[…]something which gives a kick start to the bacteria (all included with the tank).
These usually do not work, so I strongly recommend that you do not rely on them.
I am now waiting a week to put a couple of fish in
Waiting does not do anything at all, in this case
if the bacteria in a bottle worked, than by the end of the week they would have starved to death, but if they did not work (as I suspect), then by the end of the week the water would be the same as when you first dechlorinated.
and I was thinking a few Danios as I believe they are fairly hardy.
Please don't do this. The tank is too small for zebra danios and even though they might survive ammonia poisoning better than other species, they will still be harmed by it and will be more susceptible to disease and will have a shorter-than-natural life span. It is possible to do a fish-in cycle without any harm coming to the fish, but this takes a lot of work and in practice most people are too lazy or don't care enough about their pets. Out of thousands of cycles that I have observed, only a handful had the right dedication to make it work. Read on for the explanation about the danios…
Does anybody have any other suggestions?
Do a fish-less cycle, not a fish-in cycle: it is less work and you do not have to worry about killing the fish. Regardless of which way you go, see if you can fine a media donor, that has the potential of cutting down either type of cycle by a few weeks. Fish-in cycles usually take longer than fish-less cycles. Fish-in cycles allow only slow stocking, fish-less cycles can allow for full stock from the end of cycling.
I have a black coloured gravel and a dark backing as I read somewhere that this would show off the fishes colour to best effect.
The dark gravel I cannot agree with, as I have found that it makes the fish try to match it, which does can result in them going dark instead of saturated and the gravel also restricts the species that you can keep as many need to have sand. If it were my tank, I would swap the black gravel for play sand or sharp sand (sharp sand has some larger stones in it, so looks like a gravel-sand mix). I have found dark backgrounds to be best for improving the colour of the fish and how secure they feel, so a
to that.
I realise I will only be able to have around 12-15 fish in the tank and would like to have a few different species if possible.....again, any suggestions?
Depending on the species, you may be able to have only one fish or you can have hundreds! The good thing about the tank is that it's a 90 litre tank in the footprint of a 60 litre, the bad thing about the tank is that it's a 90 litre tank in the footprint of a 60 litre
The bottom area and length (60*35 cm) restricts the species you can keep, while the volume (90 litres) gives you more stability to play around with.
Is your tap water soft, medium or hard? KH and GH numbers would be very useful if you can get them from your water company or using a test kit. GH is general hardness, KH is carbonate hardness.
[…] I quite like the neon tetras but have been advised to add these last once the tank has settled down. I realise that these are a shoaling fish and I would require 5 or 6 to keep them happy.
Shoaling and schooling species (neons are the latter) should ideally be kept in groups of 10-15+, not 5-6; this is the bit that most people get quite wrong. In the wild, these fish live in groups of a few hundred to tens of thousands, so for them, it is usually "the more, the better". (There is one exception that I know of where 15 is the ideal in the aquarium as the species becomes more aggressive in larger numbers.) Fish can "count" up to a point: they can tell when they are on their own, when there is one other, when there are two others,
etc, when there are many others, and the "minimum" number of fish that should be kept in a group of shoaling fish is when they count from "one other fish", "two other fish", "three other fish" to "many other fish", which in my experience is 6 (or higher for some species). So, this is why I say that a group of 6 is the absolute minimum that neons should be kept in. Then there is the "ideal minimum", which I see at the point at which fish go from "few many other fish" to "lots of many other fish", it is the point at which they feel more secure. This is usually around 10-15 individuals, which is why, if stocking from scratch, I think those are the only numbers that should be considered as a minimum because that is what's best for the fish.
If you want to keep neons, I recommend that you look into bogwood for the tank, sand and go for other South American species (with a final stocking of neons, Corys and a pair of Apistos). They are sensitive to water quality to some extent, but if your water quality is fine, then they should be ok to go in even at the start. Basically, some people have problems with them, some don't. Since I haven't, I can't say that there is anything other than the quality of the water that really makes a difference. Also, you should only drip-acclimatise new fish and forget about the floating bag nonsense, read http
/blog.natureaquarium.co.uk/?p=498 and http
/blog.natureaquarium.co.uk/?p=561
Zebra danios are a bad choice for your tank because they are very active. They can zip across a 4-5 ft tank in under a second, so in a 2 ft tank like yours, they would only be able to go around in circles, bored out of their mind. Is this what you would like to see in the long term? Probably not. Also, because they are very active, you would not be able to keep any placid fish alongside them, which would restrict your stocking options.
So, you want lots of species, but most fish are schooling species or too territorial to mix. So, what about going for smaller fish? The smaller the fish, the more stock the tank will take.
Here is a list of species that I have come up with which is ideal for 60 cm tanks, like yours: http
/blog.natureaquarium.co.uk/?page_id=278 Keep in mind, not all of them can be mixed, and some have special requirements. Assuming you have neutral water, something along the lines of the following would work:
* 1 (peaceful)
Betta splendens male
* 10
Danio of one species from the list
* 10
Boraras of one species from the list
* 3
Erethistes of one species from the list
* 1
Parotocinclus jumbo
* shrimp
I do prefer to go for fewer species and more unusual fish, so if this was my own tank, I would probably stock it with 3-4 species in total.
I was also wondering about shrimps, especially the Amano Shrimp and wondered how they would get on in a community tank. I understand that they will be able to eat any algae. Would this be a good idea or does anybody think adding a bullnose pleco would be better?
If you keep shrimp or a pleco, you must feed them as your aquarium is unlikely to have enough "natural" food to sustain them in the long term. They will eat some algae, but they do not eat all types of algae and you should not be getting algae anyway (unless something is not right with the set-up).
