Tank filling 50 gallon

[fishiefan]

I have 3 white skirt tetras, 7 neon tetras, 1 fancy male guppy, and 1 Oto fish. Any suggestions to filling the tank ? I don't want too many fish and I have 3 amazon sword plants.

 

[Mumma.of.two]

I have 3 white skirt tetras, 7 neon tetras, 1 fancy male guppy, and 1 Oto fish. Any suggestions to filling the tank ? I don't want too many fish and I have 3 amazon sword plants.

Moved to FW getting started.

First I'd suggest you up your school of skirt tetras to at least 6 but 8 or more would be better to curb aggression. You can add white or black skirts as they are the same fish. Otos do better in groups so I'd add at least 2 more. IMO you have room for a bottom dwelling fish such as a group of cories, small loaches or a small species of pleco and another schooling fish or a centre piece fish.

 

[fishiefan]

For the white skirts they do seem to try and chase the oto once in a while and I think I'm going to add 2 white skirts and 2 Otos any plant suggestions

 

[Mumma.of.two]

What plants will depend on what your lighting is.

 

[fishiefan]

This is a picture of my tank if you need to see my fish I can send of pic of it oh yeah and I have a big algae problem on the plants

 

[Mumma.of.two]

What lighting fixture do you have? what bulb? How long is it on? Algae can be from the light being too strong, not strong enough, on too long and many other reasons.

 

[fishiefan]

I have no Idea on the lighting ( my parents gave me) and I usually turn it on for 13 hours a day and I just got my Oto from pet smart today and its hungry

 

[fishiefan]

This is the Oto it's not moving much

 

[librarygirl]

Does the light fixture or bulbs have any information on it? They usually list the wattage.
13 hours is a bit much, 8-10 would be plenty. what kind of algae? Also you'll want to remove the plants from the pots. They look like swords but do you know if that's what they are?

Otos are pretty sensitive. They do hang on the glass a lot; I just got a few last week; they're more active now, give it time to settle in. Give it some friends as they feel more secure in groups. It's often hard to feed them though. They primarily like biofilm and certain types of algae. You can try supplementing their diet with different types of algea or veggie wafers but it might take a while for it to realize it's food. You can try some blanched veggies too like zucchini or cucumber.

+1 to Mumma's fish suggestions.

 

[fishiefan]

If I add 3 more Otos is it to many ( I don't want all the algae to go away) I didn't research much about Otos until today when I realized it was better in groups I go to petsmart monthly so it's going to be another few weeks before my parents let me go to petsmart I try to limit light but I always turn it on before school then turn it off before I prepare for bed and my parents turn it on at night sometimes so it could be 18 hours a day maybe

 

[fishiefan]

And yes there swords

 

[Rivercats]

Plants only need lights on for 6 to 8 hours. Why not try leaving the lights off while at school and only have them on after school to bed? A timer works great for this.

Other easy plants that tolerate light since you have the stock lighting that came with the tank are water sprite, wisteria, jungle val, crypts, anubias and java ferns to attach onto DW. These would all work well in your tank. Something else is you also need to get some Seachem or other brand of Root Tab Fertilizers to use with your swords or any other plants you put in the tank substrate. Plus getting a bottle of liquid fertilizer such as Seachems Flourish Comprehensive to use after weekly WC's will also help once you put other plants in the tank.

 

[fishiefan]

Thx I'm going to try using your lighting method. Also I might get java ferns to help and I took the swords out of their pots I'm going to post a picture of my tank Tommarow after school I live in EST (eastern standard time) and my leaves are green but dry is their a fertilizer that helps treat dried leaves and for some reason one of the plants the leaves are eaten I have 3 white skirts,7 neon tetras,used to have 2 dwarf gournamis there dead now, 1 guppy,
And the Oto fish. Do you know if one of the fishes ate them or was it just algae killing the plant

 

[Rivercats]

Seachem makes good fertilizers, both liquid and root tabs. Without seeing pic's of the plants its hard to know what's up with the swords. Skirt tetra's don't usually eat plants but it's possible. Neons and oto's don't eat plants.