Stocking And Tank Mates

Our tank is still doing well. The new LED lights are in and we're now wondering which other fish to stock it with.

We currently have:

8 cherry barbs who've already produced fry and who we find highly entertaining
4 albino congo tetras

We've ordered 4 sailfin mollies because my daughter is very keen on them and the lfs confirmed that they'd suit our tank. I'm a little concerned that they'll order 2 males and 2 females — I've only recently read that there should only be one male to each tank. Would you agree with this and are the mollies a good idea?

My daughter also (possibly) wants a small group of rummy-nose tetras and a catfish of some sort (one that can handle large, rounded gravel and which doesn't grow too large).

I'm not sure whether there's room for anything else. It's a long, 125 litre (33 gallon) tank.

Other options we've considered include gourami and rainbowfish (I love the boesemani but I've had conflicting views on whether our tank is large enough).

We're open to ideas though. What do you think would work?

What are your water parameters like? Mollies can be quite fussy about water, they really do need hard and alkaline: if you have barbs breeding in the water it is probably not ideal for mollies.

Rummy noses otoh do like soft acid water, but are quite fussy about it being clean, so you need to keep on top of water changes.

As for catfish, a bristlenose (ancistrus) would be ideal; they are not fussy about water either way and don't mind gravel either. And have quite engaging personalities. Or you could get a clown plec.

Boesemanns do get a bit on the big side: I would up the number of congo tetras instead if I were you.

The water is quite hard and the ph is around 7.6 in the tank. That's part of the reason for getting mollies (other than my daughter wanting them). We've been doing regular water changes so far: slightly under 50% every couple of days. I intend to reduce that to something like 25% once a week, when all of the fish are clearly settled and the plants have established properly.

It sounds as though rummy noses aren't ideal. We'd like another type of fish in there as well though. Just barbs, congos and mollies seems a little simplistic for what's quite a large tank.

I keep seeing lovely fish and forgetting to photograph them in the shop. I then, of course, forget what I've seen. Lots of them are tetras though, and I know that many are unsuitable for our water. We like the bright, unusual fish — not keen on most platys or guppies. We've considered bolivian rams, and have been told that they'd suit the tank. I would like more of the larger fish but it'd be nice to have some splashes of colour and the rams are a similar colour to the congos.

Any other ideas?

Thanks, too!

On the mollies, it's a ratio of 1M:2/3F. In your instance, that would leave you with 1 male, but in other tanks, you could have 2 males and 6 females quite happily.

Thanks, lock man.

Do you think we could get six? The lfs suggested we just get four and add more later. But six is only two more than four ( ) and I imagine that it wouldn't be a bad thing to get them all from the same batch. Would this be a bad idea? And would that stop us from getting anything else?

It just seems a shame to buy sailfins but only have one sail! We wanted one male gold/red and one blue/green ...

LindseyH said:

Thanks, lock man.

Do you think we could get six? The lfs suggested we just get four and add more later. But six is only two more than four ( ) and I imagine that it wouldn't be a bad thing to get them all from the same batch. Would this be a bad idea? And would that stop us from getting anything else?

It just seems a shame to buy sailfins but only have one sail! We wanted one male gold/red and one blue/green ...

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Sailfins are quite large fish (for a 125l tank), so if you got more, you'd be restricting what else you could have. I can't be much more help there, unfortunately, that one's down to you.

Any other suggestions for a tank this size with these tank mates and water type?