Which Fish To Buy?

[SallyLoofah]

Hi,
I have decided that I would like to keep tropical fish (kept swordtails and mollies years ago) and I've been researching which fish to get. I went to my local Pets At Home the other day to look at all the different breeds. I tried to pick fish that I thought would get on together, and narrowed the ones I liked down to:
Kribensis
Swordtails
Tetras
Mollies
Guppies
Neon dwarf rainbow
Cherry barbs
Otocinclus

I'm looking at getting a tank that is approx 60L. So my question is, which fish and how many of each would you put in the above tank? And should I add them gradually, a couple at a time, or all at once. Any other suggestions welcome. Thanks!

 

[Essjay]

You say you had swordtails and mollies years ago, do you still have a tank running, that would make things a lot easier for you.

But assuming you don't have a tank still running, when you get the 60 litre, you will need to cycle it before you get any fish. The best way is fishless cycling using ammonia. http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?/topic/113861-fishless-cycling/ If you follow this method you can get all your fish once the cycle has finished (it takes several weeks) - and you'll have plenty of time to finalise your wish list while the filter cycles. Fishless cycles are a lot easier than cycling with fish - with those you have do do a lot of water changes to keep the fish alive and healthy

Of the fish on your list, I would avoid kribs swordtails and mollies as a 60 litre tank is not really big enough for them - 60 litre tanks are usually 60cm long, though a shallow tank could be longer. The rainbowfish would be pushing it too in a tank that size. Cherry barbs would be OK as would most of the smaller tetras (you need a minimum of 6 tetras, all the same species) and guppies, though I would suggest you keep only males as females will soon overpopulate the tank with fry - I assume you remember about that from your mollies and swordtails. I would also leave out the otocinclus, or at least for several months until your tank has had time to build up a nice crop of algae for them to eat. They can starve to death in algae free new tanks.

Don't forget to pick up a liquid reagent test kit when you get the tank. Don't get strip testers as they are not very accurate.