What Fish For My New 242 Litre Tank

[Dutchie]

So far the fish all seem very happy, so much so that they also eat out of my hand..........can't remember if this is normal...........not scared either when I stick my hand in to plant things..........

Thanks Miss Wiggle.........will do...............I'll change that then to 5 in total hence I will have 6 of them..........

Yeah its hard as all my books dont mention how many you need. They all say 'excellent community fish'...........great help....NOT

My 2 Loaches are so active and not shy at all anymore..........they love cuccumber and zuccini (feed thsi once a week).........once they have finished eating out the centre, the weights are useless and the loaches chase the cuccumber round the tank.........my kids kill themselves laughing..........must admit, I now beginning to understand how they got their names........

 

[Dutchie]

One more thing, could I have many more fish now that I actually have a larger tank then first ordered?

I dont want anymore loaches as the 2 seem happy enough together..........want reasonably low maintenance........ie clean tank once a fortnight............

Was hoping for a few more.............

I know Miss Wiggle suggested Resboras but I dont really like them..........remind me of sardines too much...........

Could I possibly add 3 more Neons as well as 4 Harald Shultz Cory's??

 

[Dutchie]

So my tank will be as follows:

1 Peppered Catfish
3 Bristlenose Catfish
3 Swordtails (2 Female, 1 Male)
2 Clown Loaches
3 Dwarf Barbs
3 Neons

ADD

2 Dwarf Gourami m/f
3 Peppered Catfish
2 Cockatoo Dwarf Cichlids
3 Neons
4 Emperoro Tetras
4 Harald Shultz Cory

 

[Miss Wiggle]

you've a rough guide of 1" per gallon if you want to do weekly water changes, so roughly 65" of fish total. for fortnightly water changes do something like 3/4 of that so really 50" max

4 Peppered Catfish - 8"
3 Bristlenose Catfish - 12"
3 Swordtails (2 Female, 1 Male) - 9"
2 Clown Loaches - 12"
3 Dwarf Barbs - 3" (guess)
6 Neons - 6"
2 Dwarf Gourami m/f - 4"
2 Cockatoo Dwarf Cichlids - 4"
4 Emperoro Tetras - 4"
4 Harald Shultz Cory - 8""

gives you 70" of fish so in fact based on adult sized your over stocked based on only doing fortnightly water changes, however this is largley because of the clown loaches which are very slow growers and will take a while to get to that size.

so basically no i wouldn't put more fish than that in there and you'll find when the clown loaches get bigger you may need to step up the maintenance to weekly, but you've a good couple of years before you need to worry about it.

 

[Dutchie]

Thanks Miss Wiggle, your a gem...............

 

[Miss Wiggle]

no probs

 

[newtotropical]

Sounds like a nice tank! Bear in mind that all cichlids are aggressive to a point, mainly when spawning.

Good luck