I'm a sort of newbie to the fish world looking for some feedback and discussion while waiting for my tank to fish-less cycle. My wife and I have just bought our first fish tank (not counting standard childhood fish experiences.) I do have a little experience though in that I cared for some corals in a research lab in undergrad years back. We both know our biology and chemistry.
Anyways, it's a 29 gallon tank, that is currently working on it's fish-less cycle. No problems with that as I've been doing lots of research before getting started, but I'm tumbling around a lot of ideas in my head for what to stock with eventually. I'm trying to plan things out in advance so that we fill the tank up in a good order, some of these fish we'll hold off on stocking for months while the tank gets established, but we want to reserve room for them and plan around them.
Other relevant non fish facts:
Tap water: 8.0pH, 0.5 ppm NH3, 0 ppm NO2-, 5 ppm NO3- (API Master)
I'm assuming the ammonia reading is coming from chloramines.
Tank is lightly planted. 1 Anubias, 1 Java Fern, 1 Red Melon Sword, 1 C. parva, 2 C. wendtii, 1 C. spiralis, bunch of elodea that's not doing well (I've got talent! - probably too warm) and will likely be replaced.
Gravel substrate, root tabs, weekly Flourish (regular)
17W T8 light - could be convinced to up this, but I don't want to mess with CO2 injection at this point
Sitting in a corner so that two sides are easily visible
We know we'd like an angelfish. I've read a bit on one versus two in the 29, and we're heavily leaning towards one so that we can put some other things in there as well. I'm also pretty sure we want some cory cats based on all the wonderful things I've read about them. Also a group of shoaling/schooling fish. We might want something a little more complicated like a ram down the line, so we're considering building the tank so that we can incorporate that if we want. That wouldn't get added for months though while the tank has a chance to mature.The angel would wait a little while too probably.
What we like:
Color, activity, concerted movement (tighter schools), fins, variety. Based on the fish that stick out to me, and the tank set up we have, the colors red, black, and blue are particularly compelling.
Cory-bilities in current preference order: Adolfi, Panda (I've heard their more sensitive than brethren, true?), bandit, skunk, julii, black
Shoal-bilities in current preference order: Blood fin, bleeding heart, pristella, Harlequin rasboras, rosy tetra, black phantom, lemon,
Rejected fish: I'd love rummy nose tetras, but I think that's one fish that wouldn't deal with the pH we have. Buenos Aires tetras look awesome, but are too big and could fin nip an angel according to aqadvisor. Similar on the red eyed tetras. Gouramis are not that appealing.
Options for stocking I'm consider. Numbers are rough and may change depending on exact variety. Don't want to overstock, don't want to go under certain minimums for certain varieties. Actual choices will probably depend on availability at LFS as well, but I want to be prepared.
1 Angelfish
6 cory cats
6 blood fins (or other shoal)
1 Bolivian Ram/6 Harlequin Rasbora or other shoal/2 German Blue Rams
(note that I'd only add one of the sets of fish in that last line, not all! same notation continues)
1 Angelfish
6 cory cats
7 Harlequin Rasboras
2 GBRs/2 Bolivian/3 platys (color!)
1 Angelfish
6 cory cats
6 zebra danios (I have a 2 year old, she and I might like the nonstop activity I hear of)
2 platys/1 Bolivian/6 harlequin rasboras
1 Angelfish
6 cory cats
5 praecox rainbows
1 Angelfish
6 cory cats
7 threadfin rainbows
2 platys/2 GBRs/1 Bolivian
2 Angelfish
4 cory cats
6 Blood fin/other shoaler
Questions:
1) How do those combos look?
2) Are there any incompatibilities here that I'm not aware of? Things that might not work well?
3) What other fabulous fish are out there that might fit with our preferences that we don't know about?
4) Any suggestions on tankscaping/plants to buy?
5) Any thoughts on any of these combinations of fish?
6) Other factors to be aware of when stocking?
7) Thoughts on a type of cory to get? Thoughts on type of shoaling fish? What should make me shuffle the preference order?
8) I'm using AqAdvisor for to avoid overstocking. Does anything here look out of wack?
9) Plants - do any combos suggest I do anything to add more plants of a particular type or a particular arrangement? Or do something else with the aquascape?
