29 gallon tank ideas!

[Fishies4Ever]

Any ideas for a 29 gallon tank would be great. I was going to do panda Cory’s and ember tetras that’s why I put it in the Cory section. I would still like to have the Cory’s in the 29 but any schooling fish ideas would be great or if you have any other ideas even without the Cory’s. Just trying to think of ideas. Thanks in advance!!

 

[Byron]

Loads of options. I was going to ask for water parameters, but seeing you are in New York I already know you have soft water so the options are just about endless. I had two tanks this size (assuming the basic 29g, at 30 by 12 inches footprint) in my fish room and one was an Amazon blackwater with small characins and pygmy cories. You can do panda cories, or any of the "medium" cories. I am assuming sand substrate. If you decide on panda or other medium cories a group of 12-15 minimum. If pygmies or habrosus, I would aim for around 20.

As for tankmates...characins. Ember tetra is one, I had 12 of these, along with 15 green neons. The green neon works very well in this sized-tank with similar fish. Hatchetfish of the genus Carnegiella (the other genera are too large and boisterous). There are some beautiful pencilfish (Nannostomus mortenthaleri, N. marginatus, the recent brilliant red one I cannot remember the name of), the unique N. eques that swims at the surface at an oblique angle. You could look at some of the "Rosy clade" species like Black or Red Phantom, Rosy Tetra, etc--just avoid any fin nippers like the Serpae. These remain in the lower half/third.

 

[Fishies4Ever]

Loads of options. I was going to ask for water parameters, but seeing you are in New York I already know you have soft water so the options are just about endless. I had two tanks this size (assuming the basic 29g, at 30 by 12 inches footprint) in my fish room and one was an Amazon blackwater with small characins and pygmy cories. You can do panda cories, or any of the "medium" cories. I am assuming sand substrate. If you decide on panda or other medium cories a group of 12-15 minimum. If pygmies or habrosus, I would aim for around 20.

As for tankmates...characins. Ember tetra is one, I had 12 of these, along with 15 green neons. The green neon works very well in this sized-tank with similar fish. Hatchetfish of the genus Carnegiella (the other genera are too large and boisterous). There are some beautiful pencilfish (Nannostomus mortenthaleri, N. marginatus, the recent brilliant red one I cannot remember the name of), the unique N. eques that swims at the surface at an oblique angle. You could look at some of the "Rosy clade" species like Black or Red Phantom, Rosy Tetra, etc--just avoid any fin nippers like the Serpae. These remain in the lower half/third.

Thank you all these fish seem amazing. I do currently have a 10 gallon with 4 serpae and other tetras. I had moved them in there after a cross country move. They used to be in a 29 which I am going to pick up when I visit in the next few weeks. All the fish in the 10 gallon are getting pretty old. I am not even sure how long we have had them for at this point. I am planning on rehoming the serpae after recently figuring out how big of bully’s they can be. Mine have been pretty good but I still want to rehome them because the tank is pretty overstocked. Maybe I’ll bring them to a fish store. Anyways my point is I will definitely not get serpae for a community tank although I do like them they belong in a species only tank maybe with a pleco.

 

[Byron]

Sounds good. Fish in unsuitable environments numbers-wise have a tendency to not behave normally because of the serious stress they are under. But as soon as the conditions improve, for example if you were to put them in the 29g, they will literally overnight turn. This is one reason why crowded fish in store tanks can seem to work, with no aggression. There are just too many fish for nature to play out normally. But bring them home, and suddenly things can be very different once they settle in.

 

[Fishies4Ever]

Sounds good. Fish in unsuitable environments numbers-wise have a tendency to not behave normally because of the serious stress they are under. But as soon as the conditions improve, for example if you were to put them in the 29g, they will literally overnight turn. This is one reason why crowded fish in store tanks can seem to work, with no aggression. There are just too many fish for nature to play out normally. But bring them home, and suddenly things can be very different once they settle in.

I’ve always wondered why there was never any aggression in fish store tanks

 

[Fishies4Ever]

Would this work for the 29 gallon? I’ve never had any barbs before and there are so many different varieties and they are sooo pretty. Would these 3 kinds work together they are the purple head barb, the gold barn, and the eight banded barb. I would also like to add some blue king tetra along with the panda Cory’s. It sounds like a lot so would it be to much? I would probably have a school of 6 of each and 12 panda Cory’s. If I were to have to elimate one species I would probably not do the tetras and have an all barb tank.

 

[Byron]

Barbs are generally speaking far more active swimmers. This means they need more linear space that would for example comparable-sized rasbora that are more sedate (species vary, I am being very general to get points across). Please, always use the scientific name so others know exactly which species; common names can vary from country to country, even among aquarists in the same place, and this makes looking up data more difficult.

