50L Fresh Water Tropical Aquarium

[Mark Gauden]

Hi All,

I need advise on what fresh water tropical fish can happily co-habit my tank before I look at stocking it with fish.

What communities prove to work well, and what should I avoid mixing.

Also within that do certain breeds do better in numbers?

Doing research before making any idiotic decisions.

Thanks in advance

Mark


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[Colin_T]

Hi and welcome to the forum

Before we suggest fish, we require the tank dimensions (length x width x height) and the general hardness (GH) and pH of your water supply. This is so we can provide you with fishes that are suited to those conditions.

The GH and pH can sometimes be obtained from your water supply company's website or by telephoning them. The GH can be in ppm or dGH so please check with the company and find out which one it is.

If you can't get the info from the water company, most pet shops will test the water for you. Some charge a small fee to cover the cost of the test kits they use. To get the pet shop to test your water simply take a glass full of tap water to the shop. They can check it for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, GH & pH. Write the results down (in numbers) when they do the tests.

If the shop says the water is good, ask them what the results are in numbers. Then post the info here.

While you are at the pet shop, write a list of fish you like and then post the list here. We can go through it and suggest combinations that are suitable for your tank size and water conditions.

 

[NickAu]

Hi

While we wait on your water parameters, Let me ask you this, What do you want from your tank?

Will it have live plants?
Have you got a heater?
What type of filter do you have?
What type of substrate do you have? Sand or gravel?
What type of light do you have?

With 50 liters you will be looking at small fish.

I would go with a bigger school of small fish and make it a 1 or 2 species tank, Small fish feel more comfortable in lager numbers and tend to act more natural.


If your water is hard I would probably go with male Endlers and you could easily have 15, On the other hand if your water is on the softish side Chilli or Dwarf Rasboras anain you could have 15 of them.

Anyway as a Betta fan, Have you considered a male Betta? 50 liters heavily planted with the right plants and lighting can look great.

This is one of my tanks its 65 liters,

 

[Mark Gauden]

Tank:
Aqua One Aqua Aspire 55 Glass Aquarium 55 Litre. Approximate Dimensions (Product): 40 x 40 x 40cm.
LED light. Heater. Filter. Included.

Water hardness type:
Hard - 100.4mg/l calcium.
pH: 7.6
Nitrate 28.63
Nitrite 0.004

Fish I like initially:
Rainbow fish
Danios
Rasboras
Guppies
Betta
Pleco

Substrate: None Yet.
Plants: None Yet.
(I’ve added a photo of a tank set up I like the look of)

Hope this helps. Appreciate the help.

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[Essjay]

The hardness at 100.4 mg/l calcium converts to 14 dH and 250.73 ppm, the two units used in fish keeping.


Of the fish on your list, only the betta is suitable for 40 cm cube. the other fish need more swimming length than 40 cm I'm afraid.

 

[Mark Gauden]

Good to know.

The tank isn’t yet used, and still returnable. So if I want to buy a bigger tank due to restrictions I will.

Colin_T & nickAu... What’re your thoughts?

Thanks, Mark.



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[NickAu]

I agree with essjay.

Male Bettas are solitary fish and best kept that way.

 

[Colin_T]

According to the converter in the "How To Tips" at the top of the page, 100mg/l calcium is very soft water.

Nitrite and pH are fine and nothing to worry about.

There is a bit of Nitrate in the tap water and we normally recommend keeping nitrates below 20ppm. However, your tank will probably never get below this level (28ppm) due to the level in the tap water.

You can get filters to remove nitrates from tap water and these are useful. Growing lots of plants (especially floating plants) in the aquarium can help to reduce nitrates.

----------------------
Tank size is a bit on the small size and if you can return it and get a bigger tank, then please do. Try to get the biggest tank you can afford and have room for. Length and width are more important than height because fish swim left to right, not up and down.

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If the water is soft then avoid livebearers like guppies, platies, swordtails and mollies, and stay with tetras, rasboras, danios, catfish, etc.

Zebra and leopard danios like a tank that is at least 2 ft long and preferably longer. Giant danios need a tank that is 3ft or longer.

There are big rasboras and small ones. The big ones need a tank that is 3ft or longer, the micro rasboras would possibly be ok in the tank you currently have. However, you won't be able to get much more in there so go for a bigger tank.

