Help me stock my tank

[DangerousMouse]

Please...?

I have a 160l aquarium, it's all cycled and ready to go. It has a lonely little plec in it at the moment.

What shall I get? I'm thinking gourami's, although I haven't kept these before, can you recommend a nice colourful trio I could get? What should I get to go with them?

[EauRouge]

Ooh, I bloody love threads like this What kind of plec is it? 160L is a great size. What are your water params?

I'm not that keen on gouramis, there are some pretty ones but they are vicious buggers so you can't put that many in- maybe 2 of the smaller species. The females are usually silver/grey so not as colourful.

[JollyYellowGiant]

I am rubbish at dealing with dwarf gouramis. We just can't keep them alive.

Don't get Kribensis! They are bloody vicious.

We've had great success with golden barbs and now have cherry barbs. And I love corydoras. We've had both black neon and silvertip tetras that have done well.

I would love an all black and silver tank - corys, black neon tetras, leopard or zebra danios. DH wants colourful fish though, so we compromise.

[EauRouge]

We've got cherry barbs too, lovely little fish. You could have quite a big shoal in a 160 litre.

Kribs are OK if there's enough space, they do get territorial when they spawn though. 160 litres would be plenty for a pair but you'd have to stock the rest of the tank with fish that could put up with grouchy parent kribs.

A black and silver tank sounds gorgeous.

[dashoflime]

yy to Coredores.
Cyclids are nice. Rams maybe?
Have you thought about non fish? Snails, Aquatic frogs, Crabs?

[EauRouge]

Corys are brilliant. I wouldn't mix frogs or crabs with fish. Fish and frogs will compete for food and crabs will go for fish- that's what they eat in the wild! Snails are fab though, and shrimp too.

[dashoflime]

we didn't have too much luck with shrimp- the fish ate them. Our crab is a bit of a sneaky fin nipper. Never had problems with frogs though . Except for Steve Mcqueen, who as the name suggests, escaped.

[EauRouge]

Steve McQueen, love it I've got more shrimps than I know what to do with. I know some of the smaller ones get picked off but there's so many hiding places that I'm becoming overrun. Might start ebaying them for a bit of pocket money. I'll have to catch the buggers though!

[DangerousMouse]

I would like something a bit different. I already have a kribs/barbs tank, and another 60l tank which has corys in - I also need to find something else to go in there.

I really like the idea of gouramis, or maybe angel fish or discus - I dont know if the tank is big enough though, just something really pretty and colorful.

[DangerousMouse]

What about Gobys? I've no experience of them, but they look pretty. How do you keep them?

[EauRouge]

What sort of gobies? I had peacock gobies, they are lovely fish. Very easy to care for and they bred like crazy.

Angel fish and discus require a specialist set up and are better off either as a species tank or with limited tank mates that won't get in their way (like corys). Discus need very soft acidic water so you'd probably have to use RO and add the relevant minerals unless you are lucky with your tap water. I think angels are less picky. They need tall tanks though as they get very big.

There are loads of different species of gouramis. They tend to prefer soft, acidic water too. A lot of fish choices are dependent on water params so if you test yours then that'll tell you more what you can and can't have.

[StuffezLaBouche]

Bolivian rams
panchaxes
peppered coreys
black phantom tetras
So jealous, i love stocking from scratch!

[StuffezLaBouche]

Also, i do agree with Eau regarding the Angels but in my.community tank i have a single angel and apart from the odd bit of rattiness there is no aggression and everyone seems alive and happy. I thinks problems occur when you keep a breeding pair or two males...

[DangerousMouse]

I don't know what srt of gobies! Just had a google and they look really pretty, can you mix species of gobies? Can you mix them with other fish, like gourami's?

Just tested the water -
PH 7
KH 100
Nitrate 10
Nitrite 0

The tank isn't tall so I'll lose that last idea!

[DangerousMouse]

This is very exciting - I had a community tank with a pair of long finned rams, but a few months ago I had a problem in the tank and lost quite a few. I thought I would start again with something else rather than restock.

Another thought - I have seen some killfish, what are they like?

[gillian88]

We have gouramis. They are good hardy fish, they have outlived our plecos, corys and all the others! At the minute we have two gouramis( a golden and an opaline) and a severum. Severums aren't considered very 'peaceful' but we have had three and they have lived happily with all other fish.

The gouramis do sometimes fight and chase each other around the tank nipping fins but they always end up friends again. We had a dwarf gourami many moons ago, he was beautiful and very calm.

My all time favourite fish would be corys or the elephant nose fish

[JollyYellowGiant]

My parents had a female angel that kept having phantom pregnancies and beating up all the other fish :(

[DangerousMouse]

I think I have decided - some pearl gourami's, maybe a trio, would this work? With some congo tetras, how many of these do you think I should get?

[EauRouge]

Congo tetras are fantastic fish, I used to have a shoal of 6 (3m, 3f) in my 180 litre tank and they used the space pretty well. My males got enormous, much bigger than the 3 inches quoted on a lot of websites.

When you say a trio of gouramis do you mean a male and 2 females? That would be the best ratio.

gillian- bit surprised your gouramis outlived your other fish, they normally only have a life expectancy of about 4-5 years! You must have been taking really good care of them. What did they eat?

[DangerousMouse]

Thats great news about the congos, they are so pretty!

Yes, I was thinking a male and 2 female gourami's.

Does that sound right for my size tank? 3 pearl gourami's, about 6 congos and my plec. 160l

[EauRouge]

What sort of plec is it?

[gillian88]

EauRouge- really? We have had ours for at least 7 years now. They eat tetra prima granular food, and sometimes frozen bloodworm and brine shrimp as a treat! Also get a bit of cucumber in the tank every now and again.

[hmmmhmmm]

my faves are my lovely loaches
clown loaches, modestas my faves

[EauRouge]

Clown loaches are beautiful. They need a lot of space though! I'd get something smaller for a 160 litre tank. Best find out what the plec is first anyway!

Gillian- wow, that is pretty long for a gourami! This is a pretty good list of fish life expectancies.

[DangerousMouse]

I don't know what type of plec he is, he is about 3 inches long but he has the potential to get quite big. He's not a 'fancy' plec, ie sailfin or bristlenose

[EauRouge]

Those are just different species of plec. It's important to know what he is, some get to 5 or 6 inches and some get to 24 inches- I wouldn't stock the rest of the tank until you know what he is! Where did you get him?