How many fish in an Eclipse 12?

[hb2000]

Hi. I'm new to freshwater aquariums and am thankful to have found a helpful forum such as this. My first tank is an Eclipse 12 from Marineland. I would like some guidance on how many fish I can safely have in the tank. I understand that the often heard 1" per gallon is not really accurate.

I want the fish to be happy. I want the fish to get along (no nipping at each other). And all prefer the same water temperature. I would like to have:

1 - Male Betta, 2 - dwarf Gourami's and a small group of schooling fish say 5 - neon or rummy nose tetras or white clouds or cherry barb's.
Maybe a couple dwarf corry

Would they get along? Is that to many fish for the tank? For a pair of dwarf gourami can you have two males of different or the same colours together? Will I need a heater for these type of fish? And what wattage?

Thanks for your help.

 

[Madame_X]

I think the betta is out, or the dwarf gouramis. They generally don't get along. If you go with the gouramis, you might want to try for a male and a female. I have two males in my Eclipse 12 and they fight a lot, to the point where one now hides constantly and is afraid to come out (I plan to move him to a bigger tank shortly).

If you go with a small schooling species as you mentioned, I think you could put that many fish in the Eclipse. I have seven fish in mine--the two dwarf gouramis, three platies and two upside down catfish (who will have to move once they get bigger but I think they'll be fine for a year or so).

Good luck... its a pretty tank. I enjoy mine a lot!

 

[SixFootDaisy]

I agree with not putting in two male gouramis.

The 1" per gallon rule is actually a very good rule. However you also have to find out which areas of the tank the fish swim at. For example, my Gouramis are all over the place, my pristella tetras are mainly in the middle of the tank, corys stay at the bottom. It is very easy to overstock a tank [I've done it] but it also isn't fair to the fish. Be kind to them

 

[illuminum]

I have an eclipse 12 as well and I've been in the aquuarium game for no more than 2 months. I have one small pleco (sucker fish), 4 neon tetras, ans 3 guppies. They all get along. I would assume that your betta would be a bully in the tank and would probably end up killing those small schooling fish wou mentioned. I just bought a realatively inexpensive heater and it works fine. I don't think you really need to worry about getting a superpowerful heater for a 12 gallon.

Check out my photogallery. Keep us posted on what you put in your tank and how it goes.

 

[madasafish]

Mind you, Iluminum, hb2000 does live in Vancouver, and it gets pretty cold there. I'd still recommend a serious heater (not superserious ). 25 watts will probably do the job! I assume you have a thermometer on the tank already. If the temp is not staying sufficiently high with the 25, change to a 50. Temperature swings in your tank can be much more harmful to fish than you'd think. They're not able to regulate their own body heat, so they really rely on you! Also, if temp swings too much in a tank, the fish become more stressed, and more likely to contract a disease (the parasites for some of which usually already exist in the tanks in small amounts). Believe me, it happened to me one hot day--my fish all got ich.

Not to rant!