Approve/critique my 29 gallon stocking list?

[callibear]

Hello! I am pretty new to fish keeping. When I was a kid I attempted it, but not being knowledgeable my fish died and frustration led to giving up.

I have recently decided to try my hand at it again and, after having done much research, have settled on a 29 gallon tank. I am currently doing a fishless cycle with pure ammonia (the ace hardware brand) and it looks as if I just have 2-3 weeks left. I hope

I currently have an aquaclear 70 filter with bioballs instead of carbon and a 200 watt heater. I don't mind adding another filter if I have to.

Anyways, I have put a lot of thought into how I would like to stock my aquarium. The list as of now is:

6 albino corydoras aeneus
6 cardinal tetra
6 marble hatchetfish
5 or so ghost shrimp
1 bolivian ram
1 koi swordtail

Originally, I had wanted corydoras habrosus but they have proved impossible to find. I can only find pygmaeus and hastatus. I have read, however, that these two species spend a good deal of time in the middle of the water and I would like to keep my aquarium as evenly stocked as possible.

Also, I prefer harlequin rasboras to the hatchetfish, but my tap water is 7.8ph. Although the piece of driftwood I have in my tank seems to bring it down to 7.6 or 7.4. I am not sure that the rasboras would fair well in such high ph. As it is, the ph is in the higher acceptable ranges of the other fish I have chosen.

I have chosen to keep only one ram so that my cories would not have to deal with aggression when the rams were spawning, if I were to keep a mated pair. Will the single ram be lonely?

And then of course, there is the single swordtail. Will the one swordtail do well by itself? I would not mind keeping 1 male and 2 females, but I think I am already pushing the stocking level of my tank.

I would also love to keep a dwarf african frog or two in the tank, but am concerned that they will not do well with so many fish. Thoughts?

I am attaching a photo of my tank as it is set up currently. There are a couple hidden terra cotta pots for hiding spots and before I stock the tank I will add two more so the ram has lots of hiding spots. I also plan to add some floating plants for the hatchetfish if I go with them. All the plants are fake.

I mostly would like to know if this is an acceptable stocking level or if I could add a fish or two to each school I have.


Thank you very much for any help/advise!

 

[Oohitsae]

Stocking list sounds good to me. If you want the rasboras more though then you should get them practically all fish can and will adapt to most pH ranges as long as they are stable. I keep German blue rams in some of my tanks with pH 7.6 while they prefer it to be 5.5-6.5 they still thrive in the 7.6.

The Bolivian should do fine by itself, you'll still have some aggression, but a lot less than a mated pair. If you wanted multiple without a pair you could probably do 2 females. They will bicker but usually not badly enough to have to seperate.

The swordtails also do ok by themselves but would prefer more of their own kind to be with. You don't have to get a trio if you don't want fry though. Males will do okay with other females and females are fine without males even though they can drop fry for a few months after their last contact with a male.

You were also talking about filtration, I think you should have plenty of it with the AC50 (or was it 70?) so I wouldn't worry about adding another filter. I run a 50 on my 28 gallon which is usually pretty well overstocked and it keeps my parameters in check and does the job well! looking into live plants is never a bad thing though, they help clean the water column, also add tons of places for fry to hide if you do get that swordtail trio, and help oxygenate the water! They seem complicated up front, but all you truly need is a decent flourescent or LED lighting in the right spectrum and possibly some ferts if you go with low light plants.

Goodluck with your tank and whatever you decide to do!

 

[Thranta]

The hatchetfish are a fantastic choice. They play and have a fantastic time racing around the top of my tank.

 

[Fishperson]

You could do rasboras, I have some rummy nose tetra that prefer to be in 6-7 ph, and my tank ph is normally around 7.8!
I would just ditch the swordtail and add some more to some of the other schools. Like maybe 8 cardinals or something.

 

[callibear]

Thank you for the replies!

I think I will go with the rasboras then. I much prefer them to hatchetfish, although the hatchets have grown on me with their little fairy like wings.

I am also leaning towards forgoing the swordtail in favor adding some more tetras or rasboras. I think I will save the swordtails for another tank another day

What order should I add the fish in? I was thinking I could add the cories and rasboras at the same time, but I'm not sure if I should put the ram in before or after the cories.

 

[turophobe]

I kept an African dwarf frog in a 29 gallon. It was a little high for him to swim to the surface, and I had to feed him with tweezers because he couldn't outcompete the fish. In the end, I got a 10 gallon just for him and two more frogs. They were much happier in that environment, and could eat at their own pace.

 

[lovemyguppies]

I have 2 African dwarf frogs in my 55 gallon community tank and they have no problems getting to the surface for air. I also don't have to specially feed them and they're both growing a lot and seem very happy.

 

[Fishperson]

I would put in the rasboras and/or tetras first, then corys, then shrimp, then ram.

 

[callibear]

Hello again! I'm back with yet another question. I hope I'm not getting annoying. I really do appreciate all the help!

I used play sand I found at Lowes in my tank. I rinsed it really, really, really well first. Probably for almost an hour. It cleared up very quickly in the tank, but it has a lot of small pebbles and rock fragments. A few of them seem rather sharp. I wonder if the sand will be okay for the corries? I like the way it looks and would hate to have to empty everything out and sift my sand... lol. I'm attaching a picture.

Sometimes I feel like I'm being super paranoid.. but I really want to avoid any fish dying on me. I get attached pretty quickly

 

[PockX]

Hello again! I'm back with yet another question. I hope I'm not getting annoying. I really do appreciate all the help!

I used play sand I found at Lowes in my tank. I rinsed it really, really, really well first. Probably for almost an hour. It cleared up very quickly in the tank, but it has a lot of small pebbles and rock fragments. A few of them seem rather sharp. I wonder if the sand will be okay for the corries? I like the way it looks and would hate to have to empty everything out and sift my sand... lol. I'm attaching a picture.

Sometimes I feel like I'm being super paranoid.. but I really want to avoid any fish dying on me. I get attached pretty quickly

That amount looks like it would be fine. If your whole substrate was that..then I would be worried. If their barbels look fine and healthy to you, then it's all good.

 

[Guppygulp]

Tank is just beautiful! Nice job.