# stocking levels?



## baron von bubba (25 Mar 2009)

hi, i know about the old rough rule of 1" per gallon an all that, but guessin thats probably a fairly out dated concept now? Better filters, heavier, healthier plantin etc!

i have a 240litre high tech tank which will be well planted, only 3x hourly filtration at the mo but plannin to double that at least.

The tank is 10 days in and i have 
6 danios,
4 ottos,  
3 very small sae's

I probably shouldnt have put the danios in but wanted some excitement in there! :-/

So i'm plannin to add 5 more ottos in the coming weeks.
Maybe 6 or so small cories.
Also some shrimp of some sort. 
The rest of stock will be a school of smallish tetra, undecided on type at this point.

What size school should/can i comfortably have?

Also any suggestions for a couple of larger type fish that would maybe fit in with the rest of stock? (pressure from other half) :-/ she wants angel fish, i put her straight on that one! 
But i was thinkin maybe silver dollars or simular?

Also when is it "safe" to add shrimp?

Any input, thoughts or opinions gladly recieved!


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## Thomas McMillan (25 Mar 2009)

I think a comfortable shoal for this tank would be 20 fish around 5cm. 

For the larger fish, I don't know about Silver Dollars. You might have problems with the Angelfish/Tetras if you go for that option but have you thought about a Dwarf Cichlid? Something like Rams or Apistos.


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## baron von bubba (26 Mar 2009)

Thomas McMillan said:
			
		

> I think a comfortable shoal for this tank would be 20 fish around 5cm.
> 
> For the larger fish, I don't know about Silver Dollars. You might have problems with the Angelfish/Tetras if you go for that option but have you thought about a Dwarf Cichlid? Something like Rams or Apistos.



actually strike the silver dollars out, they get a bit big and eat plants! so a definate no no!
i wouldnt consider angels, i just had to convince my other half of this! 

dont the cichlids like different water paramiters?

german rams were another option for me! very pretty, depends on the colour of tetra i pick tho! :0)

thanks


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## chris1004 (28 Mar 2009)

One option if you are seeking some slightly larger yet peacefull community fish is a group of 'Gouramis', my personal favourites are the pearls but they are all labryinth fish (taking their oxygen from the air as opposed to the water) which means that they have zero demands on your disolved oxygen within the tank so as long as your filtration is *adequate* have as many as you want basically (within reason). They get to a reasonable size (4"ish) but not too big, have respect for plants, are relativly peacefull, very colourfull (especially the pearls) and very interactive with there own kind in a way that unless you have kept a group of them would be hard to appreciate. Easy to breed, hardy and fairly cheap not at all shy and with a cheameleon like array of colours (pearls especially)to suit there moods what more could you possibly want? (LOL). Don't be deterred by the washed out colour of the juveniles in the petshop as with a lot of species when mature and settled there really is no comparrison.

Talking of which have you considerd 'rainbows' which are notourious for not displaying well in petshops but some of them are absolutly fabulous when mature. Although essentially peacefull they can tend to be skittish and very aggresive feeders but it largely depends on the individual species and what they are kept with as to whether its a problem or not.  

Flagtail catfish are a nice medium sized peacefull bottom dweller that make good community fish if you can find some. 

There are a lot of L number pleco's worth considering that if you can appreciate this type of fish are worth considering many of the rarer ones are delicate though, and expensive, if you can find them at all. 

Some of the varieties of discus are fantastically beatifull aswell (IMO) but come with there own set of problems as do most larger sized fish especially softwater cychilids of which angels are one variety, but should IMO have been called 'hells angels' as they really can be very aggresive when mature.


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## baron von bubba (29 Mar 2009)

its a bitch aint it! 
sooooooo many options and i want it all! ;0)

tbh, i'd not even considered gouramis, in the past ive had fish that i couldnt have gouramis with so i kinda just blanked them out!
i can imagine a group together would be a lovely sight, are they happy in just pairs tho?
as i dont want more then a couple of larger fish, as it would mean not having as many of the main shoal.

now, i totally love catfish, but wary of the larger ones because in this tank as when i get more expeirience i want to try out differing plants for a carpets etc and some larger catfish can play havoc cant they?

also i want to see my fish! ;0)  i have an upsidedown catfish in my small tank, i've had it for a couple of years and probably only seen it a handfull of times. :0/

i had a gold nugget plec for a few years, he was gorgeous, not too shy and never got bigger than 4inches, when ive discovered how hard it is to grow a decent carpet and given up, another one of those will be the top of my list. :0)
obviously a zebra plec is always gonna be a firm condender for getting selected too.

lol @ "hells angels" :0) 
yeah its a shame they are like that, they have a couple in with a load of neons in a nice planted tank at my lfs and they look even better with a shoal of small fish! 
so, while it wouldnt chance it, it can be done or then again perhaps they just dont mind the neons goin missing! :0)


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## Themuleous (29 Mar 2009)

Check these out 

http://www.thinkfish.co.uk/calculators. ... c=stocking

http://www.thinkfish.co.uk/article/Stocking_Levels.html

Sam

PS - believe that site if you want to, but I think its a bit OTT


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## baron von bubba (30 Mar 2009)

200 neons!!!    

it does sound slightly ott!

i guess it is could be possible, but one tiny mistake with ferts, co2 or maintainance and you'd really pay the price!


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## chris1004 (30 Mar 2009)

Yes you can keep just a single pair of gouramis with no problems but as with a lot of fish either keep one male or 3 or more as the lesser dominant one will really suffer if there are only two of them. I have a group of 15 adult pearls in one of my tanks and always find them entertaining, undemanding and easy to breed.  

I am also a fan of cats but tend to stick to the smaller varieties (of which there are hundreds) but the flagtail cats that I mentioned you should see fairly often as these cats like to take a swim at mid-depth now and again and are also shoaling fish so again best kept in a group and they only grow to about 4-5" when mature so they won't outgrow your tank. They are related to corydoras and brochis in as much as they are from the armoured catfish family and they do a similar job of rooting around in your substrate and distubing detrius to aid filtration only far better than cory's or brochis do as there snouts and whiskers dig deeper, they are fine to keep with plants. Getting hold of some can be tricky though and will set you back about a tenner each. 

The zebra plecs don't really do it for me at the moment (just personal taste) the ones that I am currently hankering after are the snowball and emerald plecs but I haven't got room for them at the moment (to many L number plecs already really), a great excuse for another tank if I could just get it past the wife though.........


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