Stocking Time!!!

[Heiko]

Hey ive sorted out my tank for good now. Through various methods such as returning the angels to my lfs for credit, giving other enthusiasts whom i trust my danios and unfortunatly a series of tiger barb deaths i now have a very empty tank.

So heres the deal:

My tank is a 20 gal freshwater planted aquarium.
It currently contains;
2 Male swordtails
2 Green tiger barbs

Any of these fish can be exchanged at my lfs so has anyone got any ideas of how two stock my tank so i can have a nice looking reasonably low maintenance setup (if there even is such a thing ).

Thanks in advance for any ideas you can throw at me!

 

[Guest]

what do you want? is there any fish you are particularly interested in? There's just so many choices.. you could go with a couple schools of any kind of tetra, corie cat fish (my favorite!), and maybe a male dwarf gourami as your "big" fish.

 

[Jchillin]

IMO, every planted tank should contain at least one cichlid. This could be your "show" fish and the tetras as dither. Of course, no tank is really complete without a few bottom feeders, so either a small school of cories and/or a dwarf pleco should complete it.

The cichlid(s) can be the SA dward variety such as Bolivian, German Blue or Gold Ram.

 

[Heiko]

hmmmm

I would like a school of corries definatly. And then another scool of small fish as you say.

Yup a show fish is definatly what i need. although i have no idea about cichlids i would really like to learn as they are such beautiful fish. I would love to have one. What would anyone recomend as a reasonably hardy fish? :? Maybe a pair of rams or something?

I really want to get it right this time so im going to take my time and gather all the advice that you lot can give me.

 

[severum mama]

A pair of rams, while beautiful, would definitely not qualify as hardy. They are extremely sensitive to water conditions and must be added to an established tank. It sounds like your tank is established so if you want to try them, I would return the green tiger barbs. GBRs stress easily so it is best to plan the tank around them IMO, and boisterous tankmates may not be the best choice. Same goes for apistogramma (other SA dwarf cichlids). Bolivian rams may be a good choice for you. Although they are not as colorful as blue rams, they are a little larger and much more hardy.

 

[Heiko]

Yeh those sound good. ill definatly design my tank and its inhabitants around the cichlids. The only problem is wether my lfs will store any. I havn't seen any cichlids recently. However i do remember seeing some Kribensis. What would they be like?

Thanks for your input.

 

[rich311k]

Kribensis are cichlids and they are very pretty little fish.

 

[severum mama]

I think kribensis would be fine, although I've never kept them myself. I've heard that they are very aggressive if they decide to breed, however.

 

[Heiko]

hmmmmm. well i suppose my options are limited to what fish my lfs stocks.

O well thanks for all your help