Stocking Ideas For A Newbie

[tibby25731]

My kid brother has just bought a 2ft tank, approx 60 litres. He already has 6 mountain minnows from a smaller tank so has moved them in with their filter (turns out he was waaay overfiltered on his tiny tank, his filter will handle 400 litres an hour). When he buys a heater, he is gonna buy some tropicals.
Can anyone give suggestions for hardy, easy to keep fish, that are colourful or have lots of personality? He is unsure as to what to keep, and will probably keep the minnows in there, as i hear they can live in cold or tropical waters. I'll make sure he increases temp very gradually though!
Any help or comments appreciated, I'm still pretty new to all this myself!

 

[tim1]

Make sure that he cycles the tank first! Or else you won't keep your fish for long.

Some good fish in your situation would be Zebra Dions(sp), Neon Tetra's(actually, almost any small tetra), the smaller sized cories like the Bronze Cory, maybe some colorful snails...

Make sure it is cycled though.

 

[waterdrop]

tibby is a good cycler I think

 

[tibby25731]

Me, I know my stuff about cycling, yeah! However, this is my kid brother we are talking about... I tried to explain fishless cycling to him but he didn't listen and went ahead and bought mountain minnows. No casualties yet, though I told him to do a partial water change every other day at least to keep levels low. He doesn't have a master test kit so don't know what his levels are, though he has had no casualties yet. He's gonna get the LFS to test his water before adding any more though. Wish I lived nearer or I could have given him some mature media All i can do it keep giving him advice and hope he sticks to it.

 

[waterdrop]

Oh I thought you lived in the same house! No wonder this isn't going so smoothly!

 

[ALW]

I would suggest getting some Zebra Danios, these guys are very hardy

 

[Ace Of Spades]

400 LPH isnt overfiltered, its good filtration....., I have 600lph on my 60 litre
yeah and make sure you cycle

 

[tibby25731]

400 LPH isnt overfiltered, its good filtration....., I have 600lph on my 60 litre
yeah and make sure you cycle

I know, but it was overfiltering his small plastic tank!

I would suggest getting some Zebra Danios, these guys are very hardy

Thanks Andy, good idea! they are eyecatching too.

 

[fish are friends....]

guppies, swordtails and platys are nice a colourful!

 

[dwarfgourami]

I don't think swordtails are a great suggestion for a 60 l tank (presunably 2 ft); in fact, even danios are a bit active for this length.
But with the minnows he's going to want to keep the temperature at the lower end of the tropical range; I would look at some of the cooler water corydoras, such as paleatus. Platies are another option; they don't need it all that warm. But make sure he lets his present bacteria population stabilize before he adds anything new.