Which fish for my 80L tank?

[kev_kb]

Hi all,

I currently have these fish whilst my tank is cycling, with the help of Cycle.

8 x Neon Tetra
3 x Albino Cory Doras

I know I probably would have been better off cycling before adding fish, but I started things before reading through this site, but my fish have survived their first week in the tank with no problems as yet. Plus I'm regularly testing and water changing as needed.

I realise it will be a while till I can add more fish but I was wondering what I could add eventually? I went round my LFS today and liked the look of these guys:

Sword Tails
Tiger Barbs
Zebra Danios
Platys

I've had a quick look on the net and it seems the Barbs may be too aggressive, but I'd love to hear your opinions on these selections. Also how many fish should I be looking at as a maximum for my tank? I don't want to over stock and purchasing a larger tank later on isn't an option.

Aslo I want a fish that will swim mostly toward the top of the tank, any ideas?

Thanks in advance for any replies.

 

[melleth]

Swords anf platy are nice as are tiger barbs and zebras. The barbs abd especially the zebras are very fun to watch but also very nippy. Personal preference would be the barbs. The zebras do tend to spend a lot of time at the surface. I have had both.
I have a nice Gold wonder Killi who is prety much always lurking on the surface. Being a natural predator and surface feeder he rarely goes to bottom or even midlevel.
Guppies also seem to like to be near the surface.

If you want livebearerers that will reproduce and give you lots of babies go with the mollies and swords.

I am unfortunatly metrics illiterate so I have no idea exactly how big your tank is so I can't advise as to how many you'd want to get.

 

[kev_kb]

Thanks for the advice so far, will the barbs attack the smaller fish such as the Tetras?

As for my tanks its, 21.1(US) and 17.6(UK) gallons.

 

[clutterydrawer]

the tank is about 21 gallons.

neither barbs or danios should be nippy if kept in a shoal. you could *probably* fit in a shoal of either, depending on the dimensions of your tank. both are very "hyper", they swim a lot and they swim fast, so if you're wanting something pretty and relaxing, you should probably go with something else.

swordtails and platies are nice but unless you only get on gender you will be overwhelmed with fry because they are livebearers.

 

[kev_kb]

Dimensions from memory are: 60cm x 35cm x 40cm.

 

[clutterydrawer]

I think another 14" (35cm) of small fish like danios or tetras could work. I don't think the tiger barbs would be such a good idea as a shoal of 6 would be 18" total legth and they are biggish (deep, wide) fish. however that's just my opinion, other people might have different ideas.