School Tank

[Psyhampster]

One of the teachers at my school is setting up a tank in his classroom, and I'm looking for advice on fish. I'm not positive on the gallonage, but I think it's about 20 gal. Any advice would be helpful.

 

[marcus russo]

Kinda broad request but a few tips.
Start slowly with stocking fish.
Don't overstock fish.
If doing live plants make sure you get the right ones for your lighting
Watch ammonia levels

 

[Psyhampster]

I sorta meant fish advice, but wasn't to clear on that. Sorry

 

[marcus russo]

Generally type of fish you should get for a smaller tank tends to be community fish as you will haveless deaths due to agression. These are fish such as mollies, neons (not hardy) guppies and such.
There are some cichlids that will do fine in that size tank but you are much more limited with your choices.

 

[Melody]

how about a nice school of guppies... then you can cover the whole biology thing and also reproduction... cuz they are gonna multiply!!!! I bet the kids would LOVE that... make sure you have a good filter and heater!!! substrate is not necessary, but nice to look at. Maybe if you do guppies, try a few different varieties and see what kind of combos you get. What is the dominant gene? Are some hardier then others? But then I think guppies dont do well in new tanks.
Good luck!!!

 

[robertmarda]

Mollies are nice. They react to you and will often follow your finger and come near you when you are near the tank. They come in many nice colors, such as white, black, dalmation, and orange. I recommend two maybe three. It will be best if you only get one male.

 

[Psyhampster]

Thanks for all the advice!

 

[robertmarda]

By the way, guppies and mollies can live together in the same tank. So if you decide you want a few of each type that would work too.

 

[BASSNMAN]

Guppies are bad about eating the fry, mollies are a little better, especially if you have a few fine plants, real or fake,

 

[Lance M.]

How about a school of 7-8 white clouds and two or three dojo loaches? They don't need a heater for the winter, but you could use it just to make sure there aren't any wild temperature swings. White clouds seem to be very hardy- mine won't get ick. Dojos are pretty cool too.

 

[Menagerie]

mine won't get ick

8O That's quite a statement!

 

[rubysoho]

I thought mollies needed brackish water and guppies were freshwater only?? Maybe I am confusing my fish species... This is what happens when I try to learn a lot too quickly

 

[Mofo2713]

Mollies can live in BW or FW. My roomate has a FW with mollies and they are fine.

 

[Psyhampster]

Ya... I had 3 Black Mollies in my 20 gal. They lasted about 2-3 weeks, although I'm not sure if it was because of the quality/type of water. Great fish, but kinda leery about em at the moment.

 

[nfeagle5]

My cousin has 3 female mollies and 1 male (black). And he has 2 female and 1 male (dalmation) Right now he has 20+ fry in 2 breeder nets. For some reason the guy at the LFS said he will buy the dalmations for 3.50 each if they survive 3 months. SO thats kinda cool.

 

[Toirtis]

Mollies should be in BW...not really cricket to keep them in fresh...but you could easily do a mild brackish community tank, or go with guppies, swords/platies, white clouds, and some corys in a FW tank.

 

[robertmarda]

I have always kept my mollies in freshwater and they have had no problem thriving and breeding in freshwater.

I understand how you (Psyhampster) feels about being leery about fish that died for no apparent reason. I have never been able to keep swordtails alive very long. I even had about 40+ babies and none of them survived more than a few weeks (even though mollies born around the same time and kept in the same tank did survive). Because of this I won't get swordtails.

You could try some gold prestilla tetras, say 4 or 5. I have some and like the way they rise for food and then dive low in the water again before coming up for more.

 

[Psyhampster]

What we're probably going to do is I'll loan him my 4 Zebra Danios as cycling fish(they survived cycling for me, they should be able to do it again) either until my platies breed or until he decides he wants different fish. If the platies breed, I'll give him most of the fry once they are free swimming, so he will have fish, and I get to let the fry survive/grow out.

 

[Menagerie]

Better idea!! Teach the other students science by doing a fishless cycling with straight ammonia. Students could measure the ammonia, nitrite and nitrate, plot the cycle and know when it is SAFE to put fish in the tank.

 

[Psyhampster]

Heh, only problem with that Menagerie, is that he is a Social Studies teacher