Stocking Advice 125 Litre

Sounds like it will be a lovely tank with that mix of fish.

Many fish seem to fare much better when in larger shoals than the minimum often recommended such as on our Community Creator - they display more natural behaviour, shoal better together, and are less likely to succumb to stress/illness. For that reason, I'd definitely recommend increasing the numbers of each of the types of fish (apart from the cichlids and gouramis which can be fine in small numbers) until you have a minimum of 6 and ideally 8 or 10. For the particularly small species, such as the pygmy cories, galaxy rasboras and ember tetras, I'd advise going nearer 10 (if you keep 6-8 of each of the other shoals) as they will probably feel safer in larger numbers .v. their slightly larger tankmates. Obviously, this will mean having to make decisions about which fish NOT to have at all as you'll no doubt be overstocked with the increased numbers.

Some people find barbs very active and competitive for food .v. the other tankmates but you might be fine with the fiveband ones, and ExtremeOne successfully keeps green tiger barbs in his tank with some similar fish to yours.

Hope that helps as a starter-for-ten.

Just to be clear, you already have the otos, rams, galaxy rasboras, harlequins and sparking gourami, and the rest are fish you don't have but would like?
Rams - if you do get a male, there is a good chance he will pair up with one of the females and make life difficult for the 'spare' female. Be prepared to rehome one of the females if this happens. If course the male might not like either of the females or they might both take a dislike to him.

To be honest, the first thing I'd do is get more of the galaxies and harlequins. Galaxies are shy little fish and do much better with larger numbers. So a total of 10 galaxies and 6 harlequins. That would put you at 58% stocked.

Of the 'wish list' fish -
Pygmy cories are another small fish that does better in a big group, so you'd need at least 6 of those. They also need smooth gravel, or preferably sand. The rams would also do better on sand. But with rams in the tank, there could be problems. If you get a male and female that breed, they will chase everything away from their eggs. Cories have no concept of territory. They will keep wandering back towards the rams eggs and could very well end up being bitten.
Ember tetras - fine, and 6 should be enough of them.
Fiveband barbs should be OK, but more than 4. With shoaling fish,, 6 is the absolute minimum.
Dwarf rainbows - again at least 6. I had these for a while in my 180 litre tank that is 107cm long. I felt they were too overactive even for that length tank. I assume your 110 litre tank is shorter than that? (I gave mine away as they were just so exhausting to watch)
Golden pencilfish - biggish fish but sedate. At least 6 would be fine. (I have 12 of them)
Dwarf gourami - make sure the tank it comes from has no sickly looking or dead gouramis in there. So many dg's arrive at the shop already infected with the incurable dwarf gourami iridovirus.



If you were to get all those fish, your tank would be 162% stocked.

If this was my tank, I would forget the barbs. They are the same colour as the harlequins. And the rainbowfish (having had them already and finding how hyperactive they are). That takes you down to 107% which, while overstocked, would be do-able.
I'd probably also forget the cories simply because of the rams.



There are two ways to stock a tank. The minimum numbers of lots of species, or lots of a few species. I fall into the second group.
In my 180 litre I have 13 cherry barbs, 12 pencilfish, 3 apistos, 3 loaches (was 4 but one died shortly after I got them) 4 otos, and 6 stiphodons. The 2 ember tetras and 4 microdevarios are the last of shoals - I won't be replacing them. And yes I am overstocked!

I'd missed the external  That does make your stocking better.

You'll find that shoaling fish are better with more of them, 4 isn't really enough; but if the harlies are used to being in 4, then OK. But having the pencilfish myself, I know how they behave with more of them. I realise it is almost impossible to do with the young fish in the shop, but if you can get more female pencilfish than males it would be better for the group. Males have whiter tips on their pelvic fins - see third small pic in the profile.


And don't say I didn't warn you about the hyperactive rainbows 

Threadfins would be great. Read up on sexing them as I think I've only seen males in the local shop that stocks them. As with most male fish, they display better if they have females to display to.

Hillstream loaches are not really good community fish. They like fast flowing, oxygen rich water at lower temperatures than most tropicals need.

The fish in shops are only meant to be there temporarily so shops tend to just mix them up together regardless of their needs.

I'm watching your thread with interest Matt, you have listed quite a lot of the types of fish I am looking at getting once my fishless cycle is complete 

I've been watching your progress Paddyc, what are your current thoughts for stocking?

I've been watching your progress Paddyc, what are your current thoughts for stocking?

I'm still very much in the researching part of building a stock list. I don't want to buy a lot of fish initially but I do want to achieve a good 20% of max stock fairly quickly to keep up the nitrogen cycle. My main reason for not getting too many at first is in case I have teething problems and lose a lot of fish. I have an external filter and 180 litres to work with so eventually I'll have a fairly busy (an hopefully happy and healthy) community of fish 

From my signature you'll see my initial thoughts. I want a plec or two as well, I'll take the precise type of plec under advisement also...

Being as decisive as usual, I've had a rethink following your comments, my latest thinking is now:
Otocinclus (3 from current tank)
Ram / Butterfly Cichlid (4, 2 from current tank)
Galaxy Rasbora (6 from my current tank)
Harlequin Rasbora (4 from current tank)
Sparkling Gourami (3 from current tank)
Pygmy Cory (4)
Ember Tetra (6)
Neon Rasbora (6)
Rummynose Tetra (6)
Female Betta (1)

This is now for a 125 litre aquarium with an internal filter, so 90% stocking (I couldn't justify spending all that money on an aqua oak!).

I'd appreciate any thoughts as usual.

I love all the fish species you have chosen, each stunning in its own way. Whatever you decide to stock in your tank is your decision, though it is great to get advice from others regarding their suitability (tank size, water, compatibility, etc.).

Personally, I'd have larger shoals of fewer species. I have fallen into the trap of getting 6 of one variety just because it's the recommended minimum number. It seems a bit too arbitrary now.  Tanks with a little bit of everything rarely appeal to me anymore, including my own which has 4 X-Ray tetras, 2 Pseudomugil sp. 'Red Neon' and a Stiphodon. I would love to increase the number of Pseudomugil in the tank, but I got the original bunch for a steal and now my LFS charges £5.95 per fish! Instead I am going to allow the numbers to dwindle until I have stocking capacity for around a dozen small fish (CPD, Green Neon Tetra or Emerald Dwarf Rasbora) and I'll leave it at that. If I had a larger tank (mine is only 55l) I may have a couple of shoals and a centre-piece fish (or two).

It's taken me a little while to realise that I don't need to have every species I like all in the same tank at the same time. I think I'm fish-lifer and I'll have plenty of time to see other fish in my tank in the future.

The MA in Weybridge only sells Pygmy Cories by the dozen for the reasons mentioned above. They're also a great deal - £15 for 12.