Tank Setup for Lyretail Molly and Giant Danio

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an interest in aquariums or fish keeping!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.

NewBettaBuddy

Aquarium Advice Newbie
Joined
Feb 21, 2018
Messages
6
Location
California
Hello everyone!
My boyfriend's mother is a very sweet woman, but she made the mistake of trusting the big petstore for fish advice when they said the fish her 7-year-old picked out were fine. They sold her a single giant danio and a single lyretail molly, with a two gallon aquarium. She now knows this won't work, but her daughter is also already attached to the fish, so she's committed to getting the proper setup for them. I have some basic knowledge, but all my experience is with a 5 gal betta tank, so I'm coming to you all for some advice.
From what I've seen, the two fish should be compatible in the right circumstances, correct?

I know the giant danio will need a minimum 30 gal, so I'm currently shopping around for a deal on the tank - I'm hoping to get a long one.

Planning on getting a heater programmed to 78, seems to be a decent midpoint for the two. I'm shopping around for a good filter system, if anyone has recommendations that would be wonderful. I'm going to jumpstart their cycle with some of my betta's filter material.

Will I be able to get away with silk plants here? I'm trying to cut back on maintenance as much as possible, but I know mollies are plant-nibblers.

From what I understand, they both need schools of 4 minimum, correct? Following the inch-per-gallon rule, it looks like I'd be pretty close to maxed out once I get them each some friends. I can't get aqadvisor to work right now, but I'll keep trying. Am I correct that'll about max out the bioload? If so, will it be alright with just the two schools in there?

Thank you so much for reading through this. I'm a bit overwhelmed with it, but I want to get these fish in a good home.
 
With mollies you want to get an odd number. Typically people go with the traditional 2 females per 1 male. You are going to watch out for the babies though. You can probably get away with the molly as a single in there with a group of the danios. Mollies aren't really schooling fish.

You can do silk plant but will probably want an airstone.
30 gallon long seems like it should work.

I know it's not much but I hope it helps.
 
I'd go with a 33g long or 40 gallon breeder. Depending on what size she can fit in her house. Danios should be kept in a school of 5 and the Molly can be by itself or two or three IMO.

Get a good HOB and fairly large as the tank will be maxed out.
 
Back
Top Bottom