Can you please give me advice on my tank?

[Nunezdynasty]

Hello, I am new to the aquarium hobby and i was wondering if you could please take a look at my tank and give me advice on it please? It is a 65 gallon and it has 3 blue neon tetras; 2 black neon tetras; Rainbow shark; Female Betta; 3 Female guppies; 1 Male guppy; 1 male sunburst platy; 2 female sunburst platy; Female mickey mouse platy; Male molly; Female molly; 16 fry
I want to make it the best home possible for them. Thanks for all the help

 

[bud29]

Hi there! Welcome to the forum, and the hobby!

Your stocking seems pretty good, except for the rainbow shark. The shark, when full grown, will probably have the capability of killing and/or eating all the other fish in the tank. I strongly recommend rehoming it. Also, increasing the schools of neons to 5-6 would make them feel more secure. Also, to increase fry survival rate, add a large cluster of plants. This will provide a good refuge for them. Otherwise, things are looking pretty good!

 

[Nunezdynasty]

Thank you for the advice. As for the guppies right now i have them in a breeding tank and They are safe and i would love to put real plants because plastic plants are too hard on the fish. I heard that a better alternative was putting silk plants but the high price for plants goes up more. I bought 5 of the neon tetras but i will go back and more. I know schooling fish get very lonely otherwise but i do not want to overwhelm my tank. For the rainbow shark, I know their aggressive nature calls for that but i fell in love with Mater mcmissile as my son calls him. He is very passive but if he gets more aggressive with age i will need to get a semi aggressive tank just for him and other fish. Thank you for the help. Where do you buy your plants?

 

[creic38]

Definitely get some live plants. Fish love them and they prove water quality. Start out with low light/maintenance plants. There are plenty of varieties to choose from. If you have a trusted lfs near you, that would be a good way to go. I have had success getting some plants from Petsmart, Petco and Petland Discounts, but I am lucky in that the stores I go to have a knowledgable staff and they do a good job in taking care of things. Some of them carry plants in packages or tubes. Believe it or not, some do work well. Just make sure you check them really good to see if the plant is totally healthy. If you don't have options like these, you can always check the for sale threads on this site. There are a lot of good sellers on here with quality plants. Shipping charges do suck, but find someone who is selling a variety so you can buy multiple plants and dilute the cost a bit.

 

[Nunezdynasty]

"Ifs"? Sorry im new to the lingo. And thank you for the help. I will look on that. I recently bought some bulbs that are suppose to sprout in a couple of weeks. lets hope i get lucky

 

[CorallineAlgae]

How long has your tank been running? What filter are you using?

I like the decorations you have already. I would consider easy plants but you'll want to make sure that you have daylight lamps over the tank otherwise they may not grow or stay healthy. Silk plants may be cheaper online than in the shops.

It isn't a terrible idea to have one aggressive fish that'll eat baby fish because having so many livebearers could easily overwhelm the tank without one. It may seem cruel but having a tank full of babies can be a huge challenge. I'd keep the catfish for a while since you have it already. He'll be doing an important job.

 

[Nunezdynasty]

Tank has been running for 2 weeks but i used my established filter and i added the bacteria starter to kick off my cycle. I think my filter is the Whisper 60 if i recall right. My nitrite and nitrates are good and balanced. I did daily 10% water changes daily and now im doing it every 2 days. After this weekend im going to change it to weekly changes if everything continues good.

 

[Fresh2o]

"Ifs"? Sorry im new to the lingo. And thank you for the help. I will look on that. I recently bought some bulbs that are suppose to sprout in a couple of weeks. lets hope i get lucky

LFS = Local Fish Store
If you google it the first match is usually "Linux From Scratch", for you techno geeks

Good luck with the bulbs. I purchased a pack of these from Petco but was worried that they would rot so I kept them in a small container with aquarium water. Even after changing water every other day they got real stinky after a few weeks. No sign of sprouting or roots so I tossed them.
However, others on this forum have reported success with these.

 

[CorallineAlgae]

Tank has been running for 2 weeks but i used my established filter and i added the bacteria starter to kick off my cycle. I think my filter is the Whisper 60 if i recall right. My nitrite and nitrates are good and balanced. I did daily 10% water changes daily and now im doing it every 2 days. After this weekend im going to change it to weekly changes if everything continues good.

Sounds like you're doing things right. Are your ammonia and nitrite reading zero yet? What about your lightbulbs? What kind are they? You may want a second filter at some point. I think a single Whisper 60 on a 65 may be a bit small.