Please, answer some, all, none (and just add your thoughts) of the questions! And thanks for reading my book!
Anyways, it's a 29 gallon tank, that is currently working on it's fish-less cycle. No problems with that as I've been doing lots of research before getting started, but I'm tumbling around a lot of ideas in my head for what to stock with eventually. I'm trying to plan things out in advance so that we fill the tank up in a good order, some of these fish we'll hold off on stocking for months while the tank gets established, but we want to reserve room for them and plan around them.
Other relevant non fish facts:
Tap water: 8.0pH, 0.5 ppm NH3, 0 ppm NO2-, 5 ppm NO3- (API Master)
I'm assuming the ammonia reading is coming from chloramines.
Tank is lightly planted. 1 Anubias, 1 Java Fern, 1 Red Melon Sword, 1 C. parva, 2 C. wendtii, 1 C. spiralis, bunch of elodea that's not doing well (I've got talent! - probably too warm) and will likely be replaced.
Gravel substrate, root tabs, weekly Flourish (regular)
17W T8 light - could be convinced to up this, but I don't want to mess with CO2 injection at this point
Sitting in a corner so that two sides are easily visible
We know we'd like an angelfish. I've read a bit on one versus two in the 29, and we're heavily leaning towards one so that we can put some other things in there as well. I'm also pretty sure we want some cory cats based on all the wonderful things I've read about them. Also a group of shoaling/schooling fish. We might want something a little more complicated like a ram down the line, so we're considering building the tank so that we can incorporate that if we want. That wouldn't get added for months though while the tank has a chance to mature.The angel would wait a little while too probably.
What we like:
Color, activity, concerted movement (tighter schools), fins, variety. Based on the fish that stick out to me, and the tank set up we have, the colors red, black, and blue are particularly compelling.
Cory-bilities in current preference order: Adolfi, Panda (I've heard their more sensitive than brethren, true?), bandit, skunk, julii, black
Shoal-bilities in current preference order: Blood fin, bleeding heart, pristella, Harlequin rasboras, rosy tetra, black phantom, lemon,
Rejected fish: I'd love rummy nose tetras, but I think that's one fish that wouldn't deal with the pH we have. Buenos Aires tetras look awesome, but are too big and could fin nip an angel according to aqadvisor. Similar on the red eyed tetras. Gouramis are not that appealing.
Options for stocking I'm consider. Numbers are rough and may change depending on exact variety. Don't want to overstock, don't want to go under certain minimums for certain varieties. Actual choices will probably depend on availability at LFS as well, but I want to be prepared.
1 Angelfish
6 cory cats
6 blood fins (or other shoal)
1 Bolivian Ram/6 Harlequin Rasbora or other shoal/2 German Blue Rams
(note that I'd only add one of the sets of fish in that last line, not all! same notation continues)
1 Angelfish
6 cory cats
7 Harlequin Rasboras
2 GBRs/2 Bolivian/3 platys (color!)
1 Angelfish
6 cory cats
6 zebra danios (I have a 2 year old, she and I might like the nonstop activity I hear of)
2 platys/1 Bolivian/6 harlequin rasboras
1 Angelfish
6 cory cats
5 praecox rainbows
1 Angelfish
6 cory cats
7 threadfin rainbows
2 platys/2 GBRs/1 Bolivian
2 Angelfish
4 cory cats
6 Blood fin/other shoaler
Questions:
1) How do those combos look?
2) Are there any incompatibilities here that I'm not aware of? Things that might not work well?
3) What other fabulous fish are out there that might fit with our preferences that we don't know about?
4) Any suggestions on tankscaping/plants to buy?
5) Any thoughts on any of these combinations of fish?
6) Other factors to be aware of when stocking?
7) Thoughts on a type of cory to get? Thoughts on type of shoaling fish? What should make me shuffle the preference order?
8) I'm using AqAdvisor for to avoid overstocking. Does anything here look out of wack?
9) Plants - do any combos suggest I do anything to add more plants of a particular type or a particular arrangement? Or do something else with the aquascape?
Please, answer some, all, none (and just add your thoughts) of the questions! And thanks for reading my book!