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New Tank Stocking Questions

amyytay

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Hi there I'm new here and I'm just waiting for my 155 litre tank to finish cycling so I'm starting to have a look to see which fish I want. I want to know what you're thoughts are on the ones I've chosen.
 
So these are the ones I'm thinking of getting:
 
2 Silver Sharks (or just 1 I don't know what would be best)
1 Ruby Barb
1 green tiger barb
2 kissing gourami
1 black angelfish
1 gold angelfish
2 blood red parrot fish
2 algae eaters, 4 shrimps, 4 snails
 
I'd also love a Silver Dollar fish but is my tank too small for one of these because I know they grow quite big.
 
So, what do you think?
 
Working down your list, and trying not to be too negative, you have some lovely fish that have caught your eye.
 
Silver sharks, actually need bigger tanks than silver dollars, they're big  (12 inches + grown) and fast. They're also shoaling fish, so need company of their own kind to thrive. Sadly an oversold fish as they really need at least 6 feet of tank in the long term, preferably more.
 
Barbs, all good, however you'll run into trouble with low numbers as they too are shoaling fish. They will do far better in groups of 6+, ideally more, particularly for tigers, who get a bit nippy in smaller groups.
 
Blue gourami, fine for a feature fish, a variant of the three spot gourami and can be quite troublesome, and probably on the big side for this tank overall, but technically doable.
 
Kissing gourami, again, these are big fish, they'll grow to be too large for your tank and you're looking for trouble with these.
 
Angelfish, pretty much all the ones you see in the shops are variants of the same fish, so colour morphs work together. Ideally need a tall tank as they're tall fish, not good with nippy fish and not a good tank mate for a shoal of barbs, one will likely ultimately kill the other, often the angelfish losing but not always, generally it doesn't end up being a pretty mixture. Ideally with angels you want 1, a pair or a shoal, you won't have room for a shoal, so if the dimensions are right, 1. Probably not a good mix with the blue gourami either.
 
Blood red parrots, again they get quite large and like their space. Fascinating fish, but you need something double the size for them really. You may get away with 1 in that tank by itself.
 
We'd really need to learn more about what you mean by algae eaters, there are quite a few, ranging from little fish to the hulking common plecs. Many are great, some are terrors, some are huge.
 
Shrimp can be good in a community, so long as nothing thinks that they're food. Many of the fish you have on that list would eat shrimp as a natural food item.
 
Snails, again can be great in a community, but it does depend slightly on which ones you were after.
 
Otherwise you're right, the silver dollar is too big, and too skittish, for that size of tank. Again a shoaler, so you'd need numbers, which ups the tank size requirement even more.
 
You seem to like the bigger fish, can I suggest that you pick a favourite of Angelfish size and similar and start with that and look up likely requirements and tank mates? If your tank is tall enough for an angel and you want to go down that line they would work with the larger tetras (full sized angels may eat neon sized ones, although cardinals, not being much bigger, tend to be safe enough) and things like bristlnose plecs and cordydoras.
 
DrRob said:
Working down your list, and trying not to be too negative, you have some lovely fish that have caught your eye.
 
Silver sharks, actually need bigger tanks than silver dollars, they're big  (12 inches + grown) and fast. They're also shoaling fish, so need company of their own kind to thrive. Sadly an oversold fish as they really need at least 6 feet of tank in the long term, preferably more.
 
Barbs, all good, however you'll run into trouble with low numbers as they too are shoaling fish. They will do far better in groups of 6+, ideally more, particularly for tigers, who get a bit nippy in smaller groups.
 
Blue gourami, fine for a feature fish, a variant of the three spot gourami and can be quite troublesome, and probably on the big side for this tank overall, but technically doable.
 
Kissing gourami, again, these are big fish, they'll grow to be too large for your tank and you're looking for trouble with these.
 
Angelfish, pretty much all the ones you see in the shops are variants of the same fish, so colour morphs work together. Ideally need a tall tank as they're tall fish, not good with nippy fish and not a good tank mate for a shoal of barbs, one will likely ultimately kill the other, often the angelfish losing but not always, generally it doesn't end up being a pretty mixture. Ideally with angels you want 1, a pair or a shoal, you won't have room for a shoal, so if the dimensions are right, 1. Probably not a good mix with the blue gourami either.
 
Blood red parrots, again they get quite large and like their space. Fascinating fish, but you need something double the size for them really. You may get away with 1 in that tank by itself.
 
We'd really need to learn more about what you mean by algae eaters, there are quite a few, ranging from little fish to the hulking common plecs. Many are great, some are terrors, some are huge.
 
Shrimp can be good in a community, so long as nothing thinks that they're food. Many of the fish you have on that list would eat shrimp as a natural food item.
 
Snails, again can be great in a community, but it does depend slightly on which ones you were after.
 
Otherwise you're right, the silver dollar is too big, and too skittish, for that size of tank. Again a shoaler, so you'd need numbers, which ups the tank size requirement even more.
 
You seem to like the bigger fish, can I suggest that you pick a favourite of Angelfish size and similar and start with that and look up likely requirements and tank mates? If your tank is tall enough for an angel and you want to go down that line they would work with the larger tetras (full sized angels may eat neon sized ones, although cardinals, not being much bigger, tend to be safe enough) and things like bristlnose plecs and cordydoras.
 
This is brilliant information THANK YOU! 
 
Yeah I do really like the bigger sized fish, I've got another tank with small fish like guppys, platys and mollies so I want this one to be a bit more adventurous.
 
The fish I want the most is the Angelfish I absolutely love them! 
 
The tank I have is an Aquaoak Large Cube so it's a big square shape instead of a long tank.
 
I love fish with colour so which fish exactly do you think will go well with the Angelfish?
 
OK, Angelfish, as I said, they're really 1, a pair or a shoal. However placid they may look smoothly floating around the tank they're ambush predators and have a dark side. You won't have room for a shoal, so you could aim for a pair (although breeding would create havoc) or go for a good single.
 
As for tank mates, if you want something on the larger side a pair of more common apisto's or rams could work as tank mates for an angel, then fill up on colourful tetras like cardinals or whatever takes your fancy. Personally I'd recommend going for one type, as the larger the shoal the more impressive the impact and the behaviour but don't go too small.
 

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