on https://www.seriouslyfish.com/ where they also give suggested tank sizes"


{sorry sean, your post came up twice so I deleted one of them, then they turned into just one deleted post . So I've copied what you said. ]