In a big tank with lots of plants you can keep a Betta with some other small peaceful fish, but you have to monitor them all and make sure the other fish don't pick at the Bettas fins and the Betta doesn't turn agro and attack the other fish. They are normally fine in big tanks with peaceful fish and fish that don't resemble them.
Don't keep Gouramis and Bettas together because they fight.

There are different types of suckerouth catfish including plecos. The common bristlenose catfish is pretty tough and only grows to about 4-5 inches and is suitable for aquariums that are 30inches or longer. There are Whiptail (Loricaria) & Twig (Farlowella) catfish that do well in 30 inch tanks, or bigger. If you want common Plecostomus you will need a big tank because they can grow to 18inches plus in length.

There are numerous rainbowfish ranging in size from 1 inch (Pseudomugil gertrudae) to 5 inches (Glossolepis incisus & multisquamatus). The smaller rainbows do well in tanks that are 2 ft or longer. The bigger species should be kept in tanks that are 3ft or longer.

All rainbowfish, danios & rasboras are schooling fish that need to be kept in groups of 6 or more and preferably 10 or more.

There is more information about rainbowfish at the following link.
http://rainbowfish.angfaqld.org.au/Melano.htm

 

[Essjay]

Colin, the unit for hardness is mg/l calcium not mg/l calcium carbonate, and this is not included in the calculator on here. Most UK water companies use mg/l calcium so we have to convert it to mg/l calcium carbonate (ppm) and German degrees (dH).

100.4 mg/l calcium converts to 14 dH and 250 ppm; it is not soft, it is hard.

 

[Colin_T]

Anyone living in the UK or US, don't take this the wrong way but you're all nuts, just use ppm
You lot can't agree on pounds, ounces, yards, gallons or mg/l. ahhhhhhhh

What is the conversion formula for the silly UK standard?

 

[Essjay]

Some US members quote hardness in grains per gallon!


I cheat, I use a converter https://www.cactus2000.de/uk/unit/masswas.php That has just about every unit ever invented for measuring hardness.





In the UK we are supposed to use litre, grammes, metres etc but oldies like me are stuck in the past with pints, ounces and yards

 

[The Lumpfish Guy]

In the UK we are supposed to use litre, grammes, metres etc but oldies like me are stuck in the past with pints, ounces and yards

Don't forget your pounds, shillings and pence...

 

[Essjay]

I was 21 when the currency went metric, but my parents did not like that at all

 

[Colin_T]

I was 97 when currency was invented

and my first computer was an abacus

 

[Byron]

Mark, given the GH of your source water, a larger tank will allow you more options for fish. Most (not all, but most) of the "nano" fish, meaning fish that are very small and thus work in smaller tanks, prefer much softer water. As these nano fish are usually wild caught, this is critical. So, yes, a larger tank will in this situation be better. As for what size, that will depend upon the fish you might consider. I'll leave that for the moment.

What communities prove to work well, and what should I avoid mixing.

As soon as we keep more than one species in an aquarium, we set up a community and there are several factors involved. Obviously the behaviour of the species in terms of aggression. Water parameters; fish that have to "adjust" their metabolism because of less desirable parameters will be stressed and more prone to health issues and early demise. This involves especially the GH (hardness), then pH which usually matches the GH, and temperature. Temperature drives a fish's metabolism so it is crucial that the species have the same range requirements. We also must consider the activity level of the species--active swimming fish like most of the danios will stress out sedate fish like gouramis. The water flow from the filter can be important; fish requiring active currents will not work with fish requiring a still pond environment. The substrate may matter, with substrate fish certainly (sand being better overall). The aquascape...plants, wood, rock, whatever is natural to the fish's habitat needs to be provided (real or artificial) and the species must share the same needs.

Also within that do certain breeds do better in numbers?

Yes. There are species we term shoaling, or sometimes schooling though that is technically a bit different, but whichever term it means there must be a group of that species if we want to avoid stress and poor health. Generally speaking, all characins (tetras, pencilfish, hatchetfish), rasboras, danios, barbs, loaches, rainbowfish and cory catfish are shoaling. Six is universally suggested as the absolute minimum, but having a few more will always be better for the fish. Livebearers can be in small groups, though gender is important here.

Very general, but gets you started thinking.