54L Tank, what can I stock?

[Teri1]

Hi there,

I just bought a 54L tank to transfer my 7 White Cloud Mountain Minnows into as I originally bought a tank that was way too small for them (very new to all of this). I was just wondering if anyone had any advice on what else, if anything, I could stock the tank with? Ideally I was hoping to get:

3 more WCMM
Maybe some shrimp?
I was wondering if it would be a big enough tank to get some cory catfish?

I’m concerned about overstocking/overcrowding so any advice before I go and buy more fish would be greatly appreciated.


Dimensions of the tank:

H37, W62, D33cm

 

[King Fisher]

IMO, you would be good with 10 WCMM. I'd go with Oto catfish rather than Cory cats in your size tank. 6 should be good. Also, keep the tank at a steady temperature of 70 degrees Fahrenheit or 21 degrees Celsius. If you decide shrimp over the oto's then I'd go with 6. They'll breed.

Is your tank cycled?

 

[Teri1]

IMO, you would be good with 10 WCMM. I'd go with Oto catfish rather than Cory cats in your size tank. 6 should be good. Also, keep the tank at a steady temperature of 70 degrees Fahrenheit or 21 degrees Celsius. If you decide shrimp over the oto's then I'd go with 6. They'll breed.

Is your tank cycled?

Thanks for the reply, so do you mean you think that either 10 wcmm + 6 oto catfish OR 10 wcmm + 6 shrimp would be ideal? Or do you think I should just stick to the 10 wcmm on their own and not add anything else?

I haven’t actually cycled the tank yet I’m still in the process of setting it up, if you have any advice regarding cycling though it would be very welcome as I find the conflicting advice online a bit confusing.

 

[King Fisher]

Yes that's what I mean. You could just go with 10 WCMM as well. It's really up to you but if you just wanted to start out with the WCMM then add something later that's always an option.

You could do a fishless cycle with pure ammonia. There's also some products out there that you can use to help cycle like Dr Tim's ammonia, although I've never tried it. Another way to cycle is to add fish food to the tank to get your desired ammonia level. This can be messy and requires light gravel vacuum's during partial water changes. Then there's fish in cycles. Some people don't like to expose fish to harmful changes in water during a cycling process. The majority of my tank cycles were fish in.

Decide how you want to cycle. Get an API freshwater master test kit (liquid kit) to accurately test your water during the cycling process. This is especially important during a fish in cycle. Be prepared to wait anywhere from a month to two months before your tank is cycled. When you are ready to start we can help you through the cycle.