29 gallon stocking suggestions

[Lareland]

Okay guys I have a 29 gallon aquarium. It currently has aragonite sand in it because it held baby african cichlids for a while. I have now sold them all because they were getting too big for the tank and didn't want aggression to kill any fish. It has a penguin 350 filter on it and thinking about putting a second filter of the same size on it. The aragonite sand can stay or go,no biggie either way.

I was thinking maybe a gourami, some cory cats, and some schooling fish. But as I am fairly new to fish keeping I don't know a lot about stocking. (Only kept goldfish, tinfoil barbs until they got too big, and the baby cichlids)

I am open to any set up of fish but I would prefer a bigger fish or two and not just small schools. Even if it is just have two bigger sized fish in there, I am fine with that. Colors and personality are a plus. Also open to brackish water fish. I just don't want fish that are extremely hard to care for, as I am only 18 and still trying figure this whole fish keeping thing out.

Let me know what you think and if the aragonite will need to go with your set up. Also suggestions on how to get the aragonite out and how to treat the water after it's gone would be greatly appreciated. Thank you guys so much!

 

[tomtom14]

I would maybe do a couple of angelfish. They should be fine with the aragonite and have great colours. You could probably get 4 in their. But 6 at the start so if any have a fight you can take the excluded fish out. This often happens with angels but after that they are fine. Mine eat from my hands and have great personalities. One of my favourite fish. Hope this helps.

 

[tomtom14]

Scratch that you could probably have 6 at least.

 

[venymae]

6 Angelfish? That seems too much

 

[Lareland]

Okay, thank you!

 

[Lareland]

I'll have to go to my lfs and look at what they have

 

[Lareland]

What would you suggest venymae

 

[venymae]

Well what do you like? Do you like the idea of a centerpiece fish with some schools? Are you looking for bright colors, or more striking blacks and lights? Peaceful fish or semi-agressive? Do you have a budget? Or do you have no idea (that's ok too!) If you want to play around with stuff, aqadvisor.com is a good place to start, I love it for playing around with ideas. (link is below) or tell us what you like and we can throw out ideas!

 

[Lareland]

Budget is about $100. Peaceful or slightly aggressive doesn't matter to me as long as they don't kill each other all the time. Color isn't a big deal for me. If it is bright then that is a plus. And I definitely want at least one or two bigger fish. I have decided that in this tank I just want a species tank of some larger sized fish. Even if it means I can only have one or two fish in the tank. So don't worry about the schooling ideas. Just wondering if there are any fish like this, that would work for this small of a tank. Between 1-3 fish of the same species that are larger and would work for a 29g. Sorry for changing what I originally posted, I was being a bit indecisive. Thanks again guys. Anything helps.

 

[venymae]

Well, you could do angelfish, they are quite beautiful and stunning. My favorite are marbles and koi. You could also do a medium school of small fish, as long as you raised them together. If you get them small, you can put 5 angels in your tank, then as they get bigger, you want to look for two pairing off. Two is really the max I'd have as adults in your tank, but you want a pair so they don't fight. Angelfish are territorial. If you also add a school of 10 medium sized or 15 smaller sized tetras in with the angels when they are small, they are less likely to be aggressive towards them as adults, and a nice sized pair look great framed by a school of smaller fish. Use aqadvisor and search "tetra" to see many of the different types there are (then google them lol) there are so many and they are all so cool. Another option if you don't want to risk a school of tetras would be to have some cory cats (5-6 of your choice) as a fun little ground brusher. They are cute little buggers. again the angels need to grow up around them. Most LFS will trade in bigger angels, so rehoming won't be a problem.

Another thing you could do is two goldfish. The tank would be a little small, but I think it would be ok. Goldfish are so beautiful, many people overlook them because it's the most commonly known fish, but really, bright colors, gentle flowing fish. I love them. A simple aquarium with black background and sand with one large plant looks great.

Other fish to look into are Apistogramma, German Blue Rams, Kuhli, Larger Rainbowfish, Some live beareres like molly, platy, etc. (I'd consider them more medium though), and some loaches.

Gourami's can be centerpiece fish with a schooling group or two, research which types get along with each other, some species the males will fight each other. They like top floating plants. I love honey gouramis personally

 

[Lareland]

Wow great info. That gives me plenty of options. I love a lot of those fish glad to know I have a bit to choose from. Thank you guys a lot!

 

[venymae]

sure! this is a great place to bounce ideas off people who usually know their stuff