Stocking Question For A Planted Tank

Anyone wish to offer advice on potential stock for my planted 56G?

At the moment I have

2 clown loaches which I enjoy having around and they are good with snails -
1 amano which I was going to add to but then started OD with Excel and didn't want to take a load out in one go.
1 black molly for scum busting although not getting much scum at the moment
1 ever increasing Sword tail that is actually quite nice to look at as she is blueish with silver flecks
A gang of platy that are constantly having a party induced by high levels of CO2 and ferts

Recently I have got to the point where I couldn't stand having the platies in the tank any longer as they realy do not do anything for me. I also like to have things that earn their keep

So after mulling over various options and ruling out some of the easier but not so nice options I went to my LFS today to see if they would take my unwanted stock - No chance, this ends my business with this LFS
Another place that I have been trying out did say that they would take anything that I didn't want though as long as I didn't want anything in return for them - fair enough as my options were looking slim by this point.

In short the platies are going along with the sword and thinking about ridding the tank of the black molloy as well, this would leave 2 clowns and bluey the amazing amano


Looking around the size of a tetra so that I could have a decent amount and also looking at some bronze corries - How large do these grow? They look like a great hoover

Ste

I like to choose fish that compliment the aquascape, so in fact they become part of the aquascape. Funny really when you think about it - most fishkeepers choose their aquascape to compliment their fish.

Anyway, fish choice.... what planting style do you have? Lots of different species, densely planted or a simpler layout, fewer species, some open areas, or in between? What background do you have, what colour planting, light or a darker feel?

Personally I like to see brighter coloured fish; red, blue, yellow etc. with darker planting, dark/black backgrounds and shiny silvery fish with brighter coloured planting and a lighter coloured background.

The more species of plant you have the more species of fish you can get away with to compliment. If you are planted simply with a few species then one or two species of fish look much more effective.

I'm a big fan of small fish, large shoals. They make the tank appear larger, something that will benefit a 54L.

You're aware that your Clowns will outgrow a 54L?

One tip, don't buy on impulse.

Thanks for the starter for 10 George

The master plan is to have a lot of low ground cover to the front and densely planted at the back although this is the master plan and anything can change between now and then. I'll post pics soon to show where its at at the moment.

As to the clowns yeah I'm aware of the fact that they grow quite large but for the time being a couple of clowns in a 56G 4ft long are not going to cause any major concern.

Want to try to get a good shoal of small fish but one that will entertain rather than just breed. and since I'm mainly sticking to shades of green for the planting I'd like something with colour. Black background btw

lo, yeah George ha said 54 gallon

no suggestions sorry

(i'll be scouring this for tips as i'm trying to get a 24g planted black background effort off the ground)

shhh i'm not here

Well I should be in bed , but that has made me chuckle Bennett cheers

Sam

Right here is what I have got so far bearing in mind that the tank hasn't been running very long [about a month] and I'm still trying to balance things out [CO2, ferts etc]

So I'm looking for a fish that is quite small but will fill in the top space with a shoal and would want something to assist with the ground cleaning

Any ideas?

Expecting some Eusteralis stellata this week which will fill in the back on the right hand side



My glosso also appears to be growing up to the light rather than along the floor is there a reason for this?


sshhh Dont tell bennett

Harlequin Rasboras would shoal nicely in the topish area - they're small and gorgeous but they'd do little for the bottom in my experience. Zebra Dabios would be all over the surface and get down and dirty but they are a bit of a party animal too - very excitable. The only thing I have in my tank that hoovers and gets everywhere is a redtailed black shark - but you can only get one and they're not little. don't s'pose that helps much?

somethingfishie said:

Harlequin Rasboras would shoal nicely in the topish area - they're small and gorgeous but they'd do little for the bottom in my experience. Zebra Dabios would be all over the surface and get down and dirty but they are a bit of a party animal too - very excitable. The only thing I have in my tank that hoovers and gets everywhere is a redtailed black shark - but you can only get one and they're not little. don't s'pose that helps much?

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Cheers.

I'll watch some Rasboras next time I come by them

I have found some Corydoras julli that look quite nice - what sort of group size do these prefer?

54 Gallon, whoops! I thought Clowns were a bit ambitious for a 54L.

Looks very good Ste for the first time, glosso growing upwards usually indicates not enough light, a lot of plants grow more compact with more light, i would just keep trimming any runners and replant them that start getting to high, im growing glosso in a small tank at the moment and some of it is growing perfect and some is heading for the top of the tank, i just trim and replant, mind you I do not have much light over this tank so I sort of expected this.

What is the plant on the very right hand side beside the glass? How much light have you got over the tank btw?

I have a good few platys in my main tank as well, not to many mind about 6, I seperated the males and females a long time ago and housed some of them seperatly, I dont really mind them in the main tank now, at first i did, people are allways saying I have lovely goldfish the one thing about platys is that they are always picking away at waste or algae so they do provide some benefit in the tank, they rarely pick at the plants.

I would just stock lightly thats the only advice i would give.

I'd second the Harlequin Rasbora recomendation. A nice big shoal of 15 would look great and allow room for some bottom feeders such as Corries.

Halrequins school together pretty tightly, and if the tank is large enough and relatively empty they'll tend to school more often.

The main thing is to not stock your tank to the maximum limit, a low stocked tank will look much more natural IMO and allow the fish to behave as they would normally.

But your tanks pretty big, so you have many choices.

Cant wait to see the final outcome.

Paul

zig said:

What is the plant on the very right hand side beside the glass? How much light have you got over the tank btw?

I would just stock lightly thats the only advice i would give.

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Correct me if I'm wrong Ste but it looks like Hygrophila stricta or one of its varieties.

Stocking lightly- definitely a great tip, forgot that one. A low bio-load is one of the biggest factors (other than plant growth) to preventing algae I would say.

somethingfishie said:

Harlequin Rasboras would shoal nicely in the topish area - they're small and gorgeous but they'd do little for the bottom in my experience. Zebra Dabios would be all over the surface and get down and dirty but they are a bit of a party animal too - very excitable. The only thing I have in my tank that hoovers and gets everywhere is a redtailed black shark - but you can only get one and they're not little. don't s'pose that helps much?

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AHAHAHAHA the joke's on you! i've just added 5 tiny lil harlequin rasbora's today! they're already mingling with the glowlights and rosy tetra's!!!!

*ahem*


shhhhhhhhhhhh there might be some plant tips coming up soon (why isn't there a ninja emoticon on this forum?! sheesh)

what you mean this ninja ?