newbie looking for opinions on everything

[GlubGlub]

I'm a sort of newbie to the fish world looking for some feedback and discussion while waiting for my tank to fish-less cycle. My wife and I have just bought our first fish tank (not counting standard childhood fish experiences.) I do have a little experience though in that I cared for some corals in a research lab in undergrad years back. We both know our biology and chemistry.

Anyways, it's a 29 gallon tank, that is currently working on it's fish-less cycle. No problems with that as I've been doing lots of research before getting started, but I'm tumbling around a lot of ideas in my head for what to stock with eventually. I'm trying to plan things out in advance so that we fill the tank up in a good order, some of these fish we'll hold off on stocking for months while the tank gets established, but we want to reserve room for them and plan around them.

Other relevant non fish facts:
Tap water: 8.0pH, 0.5 ppm NH3, 0 ppm NO2-, 5 ppm NO3- (API Master)
I'm assuming the ammonia reading is coming from chloramines.
Tank is lightly planted. 1 Anubias, 1 Java Fern, 1 Red Melon Sword, 1 C. parva, 2 C. wendtii, 1 C. spiralis, bunch of elodea that's not doing well (I've got talent! - probably too warm) and will likely be replaced.
Gravel substrate, root tabs, weekly Flourish (regular)
17W T8 light - could be convinced to up this, but I don't want to mess with CO2 injection at this point
Sitting in a corner so that two sides are easily visible

We know we'd like an angelfish. I've read a bit on one versus two in the 29, and we're heavily leaning towards one so that we can put some other things in there as well. I'm also pretty sure we want some cory cats based on all the wonderful things I've read about them. Also a group of shoaling/schooling fish. We might want something a little more complicated like a ram down the line, so we're considering building the tank so that we can incorporate that if we want. That wouldn't get added for months though while the tank has a chance to mature.The angel would wait a little while too probably.

What we like:
Color, activity, concerted movement (tighter schools), fins, variety. Based on the fish that stick out to me, and the tank set up we have, the colors red, black, and blue are particularly compelling.

Cory-bilities in current preference order: Adolfi, Panda (I've heard their more sensitive than brethren, true?), bandit, skunk, julii, black

Shoal-bilities in current preference order: Blood fin, bleeding heart, pristella, Harlequin rasboras, rosy tetra, black phantom, lemon,

Rejected fish: I'd love rummy nose tetras, but I think that's one fish that wouldn't deal with the pH we have. Buenos Aires tetras look awesome, but are too big and could fin nip an angel according to aqadvisor. Similar on the red eyed tetras. Gouramis are not that appealing.

Options for stocking I'm consider. Numbers are rough and may change depending on exact variety. Don't want to overstock, don't want to go under certain minimums for certain varieties. Actual choices will probably depend on availability at LFS as well, but I want to be prepared.

1 Angelfish
6 cory cats
6 blood fins (or other shoal)
1 Bolivian Ram/6 Harlequin Rasbora or other shoal/2 German Blue Rams
(note that I'd only add one of the sets of fish in that last line, not all! same notation continues)

1 Angelfish
6 cory cats
7 Harlequin Rasboras
2 GBRs/2 Bolivian/3 platys (color!)

1 Angelfish
6 cory cats
6 zebra danios (I have a 2 year old, she and I might like the nonstop activity I hear of)
2 platys/1 Bolivian/6 harlequin rasboras

1 Angelfish
6 cory cats
5 praecox rainbows

1 Angelfish
6 cory cats
7 threadfin rainbows
2 platys/2 GBRs/1 Bolivian

2 Angelfish
4 cory cats
6 Blood fin/other shoaler

Questions:
1) How do those combos look?
2) Are there any incompatibilities here that I'm not aware of? Things that might not work well?
3) What other fabulous fish are out there that might fit with our preferences that we don't know about?
4) Any suggestions on tankscaping/plants to buy?
5) Any thoughts on any of these combinations of fish?
6) Other factors to be aware of when stocking?
7) Thoughts on a type of cory to get? Thoughts on type of shoaling fish? What should make me shuffle the preference order?
8) I'm using AqAdvisor for to avoid overstocking. Does anything here look out of wack?
9) Plants - do any combos suggest I do anything to add more plants of a particular type or a particular arrangement? Or do something else with the aquascape?

Please, answer some, all, none (and just add your thoughts) of the questions! And thanks for reading my book!

 

[Phantomflier]

Great questions! Unfortunately I'm another newbie (with a 29 gal) with the same questions as you, but no answers. Hopefully someone will chime in here. I like your stocking possibilities and I was considering much the same. Would love to hear how more experienced folks feel about these choices.

 

[Rivercats]

I would only do 1 Angel in a 29g. Most of your choices and combo are fine but a couple things... IMO Danio's are much too active and can sometimes be nippy with Angelfish. You have to be careful with your tetra choice as many tetra's can be fin nippers with Angels. If you go with German Blue Rams I strongly suggest not adding them until the tank is 4 to 6 months mature. They are also sensitive to nitrates so you need to keep nitrates under 20ppm. As for your cory choices I do not suggest starting with Adolfi's as they are very hard to find, costly, and I've found to be sensitive to water quality. Last week I almost got 6 of them again but didn't. Panda's aren't hard to keep but what most people don't know is they actually like water that is a little cooler. I keep Threadfins with my Angels and they give nice upper tank movement. Harlequins will also tend to stay in the upper levels.

