Fish Tank For Christmas!

Hi


I was kindly given a small aquarium its only 50cm x 30cm x 30cm, bow fronted, by my sister for Christmas.

I am looking for inspiration on how to stock and plant the tank.


Its an Aquael pearl with a trickle filter in the hood and a 15w lighting unit.


I used to keep Malawis and still have lots of coral sand and tufa rock so intend to use this as substrate and aquascape however I have never kept fish on a small scale before so I am looking for inspiration on how to stock/plant the tank.


I do live in a very soft water area where tap water has a Ph of 7.2/7.4 (after being stood overnight), tds of around 65ppm, kh 20 ppm, gh 60ppm.
From memory (not necessarily the best) the sand/rocks alone will maintain a high kh level (sorry memory not that good) and a Ph in the region of 7.8-8.0.

My experience of small fish is not so great and never really had much luck with plants either, this set up I would like to incluse some plants, maybe grasses or other fine leaved varieties, and of course some fish!

Can anyone offer some suggestions for suitable species and maybe the odd link so I can start looking?

Thanks
Alan

The best plants are going to be java ferns and moss. As far as fish, some of the small rainbows will work. The other option would be some of the dwarf cichlids from lake Tanganykia.

How many gallons is it?

Jakey02578 said:

How many gallons is it?

Click to expand...

That works out 10 gallons.


48 ish litres.

Oh, I have a ten gallon. I have Java Ferns in it!:')

Maybe livebearers.

my tank is 57 litres and I have live bearers and oto's and cory's (I'm getting a bigger tank soon so I'm not recommending them to you) the oto's are fun and don't get big - they like to be kept in a little group of 3 or more though. You can get some really nice livebearers ... I like my platies mostly

I like my sword tail Smokey Jo!

Hi,
Thanks for the input so far, I quite like the idea of some small cichlids, anyone have experience with shell dwellers?

Other than that what about N.Brichardi and or N.Lelupi?

Would these guys have to be a single species set up or would they be good together in such a small set up?

Quite like the idea of having the brichardi single species set up actually but I do also have a thing for yellow!

Looked at the java plants they seem ideal for me, am I correct in thinking there are different species of Jave Fern?
Would these attach as readily to rock as they would driftwood?

Thanks again
Alan

You could try some microrasboras or ember tetras in there - a large group would look stunning, especially if you planted the tank fairly heavily. Pygmy cories are also lovely little fish, you could do a group of those. A betta is always a classic option, and could be combined with the pygmys or even the microrasbora. Livebearers such as guppies and platys are also options you could go for. If you wanted something else, there are killifish and dwarf puffer fish that you could consider. I'm sure there are other options out there that I haven't mentioned, too. There really are a fair amount of ideas for stocking a 10 gallon, even though it might not be the biggest size out there

Alan Reeves said:

Hi,
Thanks for the input so far, I quite like the idea of some small cichlids, anyone have experience with shell dwellers?

Other than that what about N.Brichardi and or N.Lelupi?

Would these guys have to be a single species set up or would they be good together in such a small set up?

Quite like the idea of having the brichardi single species set up actually but I do also have a thing for yellow!

Looked at the java plants they seem ideal for me, am I correct in thinking there are different species of Jave Fern?
Would these attach as readily to rock as they would driftwood?

Thanks again
Alan

Click to expand...

The only cichlids I've heard of for 10G's are the shell dwellers you mentioned. I do believe that there are different species of java fern, though some are more common and readily available than others - I'm sure someone will be along shortly to correct me if I'm wrong though I would imagine that they would attatch similarly to rock as they do to driftwood, though the only experience I have with attatching plants to anything is some anubias I bought pre-attatched

pablothebetta said:

You could try some microrasboras or ember tetras in there - a large group would look stunning, especially if you planted the tank fairly heavily. Pygmy cories are also lovely little fish, you could do a group of those. A betta is always a classic option, and could be combined with the pygmys or even the microrasbora. Livebearers such as guppies and platys are also options you could go for. If you wanted something else, there are killifish and dwarf puffer fish that you could consider. I'm sure there are other options out there that I haven't mentioned, too. There really are a fair amount of ideas for stocking a 10 gallon, even though it might not be the biggest size out there

Click to expand...

Hi, thanks for yoour input but this tank is going to have a high pH and hardness, see op, I dont think some of the species you mention are suitable.

pablothebetta said:

The only cichlids I've heard of for 10G's are the shell dwellers you mentioned. I do believe that there are different species of java fern, though some are more common and readily available than others - I'm sure someone will be along shortly to correct me if I'm wrong though I would imagine that they would attatch similarly to rock as they do to driftwood, though the only experience I have with attatching plants to anything is some anubias I bought pre-attatched

Click to expand...

Hi,

Yes it looks like the shell dwellers might get a look in, not sure where to look? Any good info/species listing on the net?

I live in Stockport U.k.

If not shellies I'm leaning to a single species Neolamprologus Brichardi set up.

Thanks again guys
Alan

Hi,

A bit of an update on this tank...

I have started decorating it today and although very cloudy at the minute I hope you can see what I am trying to achieve.

Any comments or advice appreciated

Thanks
Alan

We're visiting relies in Heaton Moor at the moment so must be close - back home tomorrow. I've found having a CO2 kit in the tank has done wonders for my plant growing. The one with a small cylindrical container and a bubble counter in the tank is a good one for the size of your tank. Cost be about £12. I think it's made by Hagen but I'll check when we get home and let you know.