Fish Stocking Suggestions For A 180 Litre Tank

[mrchelsea]

Hello again,

Feels like i am living on this place at the moment

I am looking to start cycling a 180 litre juwel rio tank from the 1st of october... my question is what sort of fish would people recommend to maximise the tank capacity so i have an active tank at all levels (top middle and bottom) which is healthy.. i am still very confused about the whole "stocking well" issue... my LFS is rubbish and has resulted in me doing a rescue job on my current 28 litre tank to save my penguin and serpae tetra.. so this time i want to know i have it all sorted before!!! Also any suggestions on rocks, gravel/sand and plants to use to amximise the conditions/surroundings for perspective fish dwellers

Any help greatly received

 

[Mr Bliss]

Yay I like these threads.

180l is like 48 gallons, right? Going by the one inch per gallon rule, how about:

A pair of kribensis to inhabit the bottom layer (max 8" total)
A Bristlenose pleco (max 5")
A pair of honey gourami for the top (max 4" total)
A school of 10 emperor tetras (Nematobrycon palmeri; 20" total); really beautiful and underappreciated tetra in my opinion. These will inhabit the middle and lower middle layers of the tank mostly.

This'd give you a mix of different colors of fish that should go well together. It'd be a fairly peaceful tank as all of these fish species tend to mind their business at a languid pace, so you don't get peaceful fish stressed by hyperactive ones. You'd have room for another 10" of fish, although I wouldn't go that close to the stocking limit given that the kribs may end up breeding (and so will the emperor tetras if there's enough plant shelter for their fry!). But you could add another couple of emperor tetras, or go with slightly bigger gourami like the stunning-looking pearl gourami (4" each max).

I recommend dark gravel or sand. I chose a fairly light colored substrate and already regret it. Almost everything looks better with a darker substrate, and rumor has it fish feel more comfortable with darker substrates.

 

[orange shark]

dont put kribs in their, when they breed they will be aggressive to every other fish in there to protect their eggs

I would go for sand as a substrate, get a school of 6 corydoras and a BN Plec for the bottom, 6 cardinal tetras and 6 emporer tetras as stated above and then maybe a pir of pearl gourami's for the top

 

[rhostog]

I'd recommend real plants - they can look great, and make your tank an attractive feature of the room even when the fish are hiding! Nothing against fake plants, and they can look great too, but a lot of people think real plants are difficult, and they don't have to be. Some people use special lighting and add CO2 and debate the best plant feeds, and their tanks look superb, but you can still get pretty good results just with normal tank lighting, no CO2, and a dose of plant feed when you do a water change. And then you can upgrade if you want...

There's a useful pinned topic in the Planted tanks section listing some of the common aquarium plants and what conditions they prefer. Or just buy a bundle of assorted plants from your LFS and see what thrives, pull out any that don't.

You can put plants in while your tank is cycling. They may take up some ammonia and nitrate though, which can make it harder to see what's going on in the cycle. But of course this is a benefit once you've got fish.

I'd add my vote for corys. They are very active at the bottom of the tank, and so cute. They like to be in groups of at least 5 or 6.

Good luck with the cycle, and also with the tetras.