Got a new 29 gallon tank

[Ferret_Friend]

I just wish I knew what to do with it. I want some snails in the tank (since it's illegal to sell them in my state and I can't get them locally). Since I made the mistake of jumping into my first tank, I'm going to plan this one out a bit better.

The first thing I'll be doing is making sure the fish I DO put in the tank won't grow more than 2-3 inches. This way I can still have a fair handful of fish. For some reason, it bothers me to have a tank that seems empty.

I'm going to also try to go with some planting. I've heard that java ferns are good hardy plants and that some species of snails won't eat much for plants if I find the right ones. I'm thinking of starting with some mollies as good tester fish to get cycling going. I"ve learned in my experience that they aren't the most hardy fish, so it'll help me determine how well things are going.

I was thinking of maybe doing some neon tetras and perhaps a few guppies. Any other thoughts of what small fish would be good for such a tank? I'd rather not screw this tank up.

Advice?

 

[Mosaic]

Is it illegal to sell all species? Liveaquaria.com has snails and they don't mention any restrictions to where they can ship.
There's a few types that do well with plants. I've had good luck with the apple snails and some sort of hitch hiker ramshorns that came in with my plants. But I also feed them very well.
Java ferns are near impossible to kill. The only way I've managed to kill them is by drying them out. I've had them in tanks with out turning the light on for a month and they still survived. They looked a little pitiful, but perked back up eventually. Try that with any other plant! I've never had a fish try to eat them, and I've had cichlids and goldfish.
Plus, you only need to buy a few. They reproduce easily. Just tie them to a rock or driftwood and they'll make lots of babies for you. Don't plant them in the gravel, they don't do as well. Get some anubias too. They're also pretty hard to kill. Tie them down too.

You could get a dwarf Gourami. Oto cats are adorable, or maybe you could have a school of cories. My personal favorite tetras were the glowlights. I also highly recommend dwarf cichlids. A pair of kribs would make for a nice center piece.

 

[Guest]

If I was setting up a 29 gal. I would look into some nice Dwarf Cichlids, Otto's, and a low light planted aquascape with PFS and some driftwood. You wont have a FULL tank of fish but some are really beautiful. If you went with Pool Filter Sand you could get MTS snails. You really have options this is just what came to mind.

Some people love schooling tetras, corys, rasboras

Why dont you check out all these fish pages and a good wat to get a feel for what fish can live in a 20 and what kind of community you want.

http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/categ.cfm?pcatid=830&ref=3392&subref=AI

Snails and their req. (some snails will eat plants to research if you want plants, that is why I recommend MTS)

http://www.liveaquaria.com/search/default.cfm(link didnt work type "snails" in search

And the compabitibility chart

http://www.liveaquaria.com/general/fwcompatibility_chart.cfm

 

[verucaproduce]

Hi. I am the girl that yells out 'CHERRY BARBS' every time someone asks what they should stock in their tank. Very cute creatures. And ditto on the ottos.

Do you have a centerpiece fish that you really want? Then we can work from there to give suggestions...

 

[Guest]

Barbs

Misread Thread----Sorry

 

[verucaproduce]

Cherry Barbs should really have a min. of a 30 gal tank

Ummm...why is that?

http://www.thetropicaltank.co.uk/Fishindx/cherbarb.htm

 

[Ferret_Friend]

Is it illegal to sell all species? Liveaquaria.com has snails and they don't mention any restrictions to where they can ship.

It's illegal to sell them in the state. It is perfectly legal to own them, ship them to the state, etc. The law is in place just to prevent rookies from getting them, then releasing them into the wild. We're also very limited on which freshwater plants are legal to be sold here. In fact, it's very hard to find ANY freshwater plants around here, and the few places that have them no nothing about them.

 

[Guest]

1 or 2 maybe

That is what I was getting 2. You could keep 2 and another mix of community fish. I didn't say it correctly. I thought that a pair is nice to have. They tend to not school as much as other Barbs


If you dont like the Dwarf Cichlid/low light plant idea.

I like schooling neon Tetras in a small tank.

 

[verucaproduce]

I have 6 cherry barbs in mine, and I will be putting in dwarf cichlids soon. Will see how that goes.

 

[hc8719]

i bought albino cherry barbs out of an impulse to restart as an aquarist back in april. no one wanted them (the albino ones just look like mini goldfish) so petsmart discounted them to fifty cents each, i got four.

a few weeks later, it turned out i had 3 males and 1 female, which ended up with the male harassing the female so much, i had to remove them, and put them in a qt tank (which was actually my albino clawed frogs home). i seriously didnt think he could fit them in his mouth... let alone 2 in the same hour

one male survived, and now has his own female...

so they can be little jerks

 

[verucaproduce]

it turned out i had 3 males and 1 female

That could have been the problem there. They tell you that you should have 2 females to every 1 male. I think you had a 'different' type of aggression. LOL

 

[Burks]

I have four Cherry Barbs in my 10g and they have pleanty of room to move and play. *shrugs*

I'm quite happy with my Gold Pristella Tetras in my 14g hex. Beautiful, active tetras that are rather hardy too. Those four have out lasted all 10 of my Neon Tetras. http://fins.actwin.com/species/index.php?t=9&i=201 The best picture I could find of the ones I have. Tried pictures with my camera but they wouldn't come close enough