Stocking For New, Cycled 63 Gallon Tank?

[PrincessKiara]

Hello! I'm 16 years old, and I am an enthusiastic hobbyist; I used to live in the States but I had to move and leave my 28 and 10 gallon tanks behind. Now I'm getting a cycled 63-gallon with an external filter that takes the water out from the bottom of the tank (don't know what that's called) this weekend, and I would like to know if my stocking ideas are feasible.
First off, this is how I plan to decorate the tank. I want a 3" deep sand bottom, thickly planted with Cryptocorynes, Elodea, Hornwort, Micro and Amazon Swords, corkscrew Vallisneria, and Java Ferns (I've had all but the last 2 of those plants before and I love them!) I'm going for a natural look with some driftwood and large stones in between the plants to make it look like a lost dense-jungle river. (The tank comes with a good bulb and hood, so lighting shouldn't be a problem.)
As far as animal inhabitants, I'd like to keep (Obviously not add them all at once though):
-2 African Dwarf Frogs
-6 Cherry Shrimp (blue variety),
-Some Mystery aka Briggs Snails (one of every color I can get LOL!)
-2 Discus (What's the minimum temperature at which they can be safely kept?)
-2 Angels (I know they are 'crazy' feeders, but is there a way I can ensure the discus also get food?)
-6 Zebra Danios
-6 Neon or Cardinal Tetras
-3 Guppies (2 female, 1 male)
-3 Swordtails (2 female, 1 male)
-1 Betta (male)
-1 pair of Heterandria formosa (I think they're called 'Mosquitofish'?)
-6 Micro Corydoras cats
 
Also, I have a tiny little question. I saw a bunch of little, adorable turtles at my LFS and asked the guy in charge whether the turtles wouldn't drown (they were in a fully aquatic tank with some guppies and platies). He said yes, they are fully aquatic 'unlike river turtles', but I'd need to attach a platform to the tank at the surface of the water. Is that true? They were soooo adorabubble! They had little red spots on the sides of their heads and they couldn't have been over 3 or 4 inches long.
But I thought there were no fully aquatic reptiles.
Please help!
Thanks in advance!
~PK.

 

[bricko]

Hi,
 
Below are my comments on your proposed stocking, hope this helps
 
2 African Dwarf Frogs - No
-6 Cherry Shrimp (blue variety),  - These will get snacked on by Angels or Discus
-Some Mystery aka Briggs Snails (one of every color I can get LOL!)
-2 Discus (What's the minimum temperature at which they can be safely kept?) Discus need to be 28c minimum and like softer water, personally I would just get an extra Angel as they are easier to look after
-2 Angels (I know they are 'crazy' feeders, but is there a way I can ensure the discus also get food?) Scrap the Discus and get 3 Angels
-6 Zebra Danios - Would not bother, just up the amount of cardinals
-6 Neon or Cardinal Tetras - I would get cardinals as they are larger and more robust strain and wont easily be snacked on by the angels, also up the group to 10 -15 and scrap the guppies and swords
-3 Guppies (2 female, 1 male) - dont bother in this tank as they will be harrassed by the angels and also they breed like rabbits!
-3 Swordtails (2 female, 1 male) - similar to guppies they breed alot!, may be ok but I would personally go for one large shoal of cardinals
-1 Betta (male) - Deffo not
-1 pair of Heterandria formosa (I think they're called 'Mosquitofish'?) - not sure
-6 Micro Corydoras cats - A nice group of cories will look great in thes setup maybe up to 10
 
This stocking would mean you have all south american fish, bit like an amazon biotope especially if you plant it correctly too, dont get any turtles as they dont mix long term with fish and will snack on your stock as they grow.  you could always do a turtle aquarium instead but I know very little about them.
 
Also how do you know the tank is cycled?  Is it still running now?  If not the bacteria in the filter will be dead and you will need to cycle again.
 
Just my thoughts anyway but hope it helps you make the right decisions.

 

[PrincessKiara]

Heh, thanks!
D'aww, I love discus
The tank isn't mine yet, I'm trading my tablet for it this weekend. It's got no fish but is still running, so yes, it's cycled
Is there any kind of freshwater shrimp that won't be nommed by the Angels?
Also, could you please tell me what the problem with the betta is? /curious I had one in my 28g community tank for one and a half years and had no problem Is it something about each fish's individual...erm..."fishionality"? Or is it something more specific?
I prefer tanks with small shoals of lots of different species as I like being able to tell my fish apart (I name all my fish LOL), and while I can with difficulty tell apart 6 nearly identical fish, it's kind of hard with more What about White Clouds? That's another fish I've wanted for the longest time.
As for swordtails, I am fascinated by the idea of fish having live babies, but I suppose I could forgo that in favor of an angel...I want a pair though, not three. It just seems a bit more...romantic, LOL! How can I tell male from female when buying young ones?
And also, very importantly, how do I 'tame' the fish? I want them to eat from my hand and all that sort of stuff. I also don't want them to freak out when I put my hands in the tank to clean it or rearrange the decorations...
Thanks again!
~PK.

