Stocking Suggestions

[Lizi_angelfish]

I've recently got a second hand 60cm x 30cm x 35cm (approx 60 litres) tank. Going to start cycling as soon as I have my heater and ammonia I have kept fish in the past in a similar sized juwel aquarium - had various mollies, guppies, angelfish, neon, harlequins etc over the years.

I've high hopes for the new (albeit small!) aquarium... I want to get various plant species to grow around and onto the bogwood pieces I've arranged while I wait for my tank to cycle.

I have heard various pieces of advice regarding stocking on the forum from my reading recently (and realised I had been keeping fish that were too big for my tank before) so I will be interested to know everyone's thoughts on the number of fish I could keep?

I'm likely to build it all up slowly and introduce the fish a few at a time to a well cycled tank and I'm hoping this patience will benefit the fish (and me and my bank balance!!) in the long term.



So a few ideas....

1) Preferably a few more small fish rather than a couple of larger ones. Maybe a couple of species?

2) I'd like to keep some ghost shrimp as well for a bit of variety if possible.

3) I do like brightly coloured fish and endlers livebearers have caught my eye - not something I've kept before.

4) I have kept bottom dwelling fish before but in hindsight they were too big - what smaller ones are available that will make the best use of all the levels of water and space?


I feel I have some ideas but need a bit more direction in order to research the fish... At the moment, with the choice and my lack of knowledge, it's all a bit overwhelming.

 

[Essjay]

You say you like endlers - lovely little fish, I have some. They do come in several colour types, you could always get a mixture of black bar type and tiger endlers, for instance. That would look like you had a couple of different species while only having one. Most, if not all, of the endlers in shops are endler-guppy hybrids. You would need to go to a specialist endler breeder of you want pure.

If you'd rather have some endlers and another species look at ember tetras, celestial pearl danios, microrasboras. These are all very small.

Bottom dwellers - for 60 litres, look at the dwarf species of corydoras - pygmy, habrosus and hastatus. You have room for half a dozen of one of those species.

Edit, it's spelled pearl not preal!!!

 

[Lizi_angelfish]

Thanks - that is really useful to know.

May sound likes daft question, but is there a problem with hybrid fish, health wise?

 

[Essjay]

Not with fish like endler-guppy hybrids. The offsrping are often healthier than those fancy guppies which have been inbred for generations. You read of hybrids being less healthy that the parent species, but often these are crosses of fish that would not breed in the wild, they've only bred in captivity because of humans making them crossbreed. This doesn't apply to endlers and guppies as they are closely related and crossbreed with no problems at all.

 

[Lizi_angelfish]

That's interesting!

Is it wiser to get just male endler's since I've got a small tank? I loved watching the fry when I kept platies when I was younger but ive read the endler's breed readily.... so could I end up with too many fish for the tank?

 

[Essjay]

It's probably wise having just males. Females are plain silvery beige and you need a ratio of 2 females for every male, so you'd end up with more plain fish than brightly coloured ones. The hybrids do eat their fry more than pure endlers, but you'd still get enough surviving to overpopulate your tank.
Male livebeares in general have only two things on their minds - eating and breeding. You'll probably find that males will dislpay to each other and every other fish in the tank. Don't worry, that's normal behaviour for them.

 

[TekFish]

I'd get something like:

5 Endler's Livebearers/Guppies
8 Pygmy Corydoras
and a Honey Gourami.

But I like having a centerpiece fish you might not it's up to you.

TekFish

 

[TekFish]

. Sorry about that I lag double-posted

 

[Lizi_angelfish]

I was just about to post about getting a gourami! Just looked at the honey gourami and I can imagine it would look great!

As I will try and stock gradually in a month when the filter is cycled, which would be the best fish to add first of of those lot? Also... 3-4 shrimp? Not sure which, if any, would be compatible.

When I bought my tank last week, the seller said it won't be long before you upgrade... I said "Nah, my flat is pretty small, only room for this one!" and now I can imagine that if this tank becomes a success that I could throw away some furniture and have more tanks instead of a dining table... Who needs one of those anyway haha?!

 

[TekFish]

Who needs to eat when you have fishies lol

TekFish

 

[crazyforcordoras]

This is what i would stock it with.

1 Sparkling Gourami
8 glowlight tetras
6 pygmy cories
3 Endlers Livebearers

Or

3 Apisto Cacatuoides (spelling?) 1 M 2 F
6 Neon Tetras

 

[TekFish]

This is what i would stock it with.

1 Sparkling Gourami
8 glowlight tetras
6 pygmy cories
3 Endlers Livebearers

Or

3 Apisto Cacatuoides (spelling?) 1 M 2 F
6 Neon Tetras

No Peppermint Shrimp CC?

 

[Lizi_angelfish]

Just googled apisto cacatuoides... How cool are they?! This is what is so great about asking questions on here. People have so many different opinions and you are always learning something new!
So how about a shrimp? Peppermint shrimp look lovely, but they are marine aren't they?

*More likely a shrimp or two... One would look very lonely!

 

[TekFish]

They're marine? Oops didn't realize
I only keep Tropical Freshwater.

TekFish

 

[Lizi_angelfish]

Hi guys!

After a lot of oooohs and aaaahs in The Abyss the other day, plus research from this forum and on seriouslyfish, I think we've got a fair idea of our 'most wanted' for the tank...

Salt and pepper corys or pygmy corys - 4-5
Celestial pearl danio (galaxy rasboras) - as many as possible 6-7 maybe?
A sparkling or honey gourami.

Is this a realistic set up to go for?

If they are not compatible/too overstocked, the most important for me are the CPD... I haven't seen any in real life (although hopefully will on Sunday!) but they look great.

As we have only just started cycling, I imagine we won't be choosing for some weeks yet but the reason I would like more info is because most of these fish apparently prefer heavily planted tanks with dark substrate. As it is a new tank, the four plants haven't had chance to grow yet so it isn't exactly 'heavily' planted, although there is plenty of bogwood and some caves made out of stones if it is an issue of hiding spaces. Also, we have dark grey gravel... Is this passable?

Also, which species should we add first as some may be more delicate than others? They all seem to say they are to some degree on one site or another!

Thanks for all your help so far, and I imagine much more to come!!!