What To Stock

[thegeeman]

Just done my cycle

So tank is ready for the fish, What would everyone suggest i begin with??

i am not really interested in mollies platys or guppies

the tank is 8ftx2ftx2ft so what can i begin with and roughly how many at a time



regards

thegeeman

 

[houndour]

wow that is a huge tank...there are loads of different fish you could have.

Aside from not wanting mollies or guppies, you have any other ideas?

Do you like cichlids?

Or would you rather have a community tank.

Would you prefer fewer larger species, or lots of smaller ones?

You must have an idea of some of the fish you like..it's hard for us to tell you.

If it were me I'd get cardinals and botia....and that'd be pretty much it. boring huh?

 

[catxx]

big tank!
get a shark!
hehe.

or something far more simple, would cichlids work? i don't know anything about them but they are pretty.

 

[sylvia]

Make sure you keep adding ammonia to the tank so it doesn't uncycle and then do a big water change before adding any fish to bring nitrAtes down to at least under 40.

Like the above poster said, we need to know what fish you are interested in.

With a tank that size (that's something like 240 gallons!), I'd be inclined towards either an african cichlid tank, a large-ish oddball tank, a tank filled with tiny 1" max. fish (one of my dreams ) or a tank with some of the larger but common species like clown loaches, silver sharks, tinfoil barbs, silver dollars, kissing gouramies and a common plec.

How new are you to keeping fish? You could do a stunning discus tank with that...

How are you with saltwater? You could do one hell of a marine tank with that...

Are you certain you got those dimentions correct BTW?

 

[thegeeman]

I would like to keep lots of smaller type fish

Tiger barbs what got me to think about purchasing a tank so that would be a good start
I would like fish at all levels of the tank as some i have seen have a nice set up but all the fish are swimming towards the top (unless they are dying)
So community fish small and will live in harmony with Tiger barbs
What is an otto???

Make sure you keep adding ammonia to the tank so it doesn't uncycle and then do a big water change before adding any fish to bring nitrAtes down to at least under 40.

Like the above poster said, we need to know what fish you are interested in.

With a tank that size (that's something like 240 gallons!), I'd be inclined towards either an african cichlid tank, a large-ish oddball tank, a tank filled with tiny 1" max. fish (one of my dreams ) or a tank with some of the larger but common species like clown loaches, silver sharks, tinfoil barbs, silver dollars, kissing gouramies and a common plec.

How new are you to keeping fish? You could do a stunning discus tank with that...

How are you with saltwater? You could do one hell of a marine tank with that...

Are you certain you got those dimentions correct BTW?

I am quite new to fish keeping but did have a few guppies and stuff when i was a teenager.



The dimension are correct my wife had it made for me, It fits into a alcove in my office

big tank!
get a shark!
hehe.

I never thought about a Shark (hmmm Great white maybe)

 

[modernhamlet]

The dimension are correct my wife had it made for me, It fits into a alcove in my office

You sir, have a keeper.

On your stocking question... you can seriously do a LOT in a tank that large.

Tiger barbs are gonna look really small in there!

 

[catxx]

i went to this posh recording studio one time and they had an 8-11ft (can't remember exactly) tank and 2 or 3 sharks in that, all about a foot and a bit long. empty tank, and 3 sharks, swimming up and down. sharks are awesome.

 

[thegeeman]

The dimension are correct my wife had it made for me, It fits into a alcove in my office

You sir, have a keeper.

On your stocking question... you can seriously do a LOT in a tank that large.

Tiger barbs are gonna look really small in there!

With three kids at home under the age of Five my wife has become a very good keeper

You are right about the barbs looking small. Is there something simillar but on a slightly bigger scale??

 

[@ombomb]

Well if it was mine, off the top of my head:

HEAVILY planted
RTBS
Gold Nugget Plec
Blue Spotted Plec (L128)
5 X Clown Loaches
10 X Rummy Nose Tetra
10 X Cardinal Tetra
Pair of Dwarf Cichlids

 

[thegeeman]

Well if it was mine, off the top of my head:

HEAVILY planted
RTBS??? Please remeber i am new to this and not up on the jargon
Gold Nugget Plec
Blue Spotted Plec (L128)
5 X Clown Loaches
10 X Rummy Nose Tetra
10 X Cardinal Tetra
Pair of Dwarf Cichlids

Now were talking, How difficult is it to obtain the above in the UK (Bristol)

 

[modernhamlet]

I'll take a crack at it...

240 gallon Planted Amazonian paradise

8 Pterophyllum scalare (angels)
2 Geophagus surinamensis
30 Hemigrammus bleheri (rummy nose tetra)
15 Megalamphodus megalopterus (black phantom tetra)
1 Scobinancistrus sp. (gold nugget pleco)
1 Chaetostoma sp. (bulldog pleco)

 

[@ombomb]

All my suggestions are pretty easy to come by, but they include some of my favourite fish.

RTBS = Red Tailed Black Shark

 

[sylvia]

My suggestion:

25 tiger barbs (since you say you like these)
10 siamese algae eaters (make sure they are identified correctly as many of their look-a-likes don't school in the middle layers like these will)
4 kissing gouramies (top layer fish and they get to a good 8" so would be the largest fish in there)
7 moonlight gouramies (another top layer, and beautiful, though can be shy, fish)
10 zebra loaches (for the bottom)
7 yo-yo loaches (also for the bottom)

Sorry to double post but, how would you like a tank with 240 tiny 1" fish? I mentioned this in my first post and am just curious over whether anybody (other than me) would actualy ever do this

There are plenty of fish to choose from and I just keep picturing a huge school of shining, tiny, spotted rasboras (like 50 of them) swimming past in a big shoal...

edit: Ooooo... just noticed the board has a new and wonderful function which merges posts when you double post! Perfect! Exactly what I needed!

 

[houndour]

Sorry to double post but, how would you like a tank with 240 tiny 1" fish? I mentioned this in my first post and am just curious over whether anybody (other than me) would actualy ever do this

me me me!!!!!!!! Well kinda. I said botia and cardinals. Cardinals are...say 2 inches. If its 240g, I'd get say

80 cardinal tetra
20 botia striata
1 RTBS (you reminded me of this @ombomb)

It's be heavily planted (the botia are mainly for eating the pesky snails).

But for recommendations for you thegeeman, I'd say go for the tiger barbs, apparently grow to 3 inches.

I'd definitely recommend getting a botia species. As they are handy for eating snails if you introduce live plants. Most people go for clown loach, but I personally prefer other species.

I would pass on the plecs, but thats just because I dont like them ( am I the only one? I just think they are a waste of space as they grow soooooo big and produce a lot of waste ).

Red tailed black sharks are GORGEOUS. Often look grey and ragged in the shops, but will improve when you have them in your own tank. I think you are only supposed to have 1, but in a tank that size I bet you could have more than one as there is room for them to make terrotories. But I would still probably only get 1.

Otos are tiny (1.5 inches???) fish that like to be kept in shoals. They are kind of cute and will eat some types of algae.

Tiger barbs are really nippy, but I've heard people say they are OK if kept in large groups as then they will nip eachother...I was going to suggest Angel fish, they grow quite big and could be a "centrepiece" fish.

Some more things for you to think about! Hope that helps.