Suggestions For My Orca M50 Tank

[Taylor1985]

Well the first 24 hours gone well, water all settled, its on a fishless cycle now and have a afi testing kit this morning which i will probably use first after the weekend.

Not going over the top but would like some nice tropical fish, my son likes them bright and bold! i like catfish and mrs likes tetra's!

any suggestions as i just cant decided im like a kid in a sweet shop and would buy a huge 1000gallon tank to home them

 

[Taylor1985]

bit bland at the moment, but till i start getting it set up right

 

[the_lock_man]

any suggestions as i just cant decided im like a kid in a sweet shop and would buy a huge 1000gallon tank to home them

Ha! Just like the rest of us then!!!!

What's the capacity of the tank? It looks around 35litres-ish. And do you live in a hardwater or softwater area? (Do you get limescale build-up in your kettle?)

 

[Taylor1985]

yes ! very hard water tho i filled it up from my kitchen tap which i installed a limefighter device on ,

Its about 75 litres i think (counting in my head as i filled it up)

 

[the_lock_man]

Blimey, the photo is deceptive.

Generally speaking, if you have hard water, your have a high pH. The fish most suitable for a high pH are the common livebearers. That said, most fish available in shops these days are farmed, rather than wild-caught, and so are less sensitive to differences from their "natural" pH, certainly in terms of low-pH fish being happy in a higher pH environment.

So, here's a suggestion for you

4 platies* or 7 male guppies (ticks Junior's box)
6 x Cardinal Tetra (ticks the boxes for Mrs Taylor and Junior)
6 x Panda Corydoras Catfish (ticks your box)
4 x Red Cherry Shrimp

* If you go for platies, go for all of one gender, or 1male/3female - male livebearers are persistent in their amorous chasing of the laydees, so having them in that ratio will reduce the stress on any individual female. They will breed, but in the tank as you have it set up in the photo, it's unlikely any fry will survive to maturity. If you start to get plants in there, then you might start to see a few babies. I had platies in a lightly planted tank, when I first started, and never even saw a fry, despite the females swelling and contracting each month.

These are just my suggestions, but having the cories and tetras in a group of 6 is best, and that applies for any species of cory and tetra

 

[Taylor1985]

yeah i took it on my blackberry this morning , its about 18" inch accross x 18" deep then about 2ft high !

i like that list , was more than i would expect ! thanks for your input its appreciated

 

[Taylor1985]

loving the shrimp ! just googled image them , will be getting them

 

[the_lock_man]

The shrimp don't add significantly to the bioload on the filter.

When you say that you are on a fishless cycle, are you adding bottled ammonia?

 

[Taylor1985]

not yet i have only set it up yesterday so thought i would check all the pump etc working ok and get up to temperature