coldcazzie
Ice Queen
Currently I have a bonded pair of pretty much fully grown angelfish. I did have a plec, hoplo catfish, and another angel until recently which have all died for various random reasons. I've also had many different fish before these (have had fish for going on 5 years now).
I'm currently in the process of remedial work to my water which had v.low pH and has also just started a mini cycle today after I removed the carbon sponge from the filter (which I had forgotten was in there - oops!
) Once I have the water sorted I want to restock back to a proper community, hopefully by the end of October (might sound silly but we're planning a homebirth in Nov and I want to be able to relax in the birth pool while watching the fish!), so I'm trying to figure out what/how many fish I can add and have a few questions...
1. I know corys are best kept in shoals, but can I make the shoal up out of different types of cory? Say, 3 bronze, 3 albino and 3 peppered? Or would they have issues and just stick with their own breed, as it were?
2. Do I really need an algae eater? A regularly cleaned tank shouldn't have a large amount of algae anyway, so do I really need to fall into the "everybody needs an algae eater" trap? I'm not sure I can be bothered...
3. Tetras. I had originally thought a shoal of around 15 larger tetras (mainly because my angels have only ever been with fish around the same size as themselves or larger), maybe buenos aires or something slightly smaller. Im now wondering about the possibility of having 2 different types - possibly a 15-strong shoal of larger ones and a 30-strong shoal of smaller ones (maybe neons but not sure, would prefer something slightly less cliché lol!). Would that be sensible or would I be essentially just stocking an all-you-can-eat-buffet for my angels? Also would I be able to put that many in the tank or would that be overstocking?
4. I've been reading through the fish species index on here to try to guage how many fish I could theoretically put in...are the measurements for the full length of the fish (ie. tip to tip) or are they length of body? Because it seems the lengths are tip to tip lengths, but the 1" of fish per US gallon (of which I have ~63) rule seems to be just body length...?
5. I'd quite like something else in there (if there's room)... any ideas. I was wondering about rams - they could make a nice colourful addition, but I've never kept them before - would they be suitable or not?
...I think that's everything... pregnancy brain keeps getting me!
ETA: Apparently not everything! I don't currently have a hosp/quarantine tank, but know I should really buy one - is 13l (just under 3.5 US gal) big enough or not? Just there's a 13l starter set in my lfs on offer at the moment (complete with filter, gravel & a plastic plant) - is it big enough or should I be looking bigger?
I'm currently in the process of remedial work to my water which had v.low pH and has also just started a mini cycle today after I removed the carbon sponge from the filter (which I had forgotten was in there - oops!
) Once I have the water sorted I want to restock back to a proper community, hopefully by the end of October (might sound silly but we're planning a homebirth in Nov and I want to be able to relax in the birth pool while watching the fish!), so I'm trying to figure out what/how many fish I can add and have a few questions...1. I know corys are best kept in shoals, but can I make the shoal up out of different types of cory? Say, 3 bronze, 3 albino and 3 peppered? Or would they have issues and just stick with their own breed, as it were?
2. Do I really need an algae eater? A regularly cleaned tank shouldn't have a large amount of algae anyway, so do I really need to fall into the "everybody needs an algae eater" trap? I'm not sure I can be bothered...
3. Tetras. I had originally thought a shoal of around 15 larger tetras (mainly because my angels have only ever been with fish around the same size as themselves or larger), maybe buenos aires or something slightly smaller. Im now wondering about the possibility of having 2 different types - possibly a 15-strong shoal of larger ones and a 30-strong shoal of smaller ones (maybe neons but not sure, would prefer something slightly less cliché lol!). Would that be sensible or would I be essentially just stocking an all-you-can-eat-buffet for my angels? Also would I be able to put that many in the tank or would that be overstocking?
4. I've been reading through the fish species index on here to try to guage how many fish I could theoretically put in...are the measurements for the full length of the fish (ie. tip to tip) or are they length of body? Because it seems the lengths are tip to tip lengths, but the 1" of fish per US gallon (of which I have ~63) rule seems to be just body length...?
5. I'd quite like something else in there (if there's room)... any ideas. I was wondering about rams - they could make a nice colourful addition, but I've never kept them before - would they be suitable or not?
...I think that's everything... pregnancy brain keeps getting me!
ETA: Apparently not everything! I don't currently have a hosp/quarantine tank, but know I should really buy one - is 13l (just under 3.5 US gal) big enough or not? Just there's a 13l starter set in my lfs on offer at the moment (complete with filter, gravel & a plastic plant) - is it big enough or should I be looking bigger?