 

[Baddog671]

I would only do 1 Angel in a 29g. Most of your choices and combo are fine but a couple things... IMO Danio's are much too active and can sometimes be nippy with Angelfish. You have to be careful with your tetra choice as many tetra's can be fin nippers with Angels. If you go with German Blue Rams I strongly suggest not adding them until the tank is 4 to 6 months mature. They are also sensitive to nitrates so you need to keep nitrates under 20ppm. As for your cory choices I do not suggest starting with Adolfi's as they are very hard to find, costly, and I've found to be sensitive to water quality. Last week I almost got 6 of them again but didn't. Panda's aren't hard to keep but what most people don't know is they actually like water that is a little cooler. I keep Threadfins with my Angels and they give nice upper tank movement. Harlequins will also tend to stay in the upper levels.

My neon tetras and red-eye tetras are pretty docile, but my Buenos Aires tetras are mean! They ate the tail off my male lyretail molly the first day, and they hog all the food before the others have a chance.

Might try to trade them back to the LFS for a few more red-eyes

 

[GlubGlub]

Thanks for the comments so far. Anyone have experience with any of the tetras I mentioned and know if they are nippy? Would it be better for any of those types shoals to add another fish or two and reduce the number of something like the corys?

 

[Autumnsky]

Try looking at the 3 Dwarf Cories, Pygmy, Habrosus, Hastatus. That way you can have a nice shoal and smaller bioload.

 

[Sidman24]

Your tank and ideas is almost identical to mine!

I have one angel, 2 female blue rams ( make sure you get female ) ... A shoal of cories, and lemon tetras! I also have an oto to help maintain the algae ... All in a 29 gallon and doing perfectly fine!

I recently added a paradise fish from a rescue. I was nervous at first but it's been a couple weeks and she is treating everyone nicely. Paradise fish are aggressive but mine is a female. I think she's just happy to be in a bigger tank since she was kept in a 3 gallon her whole life!

 

[Sidman24]

Also, I don't know if anyone has mentioned.. Since your substrate isn't sand I don't know if I would add cories. They really do prefer sand and will thrive much more in sand then gravel. I has mine in gravel before sand and once I switched them I noticed a difference in their attitudes immediately. Other people may have different opinions on this

 

[Cactuspixie]

A school of boraras brigittae would add colour and movement:
http://www.seriouslyfish.com/species/boraras-brigittae/

 

[Rivercats]

A school of boraras brigittae would add colour and movement:
Boraras brigittae – Mosquito Rasbora — Seriously Fish

Boraras brigittae, Chili rasbora's are much too small (they are nano fish) to be kept with larger fish, especially angels. I have a school of 30 Chili's in a 55g Nano fish tank and some are as small as 3/8". They would be viewed as a meal for larger fish.

Pygmy and Dwarf Cory's are also small and honestly they would not do well with larger fish, again especially an Angel. There are plenty of other cory's that will do well. Cory's will also do best in a shoal of at least 6 so I would not lower that number.

As for Cory's in gravel... as long as the gravel is smooth and preferably small in grain size Cory's do just fine. I've kept Cory's in Eco Complete for years and in other small, smooth gravel. Yes, they like to be able to root around and do like sand but there are other small grained gravels that can be used by them equally as well as sand.

 

[GlubGlub]

Nice fish, but probably an expensive snack eventually. Thanks for the suggestion!

The gravel seems to range fro 1/8" to 3/8", mostly in the middle. I asked a LFS if it was ok for corys before buying it, and he said it'd be fine. Maybe someday I'll feel like rearranging and try to add a sandbox in there for the corys... I need to keep telling myself to slow down and wait until I have fish. though.

Any thoughts on the plants? Are more plants going to make anyone feel more comfortable, or will not adding plants make someone feel uncomfortable? Thinking about something floating like water sprite...

 

[Sidman24]

Nice fish, but probably an expensive snack eventually. Thanks for the suggestion! The gravel seems to range fro 1/8" to 3/8", mostly in the middle. I asked a LFS if it was ok for corys before buying it, and he said it'd be fine. Maybe someday I'll feel like rearranging and try to add a sandbox in there for the corys... I need to keep telling myself to slow down and wait until I have fish. though. Any thoughts on the plants? Are more plants going to make anyone feel more comfortable, or will not adding plants make someone feel uncomfortable? Thinking about something floating like water sprite...

Not a huge plant expert, but wether it be plants, driftwood, rocks, or decor almost all fish prefer this objects so they can have hiding spots and what nots.

 

[Rivercats]

Nice fish, but probably an expensive snack eventually. Thanks for the suggestion!

The gravel seems to range fro 1/8" to 3/8", mostly in the middle. I asked a LFS if it was ok for corys before buying it, and he said it'd be fine. Maybe someday I'll feel like rearranging and try to add a sandbox in there for the corys... I need to keep telling myself to slow down and wait until I have fish. though.

Any thoughts on the plants? Are more plants going to make anyone feel more comfortable, or will not adding plants make someone feel uncomfortable? Thinking about something floating like water sprite...

Most all fish species enjoy plants and actually often color up better and feel secure with them. Looking at your picture you have all plants with the same similar shape so considering you have low light I think if you could add some Water Sprite (planted) and if you don't use liquid carbon also add some Anacharis it would balance your tank out more.

 

[GlubGlub]

Elodea, Anacharis, same thing

Mine has been dying off over the past week. From everything I've read that isn't easy to do, but it's warmer than I think Anacharis likes it (78/26). The other plants don't seem too happy either though. Would liquid CO2 at the expense of any Anacharis be worthwhile? Or should I invest in more patience?

 

[catfishkid]

I'd definitely recommend a couple of corys. I have two and they are always zipping around together. Danios are also a good bundle of activity so thumbs up for them. Also a mystery snail would be a fun addition, I think your two-year old might like watching them slide along the glass. They're pretty fast for snails.

 

[Rivercats]

Liquid carbon is good to use as it helps with photosynthesis and growth. I'd dose liquid carbon daily instead of having anacharis. There are other easy stem plants like Ambulia that you could use.