Are these fish ok for my tank

[mcordelia]

I had a beautiful long post written up to reply to this, and then they ran an upgrade on the website here are some parts that I remember:

Currently I have zero tanks set up (two in progress), and when I last kept fish I lived in a different state so no help there. however, fish that I considered that work with my hardness parameters (a bit different than yours, so some of these fish may not make your list): guppies, mollies, platies, swordtails, corydoras sterbai, blood parrot cichlids, firemouth cichlid, panda garras, rainbow fish (all the different kinds, the laser ones and turqoise ones especially looked cool in my opinion), black skirt tetras, black phantom tetras, bloodfin tetras, tiger barbs, odessa barbs, ummm.... I'm sure there's more that I'm forgetting now Note, this list is made up of fish that I was/am interested in, it's not exhaustive for hard-ish water fish.

check out this video, it might be motivational:

 

[Fish4dawin]

I had a beautiful long post written up to reply to this, and then they ran an upgrade on the website here are some parts that I remember:

Currently I have zero tanks set up (two in progress), and when I last kept fish I lived in a different state so no help there. however, fish that I considered that work with my hardness parameters (a bit different than yours, so some of these fish may not make your list): guppies, mollies, platies, swordtails, corydoras sterbai, blood parrot cichlids, firemouth cichlid, panda garras, rainbow fish (all the different kinds, the laser ones and turqoise ones especially looked cool in my opinion), black skirt tetras, black phantom tetras, bloodfin tetras, tiger barbs, odessa barbs, ummm.... I'm sure there's more that I'm forgetting now Note, this list is made up of fish that I was/am interested in, it's not exhaustive for hard-ish water fish.

check out this video, it might be motivational:

I do like a few of the fish in there, particularly the Congo tetras the golden killifish/ panchax I believe my LFS sells them and I do like them and I’m getting more dwarf neon rainbows anyway.

If I lowered my ppm to 175 do you think those fish in the video would still be ok in the tank if I were to get any? Any opinions welcome. Maybe @essjay could help?

 

[Fish4dawin]

I'm leaning towards the congo tetras as I've read that the panchax will eat small fish and a few of my black neons aren't very big. Should I go with 6 congo tetras then? Or is there any fish that would work well as well?

 

[Essjay]

While congo tetras would be fine water-wise (they are OK up to 18 dH/322 pm, your tank isn't big enough. A Juwel Rio 125 is 82 cm/32 inches long and congos need a minimum length of 120 cm/48 inches. These are big fish for tetras, growing to around 8 cm long (males).

The tank is cycled and at the moment I have 6 black neons, 4 lemon tetras a ruby shark, 4 panda corys and 2 dwarf neon rainbows.

If this was my tank I would increase the shoals of the fish you already have. The tetras and rainbows need at least 6 with more being better. We have already discussed cories versus loaches; if you decide to stay with cories in this tank they need more of them as well - up to 10 of them.

Just a warning - the shark really needs a tank at least 120 cm/48 inches long and there are behavioural issues with this fish. This is a quote from here (edited and with my bold text)

Epalzeorhynchos frenatum – Rainbow Shark (Labeo frenatus, Epalzeorhynchus frenatus) — Seriously Fish

www.seriouslyfish.com

While small specimens tend to hide away much of the time they become increasingly territorial as they grow and can display particularly high levels of aggression towards similar-looking species.


Some individuals may be more belligerent than other ...........


Other bottom-dwelling fishes including cichlids and most catfish are best avoided as they may too be picked on. For the upper levels choose robust, active, schooling cyprinids. Ideally the Epalzeorhynchos should be the final addition to the tank in order to avoid it claiming ownership of the entire space.

 

[Fish4dawin]

While congo tetras would be fine water-wise (they are OK up to 18 dH/322 pm, your tank isn't big enough. A Juwel Rio 125 is 82 cm/32 inches long and congos need a minimum length of 120 cm/48 inches. These are big fish for tetras, growing to around 8 cm long (males).


If this was my tank I would increase the shoals of the fish you already have. The tetras and rainbows need at least 6 with more being better. We have already discussed cories versus loaches; if you decide to stay with cories in this tank they need more of them as well - up to 10 of them.

Just a warning - the shark really needs a tank at least 120 cm/48 inches long and there are behavioural issues with this fish. This is a quote from here (edited and with my bold text)

Epalzeorhynchos frenatum – Rainbow Shark (Labeo frenatus, Epalzeorhynchus frenatus) — Seriously Fish

www.seriouslyfish.com

So if I move the ppm down to 175 then I can move the corys to my other tank and get dwarf chain loaches? This is what I’d like to do

I already decided on getting 4-6 more rainbows to make 6-8 but what about the golden panchax?

I know it will jump and the lid is sturdy. Should I only have one male and a bunch of females if I were to get some

 

[Essjay]

To be honest, with the fish you have now, a few more rainbows and loaches to replace the cories, the tank will be fully stocked. I would not add any more fish except perhaps a couple more lemon tetras (unless they are the last of a shoal and you don't want any more)

 

[Fish4dawin]

To be honest, with the fish you have now, a few more rainbows and loaches to replace the cories, the tank will be fully stocked. I would not add any more fish except perhaps a couple more lemon tetras (unless they are the last of a shoal and you don't want any more)

Ok how many rainbows should I go with and how many dwarf chain loaches should I go with? Probably not going to go with more lemon tetras unless I see them I might get two more

 

[Essjay]

If this was my tank I would get 6 more rainbows and if your wallet will allow, up to 6 loaches. And perhaps a couple more black neons. But this will require regular weekly water changes of 50% or more.

 

[Fish4dawin]

If this was my tank I would get 6 more rainbows and if your wallet will allow, up to 6 loaches. And perhaps a couple more black neons. But this will require regular weekly water changes of 50% or more.

Ok thank you very much @essjay

 

[Fish4dawin]

Thank you to all of you for helping me pick out the right fish. I've learned a lot from you guys and I look forward to using this advice to help other people. Thank you very much

 

[Fish4dawin]

Hello again, I have a question about my Juwel Rio 125. It's the same as when I posted last except for the addition of 4 dwarf neon rainbows. One decide to jump into the top of my filter but luckily didnt go into the filter. He's doing great. I wanted to ask if cherry barbs would be a good addition as I've read they can be happy in hard water. Also what Corydoras would you guys suggest for hard water. Apparently Corydoras sterbai can do well in hard water. Any thoughts welcome!

Just a reminder my GH is 290 and pH is neutral

 

[Kevt1970]

Water in england is generally very hard ,perfect for malawis or tanganika chiclids and there are some great shops down there . You would definitely need to soften your water for the fish you mentioned.

 

[Essjay]

Not all England is hard - mine is soft at 5dH. Not as soft as most of Scotland, but nothing like the hardness they have down south.


Cherry barbs are reckoned to be OK up to 350 ppm. But for the rest of your fish, the hardness does need to be a bit lower - we talked about mixing RO water with your tap water in an earlier part of this thread.

 

[Fish4dawin]

So what corys/bottom feeders would work? Should I just lower my GH with RO water first then decide on more bottom feeders?

 

[Essjay]

Have you decided for/against the dwarf chain loaches yet? If you definitely want them, then nothing else for the bottom. If you don't get them then cories would be OK - provided you have sand on the bottom of the tank.

I would work on reducing the GH first. Once you are happy with using RO then you can think about fish that need softer than your tap water.