Please help! 110L/29 gallon tank stock help

[Millsy]

Hello ☺️
We have a 110L/29 gallon tank and need help with stock ideas please!

We currently have:
4 Mollies (Dalmatian x2 & ?gold dust x2)
12 cardinal tetras
3 sterbai corys

We are thinking to get another two larger fish that can live happily amongst these

How do I work about what capacity we are at now?

Will our corys be happy with a brittlenose pleco?

If we are able to, capacity provided, what other colourful/feature fish would you guys suggest?

Probably a silly question, but what can we get to help us keep the bottom free from faeces (fish/snail/shrimp/or just a case of cleaning?)

Thank you!! We want our fish to have a lovely and peaceful home, but we are first timers to this and keep getting different answers from aquarium shops

[Arget]

A 29g is a bit small for mollies. I'm also pretty sure that cories tend to prefer small groups, like 6 or so, unless they're schooling fish. Your tetras are a wonderful choice of schooling fish, you just need to watch for any fin nipping, the larger the school the less issues you'll have. A BN pleco is always a good choice for your setup, but you'll need driftwood for them. Make sure you've got proper filtration, but also that the current isn't too strong. All of your fish, save for the mollies, are blackwater and can't handle stronger currents. Mollies prefer harder water, and guppies would be a better choice since they're smaller. Make sure that with guppies or mollies, you've got at least 2-3 females per male, it'll stress the females less. You'll also want to keep an eye out for any fry, the females are likely already pregnant, and I've seen female guppies turn male before.



A good choice for a larger display fish would be a South American Dwarf Cichlid. Either a pair of Rams or Apistogramma if you can find them. Apistogramma cacatuoides are the most adaptable, and are the easiest/cheapest to find. Most Rams are Venezuela Rams, only they're called by their color morph. Bolivian Rams are harder to find, but not as delicate, and I find them impossible to sex. As a bonus, all of the cichlids mentioned are blackwater, and are good community fish, but can get a bit defensive if they've got eggs or fry. As long as the other fish can swim closer to the surface and away from the cichlids they should be fine.


Depending on the substrate, Malaysian Trumpet Snails are always a nice touch. They can get out of hand though. Anything else for cleaning the poo would be eaten more easily. The best way to keep the bottom clean is to not overfeed the fish, and use a gravel siphon during weakly water changes.

[Jacky12]

Those mollies can grow up to 6”. I think you’re overstocked now and may want to consider a larger tank at some point. I’ve found great buys on used tanks and other equipment at Craigslist and in local Facebook groups. Meanwhile, carefully monitor your ammonia, nitrite & nitrate levels. I use the API freshwater kit. Amazon has the best price.

You can use a tank vacuum to suck up poop when you clean the substrate. I do this as needed when I change the water. I change ~60% once a week, but don’t vacuum the substrate that often.

Mayaysian Asian snails are the bane of my existence. I despise them. The eggs came to me on plants from the local pet store. They are profuse breeders & I frequently have to pick them out of the tank & discard. If you want snails, try nerites. They require briny water to breed.

YouTube has some good videos on cleaning the substrate & using test drops to check for potentially toxic levels.

[Colin_T]

Hi and welcome to the forum

How long has the tank been set up for?
What sort of filter is on the tank?
How often and how do you clean the filter?

How often do you do water changes and how much do you change?
Do you gravel clean the substrate when you do a water change?
Do you dechlorinate the new water before adding it to the aquarium?

What are the tank dimensions (length x width x height)?

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What is the GH (general hardness), KH (carbonate hardness) and pH of your water supply?
This information can usually be obtained from your water supply company's website (Water Analysis Report) or by telephoning them. If they can't help you, take a glass full of tap water to the local pet shop and get them to test it for you. Write the results down (in numbers) when they do the tests. And ask them what the results are in (eg: ppm, dGH, or something else).

Depending on what the GH of your water is, will determine what fish you should keep.

Angelfish, discus, most tetras, most barbs, Bettas, gouramis, rasbora, Corydoras and small species of suckermouth catfish all occur in soft water (GH below 150ppm) and a pH below 7.0.

Livebearers (guppies, platies, swordtails, mollies), rainbowfish and goldfish occur in medium hard water with a GH around 200-250ppm and a pH above 7.0.

If you have very hard water (GH above 300ppm) then look at African Rift Lake cichlids, or use distilled or reverse osmosis water to reduce the GH and keep fishes from softer water.

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There are several species of molly. The sailfin varieties grow bigger (up to 6 inches) than the more common smaller varieties that regularly grow to 4 inches. The big issue with your current selection of fish is they require different water chemistry. Mollies don't do well in soft water, and tetras don't do well in hard water.

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There are no fish, shrimp or snails that clean up waste. Use a gravel cleaner to suck gunk out when you do a water change each week.

Malaysian trumpet/ livebearing snails are a pain in the butt and breed out of control so avoid them at all costs. Other snails like ramshorn and pond snails can also breed out of control but are easier to find and eradicate. Mystery, assassin and nerite snails aren't much of a problem in aquariums.