What types of fish to introduce

[stuhall1973]

Hi,

I am just going ino tropical fish keeping after keeping cold water fish for around five years. I am comfortable on mixing cold water fish, and tend to know what to keep apart. However i am now going into new waters. Could someone be so kind to advise on the following, i have a 3 feet tank (around 30 gallon):

What type of fish to keep apart

How many fish should this size tank hold.


I had four cold water fan tails in the tank for years but sadly they have all now died.


Look forward to your replies.

 

[sylvia]

None of your questions can be answered unless you are somehwat more specific but...

First of all, you need to cycle the tank - fishless cycling is always best. If you don't know about cycling, read through the link in my signature thoroughly.

The common species of coldwater fish are realy quite limmited - to me it sounds like you've only kept goldfish. Keeping goldfish and 'mixing' them is realy quite simple once you've done your research (which you obviously have as you didn't over-stock). Deciding on the kind of tropical fish to keep together can be considerably more complex because of the sheer number of possibilities.

If you are looking for good fish to start off with, danios such as zebra and leaopard danios and many livebearers like mollies, guppies, platies and swordtails, are good choices to begin with.

How many fish the tank can hold is a totaly different matter. Tropical fish vary greatly in size and temperament and requirements. With goldfish you can generalise and say 10 gallons per fish. With tropicals we have a guideline that says 'one inch of adult fish per gallon of water'. However, it's only a guideline. If you go with easy beginners fish like those I mentioned though, you can use this guideline quite accurately - zebra/leopard danios grow to about 1.5 inches, platies and guppies also grow to about 1.5 inches, mollies to 4 inches and swordtails to about 3 inches. Also keep in mind that danios are schooling fish that should be kept in groups of at least 5 and livebearers should be kept at a ratio of 2 females to every male (males have a tube-like anal fin called a gonopodium) I think from that point on you can do the maths

Have fun with your tank and feel free to ask questions if you have any

 

[NinjaSmurf]

The problem with the inch per gallon rule however is that it's pretty much useless with any fish over two or three inches. It's really hard to tell what to suggest when we don't have an idea of what kind of fish you're thinking about. I'd suggest, since you've only really done the cold water thing (I'm with you on that one lol, my tanks are my first tropicals) that you look around this forum at the fish index and maybe search on the internet to find pictures of fish you like, then figure out what and how many of them you can put it. There's no point in getting fish you aren't really into looking at for your tank, trust me.

 

[stuhall1973]

Thanks for all the information, i will take your advice on board and look at the fish i like first before deciding.