29 gal tank?

[stp8809]

I'm buying a 29 gallon tank and just wanted to know what others thought I should but in it? (What kind of Fish?, Plants?, Other?.)

 

[Tempestuousfury]

I'd suggest making a drawing of what you'd like it to look like. Draw and place plants, gravel, and rocks. That way you don't have to worry about making a mistake. This would also be an excellent time to study up on plants.

What type of cycling do you plan on? Fishless or with fish? If it's the latter, you still have to wait at least 2 days after setting up the tank before adding them.

Will it be a species or community tank? Livebearers for breeding? Aggressive or non-aggressive. Fish you've never tried, i.e. angels, oscars, etc.

 

[LoveMyOscar]

...

 

[Tempestuousfury]

It wasn't a suggestion. I don't know much about exotic fish. I just said that if these fish were being considered, research should be done beforehand (something I haven't done). I never meant for stp8809 to go out and get these fish. I just wanted to know what was being considered.

 

[finius]

Get a school of something small, a couple of bigger show fish and some bottom dwellers. Lots of plants. Well that's what I'm going to do after I move.

 

[modernhamlet]

You could try a biotope tank.

 

[sinistral]

I'm buying a 29 gallon tank and just wanted to know what others thought I should but in it? (What kind of Fish?, Plants?, Other?.)

Standard Disclaimer: The following is all IMO, highly subjective advice based on my experience, YMMV:

You can check my sig for what I have in my tank. I like having schools of fish, even for fish that don't shoal together tightly. I mainly wanted to comment on plants, though. For whatever reason, while I was doing the research and thinking about what to put into my 29 gallon aquarium I discovered that I was hopelessly confused by the thought of including plants. For some reason, the business about lighting and fertilizer and a particular substrate was bewildering, not to mention all the different varieties of plants. I think this was because I was trying to learn as much as I could about fish, and the two topics together were more than I could process in the time I had alotted to do the research, and then it was "go" time for the tank.

Now that I am a few months into my first aquarium, and have sorted out the basics of how to take care of fish, I'm finding myself looking into plants again. In fact, I have a small 10 gallon aquarium set up as sort of an experiment to see how my aquatic plantkeeping goes (I may add a school of small tetras to the tank later on). Everything seems a lot clearer to me now, although in retrospect it would have been easier in some ways, more difficult in others to have started with plants and fish.

In short, pros and cons of starting with live plants for a newbie like me:

I consider live plants very attractive. They add to the healthy ecosystem of an enclosed aquarium. They complicate aquariums for the average beginner, I think (you may not be average, although I really think I am), and increase cost and steepen the learning curve. They double or triple the things you have to learn and think about as a newbie. On the other hand, starting with plants will save you time and effort down the road, because you *will* eventually want to dabble at least with live plants if you choose to stay in the hobby, and it's less complicated to start with plants as opposed to convert the substrate, lighting, etc.

More important than anything I wanted to minimize the frustration associated with this hobby and maximize my pleasure and learning. I started with a few fish and plastic plants, and I find myself very pleased with the way things have turned out so far. Caring for aquariums is a process; where you start doesn't necessarily predict where you'll end up.