stocking ? - centerpiece fish.

[ZombiesAteMyDog]

I am currently in the process of cycling my tank, I have a 29 gal aquarium, and friday I am picking up and aquaclear 70, I am fish in cycling with long fin zebra danios, I intend to add 1 - 2 more long fin danios and keep the cycling fish I got now,

after spending some time on aqadvisor and looking into fish this is what I Think I have come up with.

5-6 long fin zebra danios
5-6 fancy male guppies
5-6 mickey mouse plattys ( or maybe mollies )
5-6 cory cats.

according to aqadvisor I will have plenty of filtration for this, I am not 100% set in this either.

so my question, what would be a good centerpiece / showcase fish with this stocking? like I said I am not 100% sure of this stocking so if there is something really cool I would be willing to make a few tweaks if need be.

any and all suggestions are greatly appreciated

 

[ZombiesAteMyDog]

With the above stocking could I add 1 angelfish? If not what changes could I make to the list for an angelfish to work? I would really like 1 angel as the centerpiece fish for my tank.

 

[Oohitsae]

What does AQ advisor say you are at stocking level wise, not filtration wise?

It seems like you are pretty well completely stocked. Even with having the filtration capacity for this stocking list, the tank will be pretty cramped.

I personally would suggest taking out 1 of those species, preferrably the platy's since they are waste machines. Not sure about the angel though, 29 gallons is the absolute minimum tank size for them....

 

[ZombiesAteMyDog]

if I add an angelfish to my stock list above it says i am overstocked, if I drop the platys I am good to go. here is what aqadvisor has to say if I drop the platys,

Warning: Water temperature requirements are not fully compatible between all selected species.
=> 64.4 - 75.2F: Zebra Danio
=> 77 - 82.4F: Julii Cory
=> 64.4 - 82.4F: Guppy
=> 75.2 - 86F: Angelfish
[Display in Celsius]
Recommended pH range: 6 - 7.8.
Recommended hardness range: 5 - 15 dH.



You have plenty of aquarium filtration capacity.

Your aquarium filtration capacity for above selected species is 133%.
Recommended water change schedule: 36% per week.
Your aquarium stocking level is 114%.

how big of a deal is this water temperature warning? it seems pretty close, its just the zebra danios upper range is a degree or 2 above what is reccomend for the others, at the moment with my 4 danios in the tank the temp is consistantly around 77.5 I am currently using a one size fits all pre set heater that keeps it around this temp.

thoughts?

 

[azmodan]

You're fine temperature-wise. Personally I'd drop the platies -- they have a huge bioload for fish their size and they'll reproduce like crazy. 29 gallons is arguably a little too small for an angel. I'd recommend going with a German blue ram or Bolivian ram. Just note that rams do much better in mature tanks (fully cycled and running for 3-4 months at least). You could also include a honey gourami as well.

 

[ZombiesAteMyDog]

I saw a GBR at the LFS and it looked amazing, I would love to have one of them as my centerpiece, the lady at the LFS also said the same thing about a well mature tank, I am still in the process of fish in cycling, 3 1/2 weeks with 4 danios in, and still waiting on nitrites to appear so it will be a while lol.

so I have a bit of time to decide, I really do like the blue rams, will have to mull over between then and angelfish, the ram looks awesome with great color, how big do the german blue rams get?

also, as far as platties go, I will probably drop them from the list, are mollys a good substitution or are they in the same boat as platy?

 

[azmodan]

GBR get to maybe about 2.5 inches and the Bolivians a bit bigger than that. If you go with GBR it's highly recommended to have some live plants (if you don't already) as plants help reduce nitrates which GBR are sensitive to. These could just be low light plants that do not really require any special lighting or substrate. Plants also help speed the cycling process up!

Mollies get even larger than platies so I'd also stay away from them, but that's just a personal preference. I would however highly recommend a honey gourami (just one). They are very peaceful, very hardy, and quite beautiful once they color up (they're usually pretty drab in stores and the first few weeks in a new aquarium).

 

[ZombiesAteMyDog]

the honey gouramis look really awesome as well, playing around with aqadvisor ( and I really like the idea of either keeping some mollys or plattys, leaning towards molly) I found the following stocking to be colorful, and what I am looking for more or less, and then in 5 or 6 months down the road consdier swapping out some of my fake plants for some low light real ones and getting a german blue ram, but that will be down the road a bit.

is there a lot of difference between honey gourami and dwarf gourami?

 

[Oohitsae]

With the temp, just keep it around 77-78 and you will be fine, fish prefer a steady temp more than a temp exactly in their range as long as it is within a couple of degrees.

Looking at what AQ advisor says, your going to be at 114% stocking level which is still overstocked. If it were me, I'd drop the Angela completely just considering the fact that the tank size is still on the small side. You could possibly do it if you dropped the guppies as well, but I would just forget about them all together unless you upgrade tanks.

Mollies are in the same boat as platy's. they are messy, messy fish!

Check for the GBR's they are gorgeous and really cool fish at that! I'm trying to work them into my 26 right now but have to lower my stock a bit still.

 

[azmodan]

The honey gourami and DG are very similar. DGs get slightly larger and are known to be a little more aggressive, plus a minority of them also carry Dwarf Gourami disease. Either would work fine in that sized tank, I just prefer the honey myself. If you're set on getting a livebearer I'd definitely recommend platies over mollies. The main thing to know about either is that you will absolutely have to have a plan for the inevitable flood of fry that will grace your tank and also that both types of fish are extremely active and their busyness could potentially bother a more subdued fish like the GBR.

I'd also agree that an angel is probably not the best idea if you plan to go so heavily stocked.

 

[ZombiesAteMyDog]

my plan for the guppys and the mollies and or plattys is to get all males so they are not breeding, I did a fair ammount of research and it seems this is doable as long as I introduce all of them at the same time (each species)

 

[azmodan]

Cool, just keep on eye on them for aggression then.

 

[ZombiesAteMyDog]

What is the difference between the german blue ram. And a dwarf cockatoo cichlid? I just discovered these guys and fell in love with them

 

[Krisa]

I am getting a cockatoo. The difference is the CC's are more hardier than the GBR's, they aren't as sensitive. Everything I've read say's CC's are a great fish to start off with if your new to cichlid's or Apisto's.