First Tank in 15 years need some advice

[trev186]

Hi,

I have a 30 Gallon long tank setup.

I had a pretty good tank when I was 10-14 years of age until my sister's tank broke and I rescued her fish by putting them inside of my own. She never ended up getting a new tank herself so I allowed them to move in....that is when her Tiger barb went psychotic and killed almost all my fish in the course of two weeks

Below are the fish I would like to add. Please let me know if I am doing anything wrong:

4-5 Ghost Glass Cat (lot of sites recommend 5 but id like to keep it to 4 if possible)

1 Rio- Negro Pleco (I read they are ok for 30 gallon tanks and only grow to 4 inches) (love Plecos bring back memories of my dad's giant one)

1 Neo Blue Goby (or any type of freshwater (non brackish) goby). I always admired salt water tanks due to gobies and would like to have one if possible

1 Reticulated Hillstream Loach. I am aware they need a faster current but also read people had success with them without.

3 upside down catfish (the starter first I am going to pick up tomorrow for the first week)

4-5 neon Tetras


I have 2 large plants in the back and 2 smaller ones in the front as well as a few pieces of cholla driftwood in the tank.

For gravel I am using some smaller white pieces which are in between the size of a M&M to a nerd.

Thank you again for the help very excited to have an aquarium again.

 

[PNWaquarist]

I don't know much about the catfish and loaches, but you'll want at least 6 Neons (10 is better if there are no other tetras in the tank). They will get stressed and can die if there aren't enough. Also, they live in stagnant ponds in the wild and don't deal well with appreciable tank current.

You may want consider a small shoal (6+) of Black Neon Tetras. Despite the name, they're very unlike Neons. They're larger, less shy, and more tolerant of water current and slightly harder water. If you're going to keep any sort of tetra, I'd also recommend getting a few more tall plants for the back of the tank. Otherwise, they'll tend to hunker down.

 

[trev186]

I don't know much about the catfish and loaches, but you'll want at least 6 Neons (10 is better if there are no other tetras in the tank). They will get stressed and can die if there aren't enough. Also, they live in stagnant ponds in the wild and don't deal well with appreciable tank current.

You may want consider a small shoal (6+) of Black Neon Tetras. Despite the name, they're very unlike Neons. They're larger, less shy, and more tolerant of water current and slightly harder water. If you're going to keep any sort of tetra, I'd also recommend getting a few more tall plants for the back of the tank. Otherwise, they'll tend to hunker down.

thanks for the advice on the tetras i added a couple more plants to the back of the tank.

The upside down catfish seem to be doing ok.

I also added a couple of Marimo ball plants to the environment

Anyone have advice on the other fish?