I’ve got a new tank set up cycled and ready for fish, but don’t want to overstock!
Tank: 36 g, medium planted, Seachem 75 hob filter.
I’d like to stock with silver tip tetra and turquoise rainbow fish or Blue rams - I think I can get away with 10 tetras and 2 rainbows/rams but really would appreciate anyone preventing me from getting too many if that’s the case with my plan.
I dont think you would be overstocked with your proposal. However rainbow fish tend to prefer larger numbers, so on that i would opt for the rams.
I keep silvertip tetras, and when i had equal males to females they got a bit aggressive towards the females, so i added a few more females. Aggression gone. The males have better colour so its tempting to go for more males. Its easy to see the difference. I dont know if all males would work if you really like their orange colour.
36 gallons, you could get 9 or 10 rainbow fish in there. If you drop down to say 6 rainbow fish you could also add 6 to 8 silvertips. Might look a bit weird with such a small number of silvertips with the much bigger rainbow fish.
I would either go all rainbow fish, or a pair of rams with a big group of silvertips, say 15 of those.
Or, if you really wanted the group of rainbows, how about 6 rainbows and some bottom feeders. Say 8 corys? They are super cute fish and will occupy a different part of the tank to the rainbow fish.