Suggestions on Restocking

[amyb_70]

hi all. i would love to get some of your opinions and suggestions on restocking my 29 gal tank. I have had the tank for 2-3 months. I previously had several kinds of tetras and guppies.. For some reason I can not keep guppies. The tetras all did great ( had black skirt, white skirt, painted, glo, xray, the small albinos), i also had some neon danios. the guppies were the only ones whom no matter what i did they would die (normally within a week or sometimes days. So heres what i have right now: i have a 29 gal and right now i have 2 angles in there (other fish as well but hope to transfer those over to my frog and goldfish. i have added plants to the 29 gal and what i would like to do is have 3 pairs of of differant fish. is that to much? what do you all suggest that would go nice w/ the angels? also if you have any stories you would like to share bout your angel fish i would love to hear your experiences. thank you

 

[PNWaquarist]

That's odd. Did all of the guppies come from the same store? I'm wondering if they were kept in moderately hard water and suffered osmotic shock when introduced into your tank. From the description of the fish you've kept, it sounds like your tank water is on the softer side.

I've never kept angels, but would say that bottom-dewllers such as corys and rams should be able to peacefully coexist with them. Fish that occupy higher strata in the tank become more tricky. Small, peaceful tetras with torpedo-shaped bodies (Neons, Cardinals, Embers, etc.) fit nicely into their mouths. Some of the other more aggressive tetras (Penguin, Beunos Aires, etc.) may fin-nip the angels. You might be able to keep some of the peaceful disk-shaped tetras that can't fit into their mouths (Bleeding Heart, Lemon, Black Skirt). I'd guess that hatchetfish might work.

All of the fish that I mentioned (except the rams) like to be in small shoals (5+), so I would shoot for two species in addition to the angels. Though more is better, could get by with 3-4 corys.

 

[amyb_70]

Maybe I didn't explain well. 1st off I've gotten the guppies from 5 different stores. As for stock I have 2 angels, 2 Cory cats and 2 Oto's. I do have a pair of Mollie's but I m. Truth be said I'm not sure if I should move them to my other tank or leave as is


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[PNWaquarist]

What is the GH of your 29 gallon?

 

[amyb_70]

Ok I've only been on this site for a month. I'm trying to guess what GH means.
Btw the water perimiters are all right on where they should be. I did have an ammonia spike ( still unsure why), that is now at .25 so getting that taken care of. The only fish I lost were guppies, but that's normal for me. For some reason there the 1 fish I can't seem to keep alive.


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[PNWaquarist]

GH is water hardness. You can read about it here.

You'll want to stock with fish that tolerate the same GH range (as well as pH range).

 

[amyb_70]

Ok. That makes sense. So I pretty much answered the question. Idk what the exact numbers are but I know they are all the safe zone except continuing to work on getting ammonia back to 0..
I've read so much conflicting info on the net, how do I know what's right and what's not. I don't trust the lfs their advice had me in a huge mess to start out. Mixing cold and fw fish, semi aggressive, to peaceful to evil CAE.


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[PNWaquarist]

Go to your LFS and purchase a GH test kit. IMO, that's as important to know as pH. Sites on the web such as theaquariumwiki.com and fishlore.com are helpful for information.

Regarding your ammonia spike, that may be a false positive. The API's liquid test kit for ammonia, in my experience and the experience of some others, will always show a hint of green. It's never canary yellow. If your tank has been cycled and the color of your ammonia test has a slight green hue, do the nitrite test. If your nitrite test shows light blue (as opposed to grayish blue), you're not experiencing an ammonia spike.

 

[amyb_70]

That test did show light blue! Thank you soooo much. I was going to do pwc today. Should I still test today or wait till tomorrow? Btw Ty for so much help. I appreciate ut


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[PNWaquarist]

No problem. You can test for nitrites again this evening if you really want to make sure.

 

[amyb_70]

Great. Thanks again very helpful information. You deserve 5 ***** in my book.


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[PNWaquarist]

Thanks! Good luck with your tank.