New 40g breeder tank

[TdResch22]

Hey all, I’m new here!
I use to have a 30g tank, I’ve been away from it for about 10 years.
I just bought a 40g breeder: sand substrate, live plants, rock hardscape is my setup plan.

As for stocking it, this was my idea that seemed to work on aquarium stocking calculator.

I do not want any breeding so I planned for the rams and apistos to all be female, not sure if that’s an issue!?

- 2 x Bolivian Ram
- 8 x Panda Cory
- 1 x Bristlenose Pleco
- 2 x Apistogramma borellii
- 15 x Neon Tetra
- 1 x Black Molly
- 8 x Kuhli Loach

Let me know if you see any issues or have any ideas etc. I have been watching a bunch of videos and putting in a lot of research into all of this the past month and obviously everyone has a different experience so I’m posting here to have active communication on everything rather then just videos and web links.

Thank you everyone!

 

[Colin_T]

Hi and welcome to the forum

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

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 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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Mollies need hard water, the other species you listed need soft water.

Having 2 pairs of cichlids in the same tank can be an issue when they breed. They will attack each other and any other bottom dwellers (Corydoras, bristlenose, khulis) if those fishes enter the cichlid's nest site.

Female cichlids will still breed but none of the eggs will hatch, and the females are much less territorial than males. You are extremely unlikely to find female Apistogramma borelli in most countries because the breeders in Asia prefer to only sell males. You might find a female but they aren't as colourful as the males.

Bolivian ram cichlids are hard to sex. Normally if you want a breeding pr you buy a group of 8-10 young fish and grow them up and let them pr off naturally. Trying to find 2 females, good luck telling what sex they are. Young males and subordinate males can resemble females until the dominant males are removed, then they colour up.

If the tank is big enough, you could get 1 pr of cichlids and they might breed once every month or two, and you could sell the young fish to a shop and use the money/ store credit to get food, plants or other items you want.