38 Gallon Marineland Stocking Proposal

[D-Fish]

Hello everyone!

So I am going to be getting a Marineland 38 Gallon bowfront from petsmart this weekend. I am planning on making a planted tank and doing mostly nano and small species.

I would like to run this proposal by all of you and get your take on it.

Fish:
A school of threadfin rainbowfish (6-8)
A school of ember tetras (20-24)
A school of dwarf Cory cats. (10-12)
A school of either CODs or emerald rasboras (10-12)


I'd also like something for a splash of gold or yellow. Maybe German Blue Ram's? But I think they may be to aggressive for the threadfins. Or maybe dwarf gold rasboras if I can find them.

Shrimp:
A dwarf shrimp of some color. (Could get my yellow here)

Snails:
Horned nerites maybe 5 after the tank matures.

This will be a heavily planted tank. With some driftwood and a fine planting substrate.

Any fish will be added slowly as to not overwhelm the BBs

 

[D-Fish]

Here is the tank. Just set it up. I am waiting on the hardscape in the mail. Thought I'd go ahead and start the cycle. I through in some plants and wood from an old tank to give it a boost. There was one Olive nerite that was attached to the wood so I just went ahead and let it go in with it.

I went ahead and added one of my 30 inch T5 lighting systems because the little clip on the front LEDs are laughable LOL. I'm thinking about going ahead and getting a decent 30 inch LED light to go with the tank but for now the T5s will work.

Also I used floramax midnight black as the substrate.

By the way the blue Rams I mentioned in the post was just a afterthought and I know that they would not work with the other fish.

I was tempted by some beautiful veiltail angelfish that they had but because I have My mind set on schools of nano fish I decided to stay away from them.

 

[D-Fish]

Okay everyone I am in a bit of a dilemma. I have to stocking ideas that are completely opposite of each other and I am having a hard time choosing which one I want to go with. The first is pretty much what I was talking about before in this thread.

Here is the example.

That will not all go in at once of course lol.

The second is an Angel center piece set-up.
You see when I was at the pet store I saw the most beautiful super veil wild type angel. I fell in love with the fish but walked away because I was not doing an angel tank. But I've not been able to get the little thing out of my head. So I've been throwing around the idea of doing an angel tank instead. It would have only one angel as the 38gal in my opinion is too small to try and do more without risking agression. As tank mates I'd do a school of normal size corydoras. Maybe albino or panda. Than either a school of larger tetras or maybe more some of my platies over.

So stocking would be like.
1 angelfish
8-10 corydoras
8-10 tetras or platies.

What do you all think?

 

[King Fisher]

This stocking idea with the single Angel sounds good

 

[D-Fish]

Thanks for the feedback.

This stocking idea with the single Angel sounds good

 

[goatnad]

Okay everyone I am in a bit of a dilemma. I have to stocking ideas that are completely opposite of each other and I am having a hard time choosing which one I want to go with. The first is pretty much what I was talking about before in this thread.

Here is the example.
View attachment 309822
That will not all go in at once of course lol.

The second is an Angel center piece set-up.
You see when I was at the pet store I saw the most beautiful super veil wild type angel. I fell in love with the fish but walked away because I was not doing an angel tank. But I've not been able to get the little thing out of my head. So I've been throwing around the idea of doing an angel tank instead. It would have only one angel as the 38gal in my opinion is too small to try and do more without risking agression. As tank mates I'd do a school of normal size corydoras. Maybe albino or panda. Than either a school of larger tetras or maybe more some of my platies over.

So stocking would be like.
1 angelfish
8-10 corydoras
8-10 tetras or platies.

What do you all think?

well to me the first stock looks like it might end up being a bit overstocked but not bad overstocked. put a good amount of filtration and that will be fine. next i could see your scarlet badis possibly being an issue. ive read people getting them and they become very territorial and aggressive against all tank mates. the badis might also try to eat the shrimp or at least harass them. other than that it looks fine.


the second stock is good on the amount of fish but the one fish i would say no to is the angelfish. they prefer to be in groups and once fully grown the 38g tank will be small for it. alot of people have kept 1 angel alone and had no problems. angelfish can be aggressive fish also and they are fast swimmers. he might get tired of the tetras and platies and chase them.

 

[D-Fish]

Interesting. I had heard that the scarlet badis was quite peaceful. If they might be a problem I can definitely leave them out.

I was afraid the tank may be too small for angels. That's one reason I had said one. I knew it would not work for more than that. Ideally I'd like to have a 6' tank for them if I kept a "school" of them.

well to me the first stock looks like it might end up being a bit overstocked but not bad overstocked. put a good amount of filtration and that will be fine. next i could see your scarlet badis possibly being an issue. ive read people getting them and they become very territorial and aggressive against all tank mates. the badis might also try to eat the shrimp or at least harass them. other than that it looks fine.


the second stock is good on the amount of fish but the one fish i would say no to is the angelfish. they prefer to be in groups and once fully grown the 38g tank will be small for it. alot of people have kept 1 angel alone and had no problems. angelfish can be aggressive fish also and they are fast swimmers. he might get tired of the tetras and platies and chase them.

 

[King Fisher]

I once kept a single Angel in a 29g for around 5 years....got 6 inches too.... with a school of 6 glofish Tetra successfully. All were put in the tank as juveniles. They never fought although tempermant can be specific to what you got.

 

[D-Fish]

I once kept a single Angel in a 29g for around 5 years....got 6 inches too.... with a school of 6 glofish Tetra successfully. All were put in the tank as juveniles. They never fought although tempermant can be specific to what you got.

I find that to be the case with any cichlids. I had a EBJD in an 80 gal that was the easiest going cichlid I had ever had. I also had a green severum that was the devil's spawn lol.