Fish Thread

[black_cat]

I've changed my master plan to this: go big or go home by saving up and asking permission for large tank. if denied, fall back on 10 gallon betta tank.

Stocking plan for 29 gallon:
1 dwarf gourami (centerpiece)
3 dalmation mollies (I just really like them)
8 neon tetras (schooling fish)
6 cory catfish (bottom fish)

 

[RoostersAreAwesome]

I've changed my master plan to this: go big or go home by saving up and asking permission for large tank. if denied, fall back on 10 gallon betta tank.

Stocking plan for 29 gallon:
1 dwarf gourami (centerpiece)
3 dalmation mollies (I just really like them)
8 neon tetras (schooling fish)
6 cory catfish (bottom fish)

From what I can tell, it sounds like good stocking. If you don’t have a plan for excess fry, make sure to get only male or only female mollies.

 

[black_cat]

From what I can tell, it sounds like good stocking. If you don’t have a plan for excess fry, make sure to get only male or only female mollies.

Can the people at the pet store help with that? I think I'll do males because taht way they can't be pregnant when i buy them.

 

[black_cat]

I've changed my master plan to this: go big or go home by saving up and asking permission for large tank. if denied, fall back on 10 gallon betta tank.

Stocking plan for 29 gallon:
1 dwarf gourami (centerpiece)
3 dalmation mollies (I just really like them)
8 neon tetras (schooling fish)
6 cory catfish (bottom fish)

I've downsized a bit to 2 mollies and 5 cories, but a regular gourami instead of a dwarf.

 

[RoostersAreAwesome]

I've downsized a bit to 2 mollies and 5 cories, but a regular gourami instead of a dwarf.

That should work. Do you know what kind of gourami?

Can the people at the pet store help with that? I think I'll do males because taht way they can't be pregnant when i buy them.

It’s pretty easy to tell males and females apart unless they’re really young.

(not my picture)

 

[RiverOtter]

Sounds like a plan!
Don't worry about baby mollies - most of them will be eaten (I know, but it's nature) and most local pet stores will happily take them. If not, and you happen to have a population explosion, I'll be happy to walk you through selling on Aquabid.

Do me (and you!!) a favor and do NOT look on online fish forums for advice about setting up a tank or stocking. There are some rabid folks out there happy to loudly scream endlessly about the delicate nature of the nitrogen cycle and that tanks are overstocked with 2 guppies in a 10g. It's awful.

I will tell you from DECADES of experience that it's easy to cycle a tank (and if it's not easy, you're doing it wrong), filters are a thing that works, you do NOT need ammonia and the uber-expensive test kit (I actually don't even own a test kit and have 4 tanks set up right this second) and nature is known for stocking fish pretty hard - in spring before they eat each other, you can practically walk across my pond on all the minnows and bass, the only thing they suffer from is each other.

In fact, real quick, here's how you cycle a tank.
Set it up, put a light on it for at least 10 hours a day. If you can get anything - anything at all - from a healthy tank, or even a clean stream or pond, like a cup of water or a rock, some filter media, drop it in and let the filter and heater(if you have one) run.
Three to 7 days later, go to the pet store and get a live plant. Make sure it's a true water plant, like guppy grass, cabomba, hornwort or the like.
A week after that, go to the pet store and get a snail, if none came with your plant. DO make sure that if you get a pretty snail, like a mystery or nerite, that it's been in the petstore for at least a week and that they feed them, so that you're not bringing home some poor starved thing about to die of shipping stress and then you'll blame yourself.
Once Gary has reigned supreme in your tank for a week or 10 days, bring home your first 2 fish, the hardiest ones on your list. In this case, cories. I know you want more that 2, start with 2.
Next week, bring home the rest of your cories.
Two weeks later, add another species, etc.

Basically just start slow, stock slow and let the water do it's thing. It is absolutely that easy.

 

[KingD]

You'll want more than 1 Guarami. They do best in groups of 4 or more. 2 would be ok to start with though.
Just depends whether you want the best for your fish.
Other than that, sounds like a good stock plan.
If you want to breed the mollies then 1 male to 3 females is ideal, any less and the male will harass an individual often resulting in extreme stress or death.
If they do breed then the fry will be eaten so they'll require an inner tank breeding box.

 

[black_cat]

That should work. Do you know what kind of gourami?

It’s pretty easy to tell males and females apart unless they’re really young.
View attachment 2525548
(not my picture)

It just says 'gourami' on the listing online.

Thanks!!

 

[black_cat]

Sounds like a plan!
Don't worry about baby mollies - most of them will be eaten (I know, but it's nature) and most local pet stores will happily take them. If not, and you happen to have a population explosion, I'll be happy to walk you through selling on Aquabid.

Do me (and you!!) a favor and do NOT look on online fish forums for advice about setting up a tank or stocking. There are some rabid folks out there happy to loudly scream endlessly about the delicate nature of the nitrogen cycle and that tanks are overstocked with 2 guppies in a 10g. It's awful.

I will tell you from DECADES of experience that it's easy to cycle a tank (and if it's not easy, you're doing it wrong), filters are a thing that works, you do NOT need ammonia and the uber-expensive test kit (I actually don't even own a test kit and have 4 tanks set up right this second) and nature is known for stocking fish pretty hard - in spring before they eat each other, you can practically walk across my pond on all the minnows and bass, the only thing they suffer from is each other.

In fact, real quick, here's how you cycle a tank.
Set it up, put a light on it for at least 10 hours a day. If you can get anything - anything at all - from a healthy tank, or even a clean stream or pond, like a cup of water or a rock, some filter media, drop it in and let the filter and heater(if you have one) run.
Three to 7 days later, go to the pet store and get a live plant. Make sure it's a true water plant, like guppy grass, cabomba, hornwort or the like.
A week after that, go to the pet store and get a snail, if none came with your plant. DO make sure that if you get a pretty snail, like a mystery or nerite, that it's been in the petstore for at least a week and that they feed them, so that you're not bringing home some poor starved thing about to die of shipping stress and then you'll blame yourself.
Once Gary has reigned supreme in your tank for a week or 10 days, bring home your first 2 fish, the hardiest ones on your list. In this case, cories. I know you want more that 2, start with 2.
Next week, bring home the rest of your cories.
Two weeks later, add another species, etc.

Basically just start slow, stock slow and let the water do it's thing. It is absolutely that easy.

I actually found the tank calculator on a forum but the tank calculator also says I'm fine.


Although it seems morbid, I'd really rather that any babies get eaten than the other option, which is that I end up with way more fish than I bargained for.

If you do it like that without a test kit, how do you make sure that everything is balancing properly?

For plants I was planning on some anubias and some java fern and maybe some amazon sword because they're supposed to be easy. The other plants available are bamboo, hornwort, ribbon, water wisteria, green mondo grass, moneywort, peacock fern, umbrella, el nino fern, and some others that I can't spell.

Is there a specific order that I should add the fish to avoid problems? (for example, I know that if you want to do a betta with other fish, you add the other fish before the betta)

 

[black_cat]

The calculator says that for these fish, I should have these parameters: