Filling out my aquarium...

[Tofer]

Hey all,

My girlfriend got me a 39 gallon with some beautiful peripherals. After some disagreements over the best way to start up a tank (thanks to some not good advice from the petstore), I'm getting my nitrite levels under control through water changes, and things are looking up.

Currently I've got 9 fish hanging together (2 tuxedo swordtails, 3 bloodfin and 3 blackskirt tetra, 1 fancy guppy). Casualties due to nitrite toxicity/growing pains include a couple of dalmation mollies, and two more fancy guppies.

I'm trying to figure out what else to add to the tank.
1. My girlfriend would like to get some kind of traditional algae eater (I'm thinking a Rubbernose Pleco might be my best bet because they don't seem to get that large or aggressive).

2. I'm thinking of adding a couple more of each tetra species to build their shoals a little.

3. I remember loving kuhli loaches in my aquariums growing up and was thinking they'd be a fun, different addition to the tank.

4. A couple of the more passive gouramis to add some different colors.

5. I've also got a 10 gallon freshwater that I'd love to fill with some different types of fish, maybe smaller more aggressive ones that would not do well in my community tank.

Any comments on any or all of these ideas? As we head into the second month of the tank being active, I'm beginning to plan my next steps, so thought this might be a good idea.

 

[Chronos313]

The tetras definitely 5+. the gourami i would go with one as a centre piece maybe a pearl or larger gourami type. For a pleco maybe go with something that won't outgrow the tank. Maybe a snowball or bristlenose. Never tried loaches myself. As for your 10 gallon I'm not sure what aggressive types you could stock in that.

 

[derail]

Sounds like a good idea to me, especially with the shoaling fish. You could easily get away with 5-7 more of each of the shoaling fish (just because I like even numbers ). A gourami isn't a bad choice either, so long as if you've got some pretty passive onces and beware of fin nipping from some of the smaller fish (not too sure about bloodfins from personal experience, but they seem nice from what i've read...I do know that certain tetras, such as runny-nosed tetras can be nippers.)

As for traditional algae eaters...I'm not a fan of pleco's, haven't been because I find that the older they get, the lazier they get, and their algae eating starts to decline, especially once they realize that the fish food fairy will feed 'em algae wafers (every fish envisions it's feeder/owner as some magical being, right? lol). I have great luck with CAE's personally, and never have had one get territorial or aggressive, especially when they have their own hide-away. I also enjoy oto's, and they are a great cleaner fish as well.
You could also go with a siamese flying fox (which can be aggressive to each other, so one is about it unless plenty of hiding places).

I'm personally not too sure of any aggressive fish that could go in a 10 gallon...you could get a divider and house a pair of Siamese Fighting Fish in it? You could get away with a solitary red-tailed shark in it.