Suggestions For Stocking A New 125l Tank

[philak]

So roughly a 30 gallon tank.

I'm thinking along these lines :

Start off with 10 Leopard or Zebra Danios as i understand they are good community fish and hardy for a newish tank
Add 6-8 Golden or Blue Gourami or a mix of the two?
6 Green Tiger Barb
1 or more Catfish to clear up any algae? Maybe 3-4 Otocinclus.


I've seen the Golden Gourami and the Green Tiger Barb in these numbers in a much smaller tank in the shop today and they seemd to complement each other with no fighting between species.They seemed to occupy different levels with the Gourami being mid to upper and the Barbs lower level. I understand the Danios would be top of the tank.

Do these quantities seem about right and would the Barbs leave the catfish alone ? Any other suggestions for bottom feeders/algae removers without getting too big?
Finally my other half would love either a Rainbow Shark or Red Tailed Shark? Is that out of the question with these other fish given their rumoured aggressive nature when they get bigger?

Cheers
Phil

 

[ZoddyZod]

So roughly a 30 gallon tank.

I'm thinking along these lines :

Start off with 10 Leopard or Zebra Danios as i understand they are good community fish and hardy for a newish tank

I can vouch for the danios. I've got 11 in a 125L and they never sit still. Very active. They currently inhabit the whole tank, but it's all theirs which is probably why.

Think the sharks are too aggressive for small fish and get too big for the tank size.

What about a bristlnose plec instead of the Otocinclus?

 

[philak]

Do the Plecs not grow too large for a community aquarium of this size? I believe i have seen them in tanks and they do look pretty big someties. Otherwise i would say yes.

 

[arobinson1984]

1 x Bristlenose plec would be fine, they only grow to about 6" max but normally more like 5" and are fine to live on their own.

You are right, most of the plecs do get too large but there are still a few you could have in a 33 gal, I have a bristlenose in my 125L tank. There are over 150 different types of plec as far as I'm aware.

You could look at bulldog plec instead but personally I like BN's

Andy

 

[philak]

Thanks for the input guys.

Whilst im here i just had another thought concerning the tank cycling. The new tank is at my g/fs flat and im only usually there at weekends. Since i don't think i can rely on her to do the ammonia treatment and measurements properly (she has a busy life) and since the tank is already partly set up and too big to bring here, could i just bring the filter to my house in a small tank we have and start the cycle here?

After all, if i've understood things properly, it's the bacteria in the filter that we are aiming to grow, the amount of water in the tank isn't so relevent to that at least to start?

 

[Matt_northants]

When I set up a new tank I normally run the filter that I am planning to use in it alongside a filter in one of my mature tanks for a couple of months. Then simpley place it into the new tank with a low fish load. This depends on what I am planning to put in there with my Malawis I put them all in as tidlers, in my Asian biotope-ish tank 12 Pentazona barbs. Measuring ammonia and nitrite daily havent had any spikes yet, but I am just moving my filter across a room. Any further and you'll need to keep the filter "wet" and test quite often to make sure none of the bacteria has died off.