What Should I Have In A 70l Tank

[Jonny3shoes]

Hey,
I'm going to be moving house soon and i will set up the tank then. I want a nice school with a few other larger fish including a plec.

How about neon tetra or cardinal tetra, maybe harlequin rasbora? Which are tougher or best for my 1st tank

Any ideas welcome!!

Also how large do kissing gourami get.. is that realistic

 

[NaughtyT]

Hi jonny,as far as i'm aware neon tetras are best to be put into an established tank,but they were the very first fish i got after cycling my tank,i got a shoal of 20 and still have them all.

You would need to be looking at which plecs are suitable for your tank,some do stay small but the common plecs grow upto 18 inches and very very quickly.I bought my 2 plecs 2 months ago and they have gone from less than an inch to almost 7 inches.

Kissing gourami can get to around 10inches i believe,i have 2 and one of them is already around 4 inches.Some of them may also become aggressive,i have been lucky and mine are ok in my community tank but i know some people have had probs.

Hope that helps.

 

[tom_os]

if you like plecs, pitbull plecs are good, i have some

gouramis you could have honey or dwarf, they stay small although dwarfs dont have a very good survival rate

 

[Jonny3shoes]

Thats good. nice to hear you had neons as your first fish as they are my fav !!

It will be one of the plecs which stay small. I was reading the small plec post earlier and there re quite a few. Do you know if harlaquin rasbora are tougher and a safer bet than the neons?
cheers

 

[tom_os]

harlequins are good i have six of them

you would want to have a fair few of them. they are schooling fish

 

[hollanda88]

Thats good. nice to hear you had neons as your first fish as they are my fav !!

It will be one of the plecs which stay small. I was reading the small plec post earlier and there re quite a few. Do you know if harlaquin rasbora are tougher and a safer bet than the neons?
cheers

They are toucher but also there a lot larger, i just got anoth 6 to make mine up to 12 and there the only fish i havent had die since i got them.

Clown plecs are nice and pretty too, look like there made of chocolate

andrew

 

[Jonny3shoes]

Honey gourami look nice.. how many would be good? Would just 2 be ok as like a center piece?

I do like the look of plecs. The pitbull plec was one of the ones i considered . Are plecs hardy too or do they require specific narrow conditions?

Are there some fish i should be avoiding also?

 

[tom_os]

you could have 2 honeys

my pitbull plecs have been through alot of problems and have come out the other side shining.

you could have 4 pitbull plecs, 2 honey gourami, 6 harlequins with maybe a little room left

do you know about cycling?

 

[hollanda88]

Honey gourami look nice.. how many would be good? Would just 2 be ok as like a center piece?

I do like the look of plecs. The pitbull plec was one of the ones i considered . Are plecs hardy too or do they require specific narrow conditions?

Are there some fish i should be avoiding also?

Could have 3 honeys in there (2F 1 M). its quite east to stress plecs out in which case their coulouration goes, but theres such a wide choice you sould be able to fine the right one.

Avoid dwarf gourami like the plauge

 

[Jonny3shoes]

Yea i know about cycling and will be a perfect tank before anything goes in it!

I love the idea of 2-3 honey gourami with some (5-10) neon or harlequin and maybe 2 plecs
Anything else which would look good??
I think something which stays at the top of the tank would look good. How about, think there called hatchet fish?? Think these stay at the top??

 

[tom_os]

yeah hatchet fish are good

 

[hollanda88]

Yea i know about cycling and will be a perfect tank before anything goes in it!

I love the idea of 2-3 honey gourami with some (5-10) neon or harlequin and maybe 2 plecs
Anything else which would look good??
I think something which stays at the top of the tank would look good. How about, think there called hatchet fish?? Think these stay at the top??

I would deffinatey get a bigger group of harlequins as they behave so much more like a school should. Corys are another thing to look at instead of the plecs if you want.

gourami will stay at the top, or at least visit it frequently, as they are anabantoids (air ventilators rather than water ventilators)

andrew

 

[NaughtyT]

Make sure you have a good lid if you are getting hatchet fish,they are impressive jumpers lol

I have had nothing but bad experiences with honey gouramis,they are indeed a gorgous little fish but not atall active and seem to just drop down dead for no apparent reason,but again that could just be my experience of them.

 

[Jonny3shoes]

Ace that would be cool then...

How much bigger are the harlequins than the neon tetra?? How many of each would i be able to have with 2 gourami and 2 plec?

I already have the tank and the lid is completly sealed so should be ok. I could drop the water level too??

 

[tom_os]

you have a 15 gallon tank so if you do weekly water changes, have good filtration and do not over feed you could have 30 inches of fish



if you got a lid i wouldnt drop the water level because it lowers the amount of fish you can have

i think 5 neons, 5 harlequins, 2 pitbull plecos and 3 honey gourami would be max in your tank

although personally i would have 8 harlequins or 8 neons, they prefer to be in large shoals