Window Shopping

[leavingreality]

I went to maidenhead aquatics today to pick some bits up for the tank. I'm still cycling it but am starting to window shop for what I want. After talking to the guys there some of my choices have changed a bit but I'm just trying to figure out how many of these fish below I need per shoal and if I'm thinking of too many for the size tank I have. Also any other suggestions very welome. I had been thinking more neon/ zebras / cardinal / guppies before but I've gone off guppies a bit just with the breading madness and having a look around today I think there are other fish i'd still like more than just neons even though I like their colours.

the tank is a very old juewl but similar to a rio 125 so 80cm x 35 x 50 so over 100 litres I think. It has an internal filter (not inbuilt juewl though) and a heater. I have sand subtrate and bog wood in there at the moment as I really like corys, and am thinking of getting some java moss to grow on it and maybe look into a couple more plants as well.

peppered cory x 4
juli cory x 4
Aplocheilichthys normani x 4-6?
golden nugget pleco 1 or is 2 better?
1 male fighting fish betta
harliquins 6-8
Black-Lined Loach - think this is what it was it looks similar anyway they said it was good in sand need to check next time

there was another fish I have forgotten the name of which was silver with a red line down the middle and the top half changed colour shimmering between green / blue while you watched.

 

[STEWARDSONS]

i would say that even 1 golden nugget plec would be too big for your tank as it will grow to around 20cm

with the lampeyes, i would get as many as you can, the more you get the better they look. i would say 15-20, with the corys, and the harlequins. and maybe a bristlenose or a smaller sized plec

 

[leavingreality]

oh I didn't realise that's my fault for not checking what they told me. Do you know any other pretty plecs or are all the small ones more brown/black.

I'll have a look at bristle nose as well.

Would my tank take that many lampeyes though I didn't think I could fit that many fish in even without the golden nugget.

 

[STEWARDSONS]

clown or pitbull stay small or if you can get one or have the money a zebra would be nice but they are around £70 i believe

lampeyes stay very small so you could easily have 15 ish,

you could have say 15 lampeyes and the fighting fish, then a small group of corys and a small pleco

all depeneds how much you are willing to change the water and what filter you have

 

[leavingreality]

wow the zebra looks incredible. I think I'll be reading up on them more and getting the pleco as the last fish as one of those would be amazing but maybe not until I've being doing this longer if they are that much.

 

[BigTom]

Good advice above, I would probably just go for a larger group of a single type of corydoras, rather than 2.

 

[fluttermoth]

In a tank that size (well, any size IMO) I think you're better off with less species than that.

One species of bottom dweller; either the corys or the loach, one shoaler; either the lampeyes or the harlequins, plus your betta and your plec.

The zebra plecs are terrible expensive; what about an L052 Dekeyseria sp? Very similar looking, but much cheaper; I paid £17 for mine; lovely fish and comes out a fair bit; certainly at feeding times

there was another fish I have forgotten the name of which was silver with a red line down the middle and the top half changed colour shimmering between green / blue while you watched.

Wasn't a cardinal tetra, was it?

 

[leavingreality]

Wasn't a cardinal tetra, was it?

nope was bigger than that and more silvery I'll have to have a look when I go pick up the new lights.

as far as the list goes the plecos look out unless I get a bigger tank I can't have those yet apart from maybe a bristle nose.

What if i got 6 peppered corys and 6 juli corys and some harliquins and the betta or is mixing corys just not allowed even if I get a bigger group of them as I like them the best really out of everything I've seen.

 

[STEWARDSONS]

it sounds to me like you are describing a denisonii barb. was it like a torpedo shape?

 

[fluttermoth]

it sounds to me like you are describing a denisonii barb. was it like a torpedo shape?

I thought of that too, lol.

OP; you can mix different species of cory and they will (sort of) shoal together, but more of one species is infinitely preferable.

 

[coldcazzie]

There's no rules against having more than one species of cory, but you'll find that having a large shoal of one will result in very different behaviour - they will be more active, more visible, have more fun, compared to 2 smaller shoals seeing as having fish is supposed to be fun, having fish that are out in the tank enjoying themselves is kind of a plus!

 

[leavingreality]

right ok that makes sense now thanks so much for your help. I'm back off to the shop later to pick up my new lights after the others broke so will have another look around then.