Tropical Fish Forum
Tropical Fish Keeping Help and Advice => General Fishkeeping advice => Topic started by: jake3sanders on February 19, 2014, 05:29:25 PM
-
Hi all,
Wondering if you can help me...I've been trying to decide what type of fish to put in my tank next.
My tank is 60cm long - 30cm wide - 45cm deep - 82L
My fish are - 3 Blue Acara - 1 Pleco - 2 Mollies (1 Orange, 1 Dalmatian) - 2 Clown Loach - 5 Serpae Tetra
I want a mid sized sort of fish, in-between my Acara's and Mollies. But the amount of research I've done i keep getting very mixed results.
So if anybody could help i'd greatly appreciate it!
Thanks
-
I wouldn't add more fish. Those you have are already too much for a tank this size. Clown loach, pleco and Blue Acara all grow big and need a much bigger tank, more than twice the size of this, 240 litres or more.
-
I agree totally with Richard.
I use the website seriouslyfish to check for a fish's needs. According to that:
Blue acaras - a tank 120cm long is just about big enough for a pair
Clown loaches need a tank with the base a minimum of 180 x 60cm, and they need to be in a group of at least 6
Plecs - depending on the species, they can grow anything up to 2 feet long. The smallest commonly available plec, the bristlenose, might possibly be OK in your tank but bigger would be better.
Size-wise, the serpaes are fine though mollies also get quite big and are better in a 90cm tank. And serpaes can get very nippy if there aren't enough of them - you do need a few more, once you rehome some of your other fish.
-
ok thanks guys. I am pretty new to fish keeping, and decided my fish with help from the shopkeepers. I wasn't warned about these things prior to purchasing them
-
The best piece of advice for newcomers to the hobby is don't believe the shop. There are some workers that give good advice, but they are few and far between. The rest either don't know or don't care and will say anything to make a sale.
Look at the fish in the shop, then research before buying. There is a fish database on here (fish profiles in the menu at the top) and seriouslyfish for the ones that aren't on here. Thinkfish also has a community creator, it is accessed via the fish profiles - just click on any fish in there and scroll to the bottom of the page. Fill in the details and it will tell you if the fish you like are suitable for your tank, will go with each other, and whether or not you already have enough fish.
-
The thinkfish community creator mentioned by Sue is a good tool, particularly when done in conjunction with your own research. I used it extensively when setting up an aquarium back in October after having a fair while out of fish-keeping and I'm pleased to say that my community is doing really well. If you enter your tank dimensions it will flag-up when you try to add a fish which will grow too large for your tank or which is incompatible with another type of fish you have already added and also where you need a minimum shoal size.