New Community Tank Planned

[Iron Man]

Well I've decided to definately ditch the neons. The only thing about gouramies from what I've seen is....I like their colors but they don't move a lot. As you can tell I like peaceful schooling fish, hatchetfish being an exception.

Also, if I were to keep hatchetfish and gouramies...wouldn't the all fill the top of the tank?

 

[Iron Man]

OK

New tank plans.

I'll just start the whole list back over;



Tank and Equipement

55 gallon long tank

2 stainless steel shoplights 2 X 40 watts 6500K each = 160 watts

100 lbs playsand for substrate

Large towering Malaysian driftwood centerpiece

2 medium granite rocks

Various plastic plants (slowly replaced with live)

Eheim 2217 canister filter

Eventually add DIY CO2 w/DIY diffuser



Livestock

8 neon dwarf rainbow fish

12 swortails

36 harlequin rasboras

8 cory cats

25 shrimp (amano and/or cherry)

3 apple snails

?? Malaysian trumpet snails

3 African dwarf frogs


Something seems like its missing....or maybe its just right...I don't know.

Suggestions?

David

 

[Iron Man]

bump

 

[Iron Man]

Since the six swordtails I've already bought are eating the algae so well....I've decided to ditch having so many shrimp. The trumpet snails will take care of the detritus and algae on surfaces and sides and the swordtails will take care of the algae in the plants. I've also decided to ditch the idea for neon rainbows as I'm thinking......as heavily planted as I want this tank, its gonna get a bit crowded so I've decided to replace neons with the swordtails who are just a bit smaller (less bioload)....plus there won't be any of the hierarchy problems I've read about in rainbows that can occur. I will NOT be uprooting everything in this tank to take out bad apples...and I WILL have a peaceful community. I have had enough experience with swordtails enough to know that....they're harmless to relatively sized schooling, small finned fish. Also since swordtails generally fill up most levels of the tank, I can reduce the number of harlequins and since no guppies or anything else 'fancy finned' is planned....I can keep the zebra danios I have currently. So the new plans are as follows;

16 swordtails

28 harlequin rasboras

10 zebra danios

8 cory catfish

10? Cherry Shrimp

3 apple snails (trade in when trumpets populate?)

??? Malaysian trumpet snails

3 african dwarf frogs

whew!!

Can you tell I like set up new tanks? lol

 

[colegamby]

soods pretty good to me 28 rasboras seems like alot but ive never seen a big school of them

 

[Iron Man]

I would really have planned on at least 40 of them if they were all I had in the tank, but 28 being a lot is relative I suppose. For what I have I think its probably about just right, maybe a little more than necessary for this tank.

I was thinking about reducing that number when I came up with 28 so time will tell if I use that many.

 

[Booboo puppy]

Sounds like a great tank. This is my first experience with harlequins, and I like them very much.

 

[Iron Man]

OK update on the slow but sure start of the freshwater tropical community tank.

I liked the swordies so much I decided to make this a livebearer tank. To add to the 5 swordfish I have already, I traded in the 10 zebras today and got 3 guppies (1m/2f). Then I went to the other lfs and got 5 female black mollies that I plan to add 1 male to and make it an even 6. I plan to get 7 more swordtails and maybe about 8 more guppies. I plan on 12 blue spotted platies (possibly) and 9 cories to add to the bunch.

I also got 8 ghost shrimp that, time they were released into the tank....went straight to the sand to start eating the detritus and plant bits (EWWwww). Three of them are pregnant and you can see the two little black eyes in each egg....pretty cute.

I also got 3 more apple snails and 4 trumpet snails (for free as the lfs girl thought they were just like all the other 'pest' plant snails!!!!).

I probably have enough shrimp and snail population for now.

I've also decided to drop the dwarf frogs as they will need special feeding I may not be prepared for.

So this is how my future planned livestock list looks now;


12 swordtails (6 pineapple, 6 red)

12 blue spotted platies

6 black mollies

12 various guppies

9 cory cats

6 apple snails

25 (?) ghost/cherry shrimp

??? Malaysian trumpet snails



Well this is the last change in plans....and I love it so far. I forgot how colorful and active the livebearers were. Really rewarding fish to have. I'm happy with my choices so far and would recommend livebearers to anyone!