36 gallon stocking

[Annemarie]

Hello everyone, I have a 36 gallon aquarium (about 136 liters and measures approx 30 wide x 15 deep x 21 tall in inches) and I want to get ahead on planning what fish I can keep in it. I have an AquaClear 50 gallon and a tetrawhisper 20 gallon filter running in it, and I’m planning on getting the Nicrew skyled plus 30-36" light soon with the intention of growing some low-medium light plants. If it helps, my ph was around 7 last time I checked and the tank has been running for several months.

My only real problem is this: the aquarium currently has one striped and one black kuhli loach in it. There used to be more, but a family related accident occurred and they are all that remain. I realize that I should get more kuhli loaches, and that’s my priority at the moment. Keeping in mind that I’d like other fish later: would the kuhli loaches be happy if I were to get ~3 more striped and ~3 more black loaches? I’m unsure if the different colors would be happy together, in which case I’d be happy to just have 6 overall.

After my lights come in and I’ve added way more plants (I just ran and tossed 6-7 Anubias and some large smooth stones in for now), I want to know what my options are for other fish. I really like the look of celestial Pearl danios, those fun colored shrimp you see at local fish stores, furcata rainbows, honey gourami, and peacock gudgeons.

I by no means expect to fit all those fish in that aquarium, I just mean to provide fish shapes and colors that appeal to me. Ideally I’d have the loaches, some fish that maybe stay more towards the middle-bottom but won’t interfere with the loaches happiness, maybe 1 or 2 schools of middle dwelling fish, and one top dwelling fish (I know labyrinth fish like their space and I don’t want to overcrowd by having 2+ females and a male).

Overall, if I could find some way to have a decent amount of happy fish that go together temperament and color wise, I’d be really happy to start adding in my plants after my light arrives, get more kuhli loaches, and eventually add other fish.

Thank you in advance to anyone that offers advice, I’m really happy to be able to make my existing (and future) fish a well loved part of my family.

 

[connorlindeman]

As a start, what are your water parameters? gh, kh, ph?

 

[Annemarie]

I haven’t explicitly tested my KH or GH, but last time I checked my ph was between 7-7.5. My city claims to have slightly hard water, and that the grains per gallon tends to stay at the low - mid 30s from what I can see. Again, I’ve never actually tested how hard my water is but that’s what the water authorities claim for the area of my city that I live in. Let me know if I need to buy a in depth testing kit or how to make my water better if it seems unhealthy for the loaches. Thank you!

 

[Wills]

If you check on your water companies website do you get a ppm of gh figure? Sometimes they have a postcode search so you can get pretty local to work it out? The GH test is the most important (but KH is also useful) - they sometimes get bundled as a pair and usually under £10 for the two.

In terms of the loaches, there isnt much wrong IMO in having 'survivors' of a school living out their days in your tank. A lot of us have ended up that situation and with fish like Khulis its so hard to get them out once they are in. But if you can get them into a group of 4 in the mixed species group of 6 I think that would work well too!

Wills

 

[Annemarie]

It looks like it’s about 38ppm, though I’m seeing it tends to stay around that number year round.

 

[Wills]

It looks like it’s about 38ppm, though I’m seeing it tends to stay around that number year round.

That is super soft which is usually good news but some of the species you have picked are hard water fish like the celestial pearl danio and furcata rainbows. Instead of the cpds green neon tetras might be a good choice and perhaps a type of pencil fish instead of the rainbows? Thinking on the basis of a colourful upper water dweller?

Wills

 

[Annemarie]

Oh awesome! I’ve grown up being told we had hard water so I wasn’t expecting to hear that, as long as nobody objects I’ll start looking into soft water fish like the ones you recommended. Thanks for letting me know!

 

[Annemarie]

So I looked at some soft water fish and I love the thought of maybe some lemon tetras or the pencil fish as previously thought. I tried looking into soft water community fish, and I wanted to know if maybe peaceful apistogramma, clown killifish, or keyhole cichlids would work? I’m not positive if the water softness would be ideal for all of those, but I would ideally have at least one fish with kind of flowing fins (like apistogramma). The keyhole cichlids look really cute (even if their fins don’t flow) but a couple sources say they like to be in groups, and I don’t think my aquarium is big enough to support more than 2 decent sized fish and other fish without being overcrowded.

Let me know if any of these would work. Thanks!

 

[Beastije]

From my research on kuhli loaches, when I wanted to keep them, you should not have them with anything aggressive or fin nipping or bullying, so I would say cichlids are out. I like your idea of a gourami, honey gourami are very nice and do add a certain color to the tank.
136 liters is not that much space to experiment, so if you go 6 kuhli loaches overall, 1 male and 2 female honey gourami, and some peaceful school of 20 fish in the middle, rasboras, danios or tetras, based on water parameters.
You should start by preparing the tank for loaches ( hiding places, smooth substrate, moss, plants), as gourami only care about the surface area and planted parts, and the middle dwelling shoal will not be picky either as long as there are plants.
Also you need to be careful in new purchases, loaches are super susceptible to ich so either get them first and quarantine all the others, or get them last.

 

[Annemarie]

Oh ok, got it! I’ll get the loaches first after I put in more plants to make the ones I have happier for sure. I’m surprised that neither of those cichlids would work though, I figured if there was enough cover and they were nice enough cichlids (though I understand nice isn’t exactly the best word to describe any cichlid) that I’d be able to put in one or two. Thanks for letting me know, I appreciate it!

 

[Byron]

I don't see the substrate material mentioned yet, is it sand or something else? This will affect some fish, including cichlids, so best to know.

 

[Annemarie]

I don't see the substrate material mentioned yet, is it sand or something else? This will affect some fish, including cichlids, so best to know.

Yeah, my bad. The substrate is sand. I read that kuhli loaches like to bury in the sand so I figured it would be the best substrate to use. I know that plants obviously need nutrients though, so I was considering maybe swapping some or all of the sand out for something like fluvial bio stratum? I’m in no particular rush to get fish, as I want to make the tank setup ideal first.

 

[connorlindeman]

Yeah, my bad. The substrate is sand. I read that kuhli loaches like to bury in the sand so I figured it would be the best substrate to use. I know that plants obviously need nutrients though, so I was considering maybe swapping some or all of the sand out for something like fluvial bio stratum? I’m in no particular rush to get fish, as I want to make the tank setup ideal first.

NO need to add or use soil. Just use root tabs for root feeders.

 

[Annemarie]

Got it, I’m better with non aquatic plants so I guess I’m just not used to only sand being acceptable for plants. Thanks

 

[Byron]

Yeah, my bad. The substrate is sand. I read that kuhli loaches like to bury in the sand so I figured it would be the best substrate to use. I know that plants obviously need nutrients though, so I was considering maybe swapping some or all of the sand out for something like fluvial bio stratum? I’m in no particular rush to get fish, as I want to make the tank setup ideal first.

Correct, kuhli loaches should have sand, and there are other fish that would be suitable here that also need sand, like cories, and the smaller cichlids if selected. It is also the best substrate for plants because it is "natural" and plants can easily root in it. As for the plant nutrients, these come from the breakdown of organics in the substrate, from water changes, and from feeding the fish (which of course causes the organics accumulation in the substrate). Depending upon the plant species and number, this can be sufficient. If more is needed, there are substrate tabs which certainly do improve larger and heavier-feeding plants like swords. And liquid fertilizer if the plants are not rooted, like moss, ferns, floating plants.