 

[Ninjouzata]

The issues I see with the zebra danios and white clouds is that they are temperate fish, not tropical. 
Maybe rummynose tetras? I agree that it'd be better to just get one big school, but if you want multiples then that's cool too!
Would go with cardinals rather than the neons, they'd be less likely to get eaten by the angels.
 
I can't really think of any shrimp that wouldn't get eaten, except for the larger ones like bamboo shrimp, and those like a high flow, I believe?
 
I believe the angels would probably pick on the betta. Their long flowing fins are likely to get nipped. Then if you get guppies it's recommended not to mix them, though yes it does depend on the "fishionality"
 
Don't know anything about mosquito fish, unfortunately.
 
Cories seem okay as far as I can tell, agreed to up their numbers. Since they're so small you could probably do more than 10, but would wait on someone else to confirm.
 
I'm not sure on the swordtails as, IIRC, they like hard water, and the angels and tetras like it soft? I don't know if that would bother you or them or not.
I can't say anything as I'm keeping rummynoses and I have hard water. I've also heard it's easier to keep soft water fish in hard water than it is hard water fish in soft.
 
How long has the tank you're getting been without fish?
 
@Bricko I thought you should only keep angels in pairs, as the odd one out would get picked on? Although I suppose if you got all females it could be alright?
Agreed that turtles should not be mixed with fish.

 

[wrightt3]

TBH Cardinals and rummynoses aren't really that much bigger than neons and I can't see as a fully grown angelfish would have any difficulty having a munch if he or she wanted to. Then again I may be wrong.
 
A lot of people are saying no to turtles but if you were willing to ditch the smaller fish, I'd say it could be done depending on the species you go for. Maybe 2-4 angels (depending on exact dimensions) and 2 small turtles? I've seen something similar before and it was a very unique and interesting tank.

 

[Ch4rlie]

And also, very importantly, how do I 'tame' the fish? I want them to eat from my hand and all that sort of stuff. I also don't want them to freak out when I put my hands in the tank to clean it or rearrange the decorations...

 
Really would not recommend that you try this. Touching the fish can damage their natural slime coat, definitely not worth doing. But there are interactive fish though, like some cichlids and betta splendens but not recommended to stock these into your planned stock list.
 
And agreed with just about all the stocking advice given by the others.

 

[PrincessKiara]

I guess I could try first to see if the angels can eat the kind of fish I want. They'd definitely eat the mosquitofish though, since even the female is not over 3/4-1 inch long when fully grown (they're livebearers).
I would love to try some of the smaller fish, so I will get the smallest angels I can find. I know they'll grow, but depending on age, smaller fish should grow into smaller adults, right? But how do I tell male from female? About all I can tell apart are livebearers (and I believe Neons and Danios, the female looks a heck of a lot fatter to me. Or, at least, I think that's the female, since once I watched mine spawn. It was awesome, especially with the Neons, but unfortunately I never found any Neon babies).
What of Marble Hatchetfish and Clown Killifish? I've kept both before and I love them, they are such little personalities and so easy to keep And I love the Clown Killie's blue/violet eyes.
I already have two guppies I bought yesterday They're in my quarantine tank.
Or, at least, I used to have two, before the female decided it was a perfect time to pop 11 fry on the way home...so I'll have to see if I can get them to behave. I don't want to overstock the tank, and I will put in plenty of hiding places so there's no need to get territorial.
What would be the problem with keeping ADF's in this setup?
Thank you all so much for your help!
~PK.

 

[ncguppy830]

I wouldnt keep Angels with killies bad mix IMO. BTW mosquitofish females grow to 2 and a half inches.No all angels grow into the same size if there keep healthy, marlbled hatchets are a good mix though as long as there enough.

 

[PrincessKiara]

Okay Thanks! *hugs everyone*
LOL, I'm like that
One more question though: Why not ADFs? And what would the angels do to the killies?

 

[ncguppy830]

Adfs arent good for communitties because of feeding issues,most of the food get eaten by the fish.
The killies will become lunch to the angels  IMO.

 

[PrincessKiara]

Haha, evil angels. They should be called 'devilfish' instead LOL!
I had ADFs in a community tank for quite a while. I would mix half a frozen brine shrimp or Daphnia cube with some tank water and put it in a turkey baster, then shoot it at the bottom for them to eat. They always got plenty, and there was even enough left over for the fish to nom. I also used sinking amphibian/reptile pellets, which none but the micro Cories seemed to care for. The frogs didn't really like them, but would eat them if there was no frozen live food.
EDIT: OMG I found the tiniest ramshorn snail in a tank at school and the teacher told me I could bring him home! He is sooooo pretty!
Guess I now have one snail for my tank