Calling all you fish experts

[pandapops001]

I've recently been told that a selection of the following would best suit my tank,
Its a Fluval 800 duo deep, capacity 27.5gal, with internal filter/heater,

1 female beta
2 red dward gouramis
6 rosy tetras
2 diamond angelfish
3 male guppies
6 cardinal tetras
3 bristlenose catfish

it just seems like an awful lot of fish, is this right, will they live happily together?? and i'm not keen on mating them as i'm very inexperienced as it is, so have i got the sexes right, i've been told that all the above fish will live in a community very well as they are placid??

Please Help

 

[tstenback]

Those fish are all compatible with the possible exception of the gouramis and female betta (not sure have never had this arrangement). I would only use 1 bristlenose in a 27 gal tank...they are very good cleaners. I have one in my 33 gal and it does a great job all by itself. Also dont add the angels and cardinals until your tank is completely cycled and stable, usually around 4-6 months, they dont like any chemistry changes and a new tank even if cycled is often prone to PH swings for the first couple of months. HTH

 

[pandapops001]

Thats great, what can i use instead of gouramis and beta then? any ideals, i know they wont be in the tank for a very long time yet, but its nice to plan it out.

in what order and timescale would you advise for adding these fish, i know i have to wait for it to settle between adding the different species, i mean would you add tetra's first then wait a few weeks before adding anything else,

I will stick to the one catfish, now i know it will be sufficient,

BTW - thank you tstenback, for the previous advice you gave me and the link about fishless cycles, i have now started, i also read that if you cannot get pure ammonia you could use fish food?? is this right??

 

[tmlhaus]

I would not put the betta and gourami together. I would get the cardinal tetras way before the angel. The angel will get much bigger than the cardinals and could see them as lunch someday if they are still small

 

[Nina7777]

Hey there- I would just cut out the female betta and dwarfs altogether. or only get one dwarf or one betta. Also- three male guppies may not work all that great together. Oh and only get the angels if you tank is at least 18 inches tall. They need the extra height because of how large they grow.

In theory you could use fish food for a fishless cycle, but it would take a ton of time, we're talking months before the cycle was complete. The reason being, that you would have to wait for the fish food to rot which would then cause amonia but it would be such a small amount that it would take twice or maybe three times as long than just using amonia.

 

[pandapops001]

okay, but where can i buy pure ammonia, as i've heard you can only get it in the US and i live in the UK

and has anyone got a list of fish that would happily live together in my 27.5gal, its 18" exactly, not including the canopy, so long as they will live together happy enough (and not try to feed or fight each other), then i'll be happy with anything really.

Thanks for all your advice, i will take it all into account before buying my selection

Regards
Miranda

 

[tstenback]

I have read in this forum that someone in UK got it at the "chemist". HTH

 

[pandapops001]

What do i ask for? sorry its just i'm likely to get something completely wrong

Thanks for replying

 

[tstenback]

the chemical name is NH3 other than that

 

[pandapops001]

Okay thanks i'll get to the chemist tomorrow, is there any other treatmenst you would advise, as i've heard that there are good and bad water treatments "out there", i'm currently using Nutrafin Aqua Plus, and Nutrafin Biological Aquarium Supplement, will this suffice ??