Stocking A 125 Litre Tank

[dan2516]

Hi I am brand new to keeping tropical fish and would very much appreciate some advice on what my options are for stocking my 125 litre wave shaped tank. I am currently in the process of a fish less cycle which my friend who has kept cichlids for years is advising me on and all seems well. 
 
Obviously now i`m starting to look at my stocking options, I realize my tank is not huge which is going to limit me somewhat hence seeking advice from more experienced people here. I would ideally like a shoal of colourful small fish and one or two larger centerpiece fish and a couple of random ones! I do like bettas but have read a lot of conflicting things about these, also killifish are beautiful.
 
Also i have been offered a zebra pleco and a red tailed shark. The pleco is lovely. As is the shark but i think the tank may be a little small as i have read they can get territorial?
 
Any help, advice, personal experiences would be greatly welcomed.
 
Cheers. 
 
 

 

[Alm0stAwesome]

Hi! Welcome to the forum
 
The planning is one of the most exciting bits while you're researching all of your options. Why don't you tell us the dimensions of your tank and the pH and relative hardness of your tap water and that will guide us a little when making recommendations. 
 
Are there any fish that you definitely want in the tank? Or something that you're strongly leaning towards? Sometimes you can build the tank around a particular fish

 

[Ninjouzata]

I hope you enjoy it here! So glad to hear that you're doing a fishless cycle.
 
The red tailed shark would be better off in a 55g (208l?) and can get pretty territorial when they mature, but I think the zebra pleco would be fine, depending on the answers to AA's questions.
 
Something you can do, if you havn't already, is go to your lfs and make a list of fish you like and come back here to ask about them.

 

[dan2516]

Thanks for the responses, tomorrow I will get api master test kit and post the results as soon as I have them. Also I will get a tape measure to get the dimensions of the tank. As for the hardness I looked on the Internet and it came back with.....The water in your area is hard.

To help set your domestic appliances, the water hardness in different units is:
257 mg/l :Calcium Carbonate
102.8 mg/l :Calcium
17.887 °C egrees Clark
25.7 °F egrees French
14.598 °dH egrees German
2.57 mmol/l :MillimolesPrint

As for fish I really like killifish the colours are amazing and some of the betas are lovely. I will do so research tomorrow and do a more indeapth post.
Cheers.

 

[Blondielovesfish]

Have a look at various tetras, Cardinal and Rummy-nose Tetras are some of my favorites.
 
One of the best centrepiece fish would have to be one of the types of Gouramis, there are some very beautiful ones out there.
 
Other good schooling fish are Corydoras.
 
Your stocking list could look like this....
 
7-9 tetras (could have more or less depending on the species and size)
1-3 Dwarf Gourami or Honey Gourami (If three, make sure its 1 male and 2 females)
7-9 Corys (could have more or less depending on species and size)
 
Have a look at your LFS and see what you like

 

[dan2516]

Hi back again after spending some time researching some fish and have come up with some i really like. 
 
First i`ll give you run down on the tank and water conditions.
 
Tank measurements: width 80cm
                                  height 40cm
as its a wave shape tank the depth differs, narrowest is 30cm and the widest part is 37cm.
 
I checked the water this morning these are the readings,
ammonia - 0.25ppm (what is the best way to drop this?)
nitrite - 0ppm
nitrate - 40ppm (what is the best way to drop this?)
ph 
in tank - 7.8
straight out of tap - 7.8
 
Ok the fish that have caught my eye. mainly dwarf cichlids i would love some of these, after reading up i think south american ones are going to be ruled out because of my ph levels. I saw some lovely kribensis which i think should be ok? The only problem i can see with these is what tank mates to go for as i`ve read mixed things about them. other fish i like are killifish, swordtails and platys.