60 Litre/15 gal tank stocking

[EmmaLou89]

Hello,

Im new to the hobby. My tank has been cycled for a month and I added x7 Ember Tetra last Saturday and a male Betta on Sunday.

Please could someone advise how many more ember tetra I could add? I have a 60L biorb cube. It has live plants.

Also if I were to swap the ember tetra in the future for cherry barbs, how many of them could I keep as I know they’re slightly bigger than ember tetra?

Also please could someone advise me on feeding ember tetra? They’ve been on hunger strike for 5 days now. Betta is fine and doesn’t miss a thing.


Thank you in advance,

Emma

 

[Colin_T]

Hi and welcome to the forum

What are the tank dimensions (length x width x height)?

What is the GH (general hardness), KH (carbonate hardness) and pH of your water supply?
This information can usually be obtained from your water supply company's website or by telephoning them. If they can't help you, take a glass full of tap water to the local pet shop and get them to test it for you. Write the results down (in numbers) when they do the tests. And ask them what the results are in (eg: ppm, dGH, or something else).

Depending on what the GH of your water is, will determine what fish you should keep.

Angelfish, discus, most tetras, most barbs, Bettas, gouramis, rasbora, Corydoras and small species of suckermouth catfish all occur in soft water (GH below 150ppm) and a pH below 7.0.

Livebearers (guppies, platies, swordtails, mollies), rainbowfish and goldfish occur in medium hard water with a GH around 200-250ppm and a pH above 7.0.

If you have very hard water (GH above 300ppm) then look at African Rift Lake cichlids, or use distilled or reverse osmosis water to reduce the GH and keep fishes from softer water.

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Try a different brand of food for the tetras. You can also buy frozen fish food from most pet shops and offer that. The more common frozen fish foods include brineshrimp, daphnia, bloodworms and marine mix. You might need a pair of scissors to cut some of these foods up so they are small enough for the ember tetras.

 

[EmmaLou89]

Hi Colin

Thank you for the reply.

The dimensions are L40cm x w40cm x H43.3cm. It’s a 60L/15gal

My gh is 12 dgh
Kh is 6dkh
Ph is 7.4 - 7.6 depending on the time of day that I test.
Temp is 25-26degrees Celsius.

I have x2 Ember Tetra and x1 Male Betta, they’re all doing fine in the water as the place I bought them has the same water.

Could you advise how many more Ember Tetra I could keep before my stocking is full?

Also if I changed to Cherry Barb in the future, how many could I stock with the Betta?

I’ve ordered some different foods so just waiting for them to arrive.

Thank

Emma ?

 

[Colin_T]

Ideally Bettas are kept on their own. Some are fine with fish, some snap and kill everyone in the tank. Unfortunately you can't tell which fish is going to snap or when.

If the filter has cycled and you do a water change and gravel clean each week, you could have 8-10 ember tetras in there. But watch the betta because they can turn at any time.

The GH is a bit higher than I would like for either species but it's not excessively high.

Cherry barbs need a longer tank, something that is at least 2 foot long.

 

[EmmaLou89]

Thank you very much