Newbie Stocking Question

[Dunk90]

Hi all, I recently bought a Fluval Roma 125 litre tank (still in the process of setting it up) and have been looking into which fish I could have in it. Just wondering whether the below would be ok or too much...
1 x pearl gourami
6 x neon tetra
6 x cherry barb
1 x bristlenose pleco
Maybe a few shrimp too, any other suggestions? I'll be putting live plants and driftwood in it as well

 

[Byron]

First question is, what are your source water parameters? These are the GH, KH/Alkalinity, and pH. You may find these online on the site of your water authority, be sure to get the number and their unit of measure for the GH and Alkalinity/KH.

While waiting for those, the tetra and barb are shoaling fish that live in very large groups and need a decent size group in an aquarium. We used to say six minimum, but now know that less than 10 is not advisable. Your 125 liter (33 gallon) has space for these, and more, so no issues there. But any tetra, rasbora, barb, danio, cory, rainbowfish, etc will need these numbers.

You have the space for a trio of pearl gourami, and this is such a lovely fish. One male and two females.

If tou have a soft sand substrate, cory catfish are very popular. No fish is bothered by sand, and plants grow well in it too.

 

[sharkweek178]

Wood is a must. Your bristlenose will need it to rasp on.

 

[sharkweek178]

Also fast growing floating plants. That helps the water quality tremendously. Plus, the fish appreciate the shade and cover they'll provide.

 

[Obsessed with fish]

What are your water paramaters? I can not determine whether that stock would be ok without water paramaters.

 

[Fishies4Ever]

Your stocks sound pretty good to me but we do need your water parameters to confirm it completely. I would do driftwood for a natural decoration and live plant are surprisingly easy to take care of. I would recommend Anubias, Amazon sword, and golden creeping Jenny they are some of my favorites. Another good plant to get would be floating plants which some people have said above but I would stay away from duckweed because they can take over the tank and are extremely difficult to get rid of. My personal favorite floating plant are red root floaters although I actually haven’t been able to get any but they will add some color to the tank if cared for right.

 

[Essjay]

You probably have hard water in Southampton. Google tells me Southampton is with Southern Water. If that is your water company, enter your postcode here

How Hard Is My Water? - Southern Water

Use our postcode checker to find out the water hardness in your area and read our tips on how to avoid limescale.

www.southernwater.co.uk

You'll see a number on the next page with the unit "cal mg/l" Use the arrows to change the unit and tell us the number for "CaCO3 mg/l" (aka ppm) and degrees German (aka dH) - those are the two units used in fishkeeping.


Like most UK water companies, they don't give KH (aka alkalinity)

 

[Dunk90]

Thanks for the replies and suggestions!

Thanks for the link @Essjay , I do have hard water. The CaCO3 mg/l is 297 and degrees German is 16.63.

@Byron - that's good to know, everywhere I've looked online suggests 6 or 8 as a minimum but if I could have more of both then I definitely would.

@sharkweek178 - I've bought a small piece of bogwood but I'm still on the lookout for a nice bigger piece of wood. Do bristlenoses like all types of wood, or are some woods better than others? What are people's opinions on boiling wood before putting it in the tank?

Thanks for the plant suggestions @Fishies4Ever , I'll definitely be getting a mixture of plants and will be having a look next time I'm at the fish store near me.

I'm going for a sand substrate as I've read it's better for plecos, and I think I prefer it to gravel anyway. I've also read that children's play sand is a suitable and cheaper alternative to aquarium sand so I'll be getting a bag of that and giving it a good wash before putting it in.

Sorry for all the questions haha, I'm away at the moment and haven't started cycling the tank yet but I'm keen to get started once I'm back home

 

[Essjay]

Unfortunately with a GH that high, your water is unsuitable for all the fish listed in the first post as they are soft water fish

Hard water has lots of calcium and magnesium; soft water has only a bit of them. Fish have evolved to cope with the amounts in the water. Hard water fish have to remove most of the calcium etc that they take in with the water. Put them in soft water and they continue to remove calcium. But because there isn't much in soft water they suffer calcium deficiency.
Soft water fish hang on to most of the calcium in soft water; put them in hard water and they still hang on to it resulting in deposits forming in their organs and usually die from blockages in their kidneys.
Neither of these kill the fish quickly but they won't live their potential lifespan and will get sick more easily.

So what to do.
The easiest is to buy hard water fish. These include most livebearers (endlers, guppies, platies, mollies etc), rainbowfish and cichlids from the African Rift Lakes.
The more time consuming and costly is to mix hard tap water with pure water which has zero hardness. Many fish shops sell reverse osmosis water (RO) or you can buy equipment to make it yourself, though it does waste a lot of water which is expensive if you are on a water meter. If you choose this route, you would need to make up the mixture at every water change in exactly the same proportions each time - that's the time consuming bit.