Finally Ready For Stock!

[dissimulo]

Hi all,

It has been almost two months since I first began my fish-less cycle, and now is the time to start accumulating ideas for the stocking of my 120L Juwel Lido. At current, the tank has a sand substrate and contains no ornaments. It is filtered by an EHEIM Professional 2224 and uses a T5 light unit; 1 x vibrant colour bulb and 1 x ordinary day bulb.

Can anyone suggest anything? Ideally, I'd like something relatively easy to maintain, something interesting but nothing too text book. I think maybe I'd like a few shoals of small/medium sized fish as well as a few 'centre piece' fish.

Hopefully you can help me come up with a nice final idea.

Cheers,

Luke.

 

[kizno1]

If it where me i would go for
a pair of dwarf cichlids like
apistogramma agassizii
checkerboard cichlid - dicrossus filamentosa
laetacara curviceps - dwarf flag cichlid
laetacara dorsigera - red-breasted acara
nannacara anomala - golden dwarf cichlid
15 small shoaling fish like cardinal tetra or harlequin rasbora
10 corys

 

[Katch]

I've got 7 Pygmy Corys in my 90L and they're a brilliant addition. They shoal and swim at all levels whilst also hoovering up left over food. Great little fish.

 

[waterdrop]

Hi again Luke,

I hope this means you are seeing good ending stats in your fishless cycle! It sounds like good news.

A 120L is quite a nice flexible size, capable of sustaining all sorts of different communities, just depending on what you want. If you don't suggest anything then all of us will simply restate our usual things, and many of us have grown used to each others suggestions.

It really works so well to hear what things have caught your eye or that you've become interested in. It gives a framework from which the members can work - ideally your stocking plan can still end up being -comepletely- different, but its a way to give a skeleton to the process. TFF has many species sections and google images are great at showing you some variations on the look of a particular species.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[dissimulo]

Hi,

Well that's the thing you see, I'm practically an amateur fish keeper. I fully understand and appreciate the technical aspects but struggle rather when it comes to actually stocking with fish. I suppose I'm not entirely clued up on fish in general, so any suggestions will be appreciated.

If it helps, I'd prefer a more lively tank whereby the fish are predominantly active. My décor will eventually comprise of slate/rock and bog/mopani wood so as to follow a natural, realistic theme.

As a small note about my current cycle, I'm running 4-5 days with double zeros (at 12 hourly tests) but with the occasional blip of nitrIte every 5-6th day. It's severely frustrating.

Cheers,

Luke.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

i'd suggest you go to your LFS a few times and note down the names of anything you like and then we'll let you know if you can fit them in your tank and what other fish would complement them nicely.

I'd suggest you get one reasonable sized shoal of something like a tetra/rasbora - if you just put that into a google image search I'm sure you'll see something you like.
Then a shoal of cory's for the bottom of the tank as they're very cute and active, again if you search for corydoras you'll get pics of lots of different species so just choose one you like.
The dwarf cichlids suggested above would make a nice signature fish too.

 

[dissimulo]

Good idea, I'll arrange a visit ASAP.

Sorry to raise this issue again but have I got to wait until the 7th day of double zeros to officially end my cycle, or might I get away with doing so at its current stage? As before mentioned, I'm getting [font="arial][size="2"]4-5 days of double zeros [/size][/font][font="arial][size="2"]but then an occasional blip of NitrIte on the 5th-6th day.[/size][/font]
[font="arial] [/font][/color]
[color="#222222"][font="arial][size="2"]Cheers,[/size][/font]
[font="arial] [/font][/color]
[color="#222222"][font="arial][size="2"]Luke.[/size][/font]

 

[waterdrop]

Well, you've just started your stocking planning, so that will buy you some more time!

Seriously though, a little blip like that at the end of a 5-6 day stretch is probably no big deal and you would probably not even get a blip showing up after the big water change and fish, we've verified that with real cases any number of times. It just takes being watchful and ready to change water if your daily tests showed a blip. Testing continues in the first couple of weeks until the steady double-zeros make you confident and then you can taper off.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Miss Wiggle]

yeah agree with WD you're probably safe to stock now although would suggest you do it on a day when you know you have plenty of free time at home over the next few days so you can jump in and do a water change if there is any blip in the readings.