The purple headed barb I assume it what is often called black ruby barb or ruby barb (see?) which is Pethia nigrofasciata. This species needs an aquarium at minimum 3 feet/90cm length. I had a group of 11 or 12 in such a tank (a 33 gallon), but they were better by far in my 4-foot 90g tank.

The gold barb I assume is Barbodes semifasciolatus. This one too needs a 3-foot minimum tank.

The 8 banded barb is presumably Eirmotus octoxona. At a size of 3-4 cm this is doable in your size tank. This is in fact very well suited here. It is eaily out-competed by bold fish but the sort of fish being considered like the pygmy cories, rasbora species, peaceful small characins are ideal tankmates. This fish comes from quiet waters, so that is also suitable here. So far as I know, it is not a super-active fish, madly racing everywhere (which can easily scare quiet fish) like many barbs do, so again well suited here. You must have 10-12, it will not be settled with too few, and it will display its lovely colouration and behaviours in a good group.

Eirmotus octozona — Seriously Fish

www.seriouslyfish.com

 

[Fishies4Ever]

Barbs are generally speaking far more active swimmers. This means they need more linear space that would for example comparable-sized rasbora that are more sedate (species vary, I am being very general to get points across). Please, always use the scientific name so others know exactly which species; common names can vary from country to country, even among aquarists in the same place, and this makes looking up data more difficult.

The purple headed barb I assume it what is often called black ruby barb or ruby barb (see?) which is Pethia nigrofasciata. This species needs an aquarium at minimum 3 feet/90cm length. I had a group of 11 or 12 in such a tank (a 33 gallon), but they were better by far in my 4-foot 90g tank.

The gold barb I assume is Barbodes semifasciolatus. This one too needs a 3-foot minimum tank.

The 8 banded barb is presumably Eirmotus octoxona. At a size of 3-4 cm this is doable in your size tank. This is in fact very well suited here. It is eaily out-competed by bold fish but the sort of fish being considered like the pygmy cories, rasbora species, peaceful small characins are ideal tankmates. This fish comes from quiet waters, so that is also suitable here. So far as I know, it is not a super-active fish, madly racing everywhere (which can easily scare quiet fish) like many barbs do, so again well suited here. You must have 10-12, it will not be settled with too few, and it will display its lovely colouration and behaviours in a good group.

Eirmotus octozona — Seriously Fish

www.seriouslyfish.com

Thank you for the advice. I really wanted those barbs but I will figure something out instead. From now on I will use the scientific name to make it easier and more accurate. Do you have any other fish suggestions? I am going for more uncommon fish in the hobby but I would like them to be schooling or at least shoaling. I just want to try something a bit different because I have only ever had betas, tetras, live bearers, plecos, gouramis and otocinclus.

 

[Byron]

Thank you for the advice. I really wanted those barbs but I will figure something out instead. From now on I will use the scientific name to make it easier and more accurate. Do you have any other fish suggestions? I am going for more uncommon fish in the hobby but I would like them to be schooling or at least shoaling. I just want to try something a bit different because I have only ever had betas, tetras, live bearers, plecos, gouramis and otocinclus.

I am better at commenting on "x" species you mention, than suggesting some. I know the sort of fish I always kept for 30 years, but not everyone likes all of them. Ther are some beautiful characins being discovered these days, which includes the tetras, pencilfishes and hatchetfishes, not to forget the characidium and oddities like the Chilodus punctatus headstander, the only headstander small enough to work in tanks under 6 feet. Not easy to find, nor easy to feed sometimes, but once settled can be interesting. I had a trio for many years, see photo. Second photo is one of the characidium. The many cyprinids from S and SE Asia are less familiar to me, but some gems are found there.

 

[Fishies4Ever]

I was researching some more and I found these tetras. Would they work together in the 29? They are Hemigrammus rhodostomus, Boehlkea fredcochui, and Hyphessobrycon cyanotaenia. Probably about a school of 10 of each if that’s good what do you think, and 12 panda Cory’s?

 

[Fishmanic]

A tank with black skirt and white skirt tetras (middle swimmers) would look awesome. Along with some cories to fill out the bottom of the tank.

 

[Fishies4Ever]

A tank with black skirt and white skirt tetras (middle swimmers) would look awesome. Along with some cories to fill out the bottom of the tank.

That’s a good idea

 

[sharkweek178]

A tank with black skirt and white skirt tetras (middle swimmers) would look awesome. Along with some cories to fill out the bottom of the tank.

Or a mix of black and red phantom tetras.

 

[Fishies4Ever]

Or a mix of black and red phantom tetras.

That would be pretty

 

[Fishmanic]

or a mix of striped regualr tiger barbs and green tiger barbs...very active interesting fish