First attempt at a stock for 35g

[Sgtdap]

Hi all,

I am starting to cycle my first tank this Friday (35g) and have started to look at what fish I will want. After doing some research I decided on two Swordtails (I found a site that only sells them in male and female pairs), two Angelfish (my fiance likes these!) and 5 Panda Cory's. We are wanting to do an Asian theme and like the long fins on these fish and the panda, well pandas are Asian right? lol.

My questions is do you think this is good for a beginner tank? I don't know if I am missing something that I will need (suckerfish or other to help clean the tank?) If I add anything else will I be over stocked? Should we get more smaller fish and forgo one of the pairs so we can have more? I don't want to get too many big fish and get bored of them as there isn't much variety but we did like the looks of these guys.

If we enjoy this tank and like this as a hobby I plan on getting a larger 75g tank and I know that I will have lots of room to grow then.

Thanks for any advice and critiques!

 

[tylermakin]

I will gladly offer you my advice. Swordtails don't get big but they are greedy eaters.

Angel fish eat fish babies fry / eggs. So keep that in mind

My 38g has over 40 fish from 3" to under an inch.

You should not be overstocked. But you can learn to overstock your tank heavily as you gain more knowledge and know how

Overstocking isn't always a bad thing.

Start with just the swordtails for now is my suggestion. Slowly add fish a few at a time once a week.

What sort of angels are you looking at?

 

[Sgtdap]

Marble Angels, thanks for the advice! Wouldn't a Pleco get too large for this tank?

 

[tylermakin]

Not at all the variety available to you is beautiful and vast. Can also be very costly. Some plecos can cost upto 500$

I have 3 albino bristlenose plecos in my 38g

They will grow to around 5" in length

Commons plecos are over a foot long. Don't buy one for the size of your tank.

Few of my favourites are the gold nugget pleco the snowball / peppermint pleco and the zebra is very sought after

Zebra being 500 other two 50$ range

 

[venymae]

Angel fish can get territorial as they mature, so I would highly suggest understocking to avoid any aggression problems and watch to make sure they continue to get along with each other as they get older.

 

[tylermakin]

I wouldn't get more then 2 angels each will grow 5-6 inches and require a lot of room

Yup delicate fish that's semi aggressive. But your stock list should leave them alone.

The swords will try to breed all day long. And your Cory's will stay on your substrate. I'm not worried.

 

[Sgtdap]

Maybe I can trade one of the Angels for a small school of Tetra (5-6) and then get a smaller Pleco for the bottom to keep the Corys company?

 

[tylermakin]

I wouldn't put a pleco in a new tank that hasn't been well established as they are grazers a lot like the cities and may get out competed for food early on

Substituting angels a good idea stock wise IMO.

Anything that fits in another fishes mouth will usually get eaten and with tank filling angels you can't add much after.

Eventually.... It will eat the tetras .... Probably.

You can substitute pleco diet with algae wafers and zuchini, a hardy species may survive.

A lot of plecos like drift wood in the tank also to nibble on for fiber

 

[Sgtdap]

Hmm, would Danio's be better than the Tetra since they will get a little bigger? I saw a picture of a Scissortail Rasbora and they look pretty cool. Middle tank swimmer so they should leave the corys and pleco alone. The only issue I see is they can get to be around 4" or so and maybe too big if I plan a school of 4-5 of them with the Swordtail.

 

[tylermakin]

If you get good at keeping your water parameters I have four stunning german blue rams, two breeding pairs. Such interesting fish with personality. Likes constantly clean water, and it can be aggressive towards its own kind if you have more then one pair.

I have zebra danios, they are alright they move in a slightly odd twitchy manner when moving slowly and seemingly normal when they are chasing each other erratically around the tank.

Guppies? Many different species lotsa bright colours. Girls like them. They also tornado dive for a party trick.

I also have kuhli loaches a fish you may be interested in seeing as how you like the bottom dwellers. - best in a group

They will hang from your trees at night they can burrow under sand and fine gravel, kinda like an eel. Just plain cool

 

[tylermakin]

I have had rasboras of a completely different kind. So I can't help you with that decision

 

[Sgtdap]

I think I am kind of set in the bottom feeder area. I like the corys and a single pleco after the tank is up and running.

What do you do with all your Ram offspring? If they can lay 200ish eggs at once how do you keep from getting over ran?

Also, can you sell fish back to pet stores or is it not worth the gas for the prices they would give?

 

[tylermakin]

You very well could sell them to your local pet store. And many fish even the live bearing types can have a lot of babies. As long as you have a male female pair if something you can bet on fry sooner or later. In my community with so many fish a lot of things become food and that is the nature of the beast. But I could easily take measures to insure very high survival rate for profit. But this is my hobby not my job. Every once awhile a few of the fry will live to adulthood. The rest well. We're enjoyed.

Fish eggs or very young fish will even often be eaten by there own parents if not everybody else

Some fish on the other hand are amazing parents. Mouth brooding cichlids for example.

Some fish couldn't care if you exist. My rams you can tell are always watching the outside of the tank aswell as the inside.

 

[Sgtdap]

Ok, last question before I go to bed:

I am doing a sand substrate and I have read that you need to "stir" it up to release gases. Some fish will do that pretty well for you and you don't have to worry about it. Will the cory's and pleco do well or should I consider the loaches since they like to burrow sometimes?

 

[tylermakin]

I would stir anyhow. Nothing beats good maintenance. If your using sand make sure to run a prefilter sponge on your filtration unit so sand doesn't end up in unwanted places

But Cory's are quite the active cleaners. And plecos will eat steadily also. But everything that steadily eats steadily poops.

 

[Sgtdap]

Haha, alrighty.

Thanks for all the help tonight!

I think I am going to keep the two swordtails, get a school of Danios (scissortails), school of cory and a pleco and see how my levels are after as I slowly add each group.

Wish me luck with the cycle!

 

[tylermakin]

Perfect plan. Your off to a great start.

Feed your pleco after you turn your lights off. In a place it likes to be or they can usually only get to

Plecos are usually nocturnal but will learn to eat during the day.

 

[Sgtdap]

So I ran my API tests on the water I had in the tank the last few days to make sure it wasn't going to leak. 8.2 PH, .25ppm Ammonia, 0ppm Nitrites, and 5-10ppm Nitrates.

Having such a high tap water PH concerns me as I want my fishes to be comfortable. I also know it can make the cycle take a lot longer. If I use PH Down and keep dosing it as I do PWCs can I slowly back off the PH down and the fish will get use to the higher PH or is it too high for them?

 

[tylermakin]

Do you have any fish in yet?

 

[Sgtdap]

No fish, I haven't started the cycle yet as I am waiting on the pool filter sand to be shipped to Ace so I can pick it up.