Stocking 30 gal tank

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Jharvey

Aquarium Advice Regular
Joined
Jan 11, 2016
Messages
57
Location
New England (USA)
Hi folks -
I have a 30 gallon tank and looking for stocking advice.

tank - 30 gal (tall)
filter - aquaclear 50
substrate - gravel
planted
ammonia, nitrites, nitrates - 0ppm
pH - 7.6 or 7.4 (depending on whether I trust the pH kit or high pH kit
temp - I'd like to try to keep a cooler tank so it doesn't take so much energy. Ideally 72 degrees or less.
I do a weekly water change/vaccuum


Currently I just have 6 neon tetras and a mystery snail that have done well for quite some time. I previously had three mollies as well, but I have had bad luck with mollies. There was always one overly aggressive one until there was just one left and then she got sick and died.

What do you think of these possibilities (of course I can't fit all of these, just some ideas):
-more neon tetras
-1 dwarf gourami
-school of green barbs
-school of danios
-school of bloodfin tetras
-school of dwarf or pygmy corys
-cherry shrimp

Thoughts about which you would choose? Incompatibilities that I haven't read about?

Thanks for your input!!
 
I would be more concerned over zero nitrates, are you using the API kit? If so you have to shake bottle #2 nitrate until your arm falls off, then switch arms and shake it even more, let sit for a few minutes and take a reading.

Anyway,

My vote is to pick up a decent amount of cherry shrimp, let them get established and breeding, then up the neon school, and grab some pygmy cory cats, shrimp should be safe for the most part. Maybe an oto cat or two and a couple amano shrimp.

Gourami, barbs, larger danios/tetra and most other "centerpiece" fish will hunt down even adult shrimp. So if you want them then don't get shrimp
 
Thanks for the advice. I think I'm more interested in some bigger fish than in the shrimp so I'll leave those off.

I usually have 5-10ppm nitrates but with my sick molly I had done a bunch of pretty big PWCs and very recently did 50%WC. So, for right now, nitrates are at 0. I'm sure it's starting to creep up as we speak :)
 
Our small locally owned fish store advised against the green barbs in our community tank. He said they would be the only fish left in the tank.

I don't love our long fin danios. They are not relaxing to watch in the tank. They are constantly dashing all around the tank(37 gallon).

My whole family loves our panda corys. They are cute and stay small.

We have a male honey gourami that is pretty and peaceful.
 
Thanks. I had trouble with aggressive mollies so I guess I'll stay away from the barbs, then.

How big are your panda corys? Are they pretty much the same size as pygmy/dwarf corys? Do they do okay with gravel? I had read somewhere that gravel damages their barbs?
 
Thanks. I had trouble with aggressive mollies so I guess I'll stay away from the barbs, then.

How big are your panda corys? Are they pretty much the same size as pygmy/dwarf corys? Do they do okay with gravel? I had read somewhere that gravel damages their barbs?

The panda cories we have had since September are probably about 1.5 inches. We just added three more last week and they are slightly smaller. They seem to be fine with our gravel, I have not seen that their barbs have been damaged. We have the pea gravel in our tank.

Our fish store has mentioned that the pandas are more sensitive to shipping and water conditions. Thankfully the LFS we buy from quarantines before selling. We have managed to keep them healthy and happy once in our home! We feed our fish frozen bloodworms a few times a week and the pandas love those.
 
Thanks! I got three panda cories today and will get a couple more after the tank has a chance to adjust.

Still not sure what I'll do from there, but just saw some rasboras (harlequin and gold head purple) at my LFS that are gorgeous. Thinking about headed in that direction for another school.

Thanks for all of the ideas!
 
Keep in mind, cories like company. 3 or even 1 sure will survive, but when in numbers they will be very playful, nudging and chasing one another, gulping and spitting bubbles, please to watch. My advice plan your tank capacity for at least 6 of these, 10 will be even more fun.

I was given a school of cissor tail rasboras. Not a fan at all, but that's obviously a thing of personal taste.
 
Thanks Anton. I was planning to get at least 3 more panda corys. I'll keep in mind your recommendation for perhaps getting more.

What didn't you like about your rasboras? Coloration? Behavior? Something else?
 
Agree on the Scissor Tails but Harlequins are a different story, mine were a great deal of fun to watch
 
It is weird with our panda corys. We had three to start(9/17) and had delays to add more. We were finally able to get three more last week. We see less activity from them as a group of six then when they were a group of three.

For color we added three sunset platys of the candycorn variety. We have all males since we did not want any babies. They have been a fun addition to our tank. They are active and can be seen well with their coloration.
 
I'd replace the filter with an aqua clear 110. More filtration the better. If your going tropical fish I'd stick to 76 degrees personally. Maybe cut out the dwarf gourami for an Angelfish. Cut out barbs. Danios are good. Tetras are good. Cory's are good. Cherry shrimp is good. That's my 2 cents.
 
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