Stocking Ideas

[CezzaXV]

Hey all,

I've just got my first fish, 6 cardinal tetra, 5 cories, a bamboo shrimp and a bunch of snails in my 60L.

My eventual plan was to add 6 rummy nose tetra and a betta to the tank. Not so sure if I like the idea so much any more.

Looking for some stocking inspiration really! What would you add to a 60L tank with 6 cardinals and 5 cories?

 

[Fishy friend2]

i would probably add a male betta. Or bump up the shoal of cories and or cardinals

 

[eaglesaquarium]

I'd increase the cardinals. More is better with shoaling fish... not so much multiple shoals.

 

[the_lock_man]

Just watch the cardinals with the (forthcoming) fighter. I had a shoal of 6, no problems, upped the shoal to 8, and they started having a nip. It was one of the existing shoal that started - I assumed with the slightly higher numbers in the shoal that it felt braver.

My personal recommendation for you (yep, broken record time) is peacock gobies.

 

[Fishy friend2]

Just watch the cardinals with the (forthcoming) fighter. I had a shoal of 6, no problems, upped the shoal to 8, and they started having a nip. It was one of the existing shoal that started - I assumed with the slightly higher numbers in the shoal that it felt braver

+1 and same thing can happen if the numbers are too small

 

[CezzaXV]

Any ideas on an alternative to the betta? I'm just concerned that I'm gonna end up with a super-aggressive one and I don't really want to have to keep him in a separate tank.

Preferably not livebearers as I don't want to be inundated with fry!

 

[eaglesaquarium]

Honestly, I think you might be better off just leaving it out entirely and not adding something else to the stocking.


Then again...
If you are looking for something to add a splash of color and personally then think about this:
Drop the betta and rummynose from the stocking plan and add 6 MALE (only) fancy guppies. The male guppies won't produce fry, so you don't need to worry about that. You would want a group of them, because they will "battle" for breeding rights. By "battle" mostly what they do is pose in front of each other, flaring their fins and doing a nose to nose swim dance. Mine have never nipped each other or any of the others in my tank.


The guppies will bring a lot of the same things to your tank that the betta would have, plus a little more. You will get the long colorful flowing fins, but you will get them more spread out. Plus, you can mix and match the colors, something that is much more difficult to do with bettas.

 

[CezzaXV]

The reason I haven't already added the rummies, despite my filter being able to handle the bioload, was that I wanted to see how the fish I wanted most behave. The cardinals are very shy, but I'm hoping that if I add a few more and forget the rummies it'll encourage them to come out a bit more.

I didn't know you could keep all male guppies together, but it does sound like it might be a promising idea.

Methinks I might need to pay the LFS a visit some time soon to see what they've got on offer.