Tropical Fish Forum
Tropical Fish Keeping Help and Advice => New Fishkeepers => Topic started by: BobbyB on November 26, 2017, 02:02:25 PM
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Hi again, so I'm now 'mid-fishless cycling' (thanks for the tips on which aquarium to buy - I've gone with the 80l Eheim) and am thinking about fish. I'm planning a mixed tank of guppies, neon terra and potentially platies, and a couple of questions spring to mind...
- I'm planning to buy all males (to avoid over crowding), is that sensible?
- Can I introduce all the fish at once (once the fishless cycle has completed) or should I do it over a few weeks, in if so, how long should I leave between adding fish
- there appear to be different types of male guppies, but they all appear just to be named 'guppies'. Do I need to get all the same type for the shoal, or can you get a mixed shoal.
Thanks
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Glad that previous advice has been helpful for your fishless cycling.
Your proposed fish are a mix of hard water (guppies, platies) and soft water (neon tetra). Looking back at your previous posts, your have water hardness of 14 German degrees / dH which Sue has helpfully converted to 242 ppm. Unfortunately, according to the Seriously Fish profiles, this would be too hard for neon tetras which require a hardness range of 18-215 ppm. However, the guppies and platies should be fine - guppies require 143-536 ppm and platies 10-30 dH.
An alternative to the neon tetras would be x-ray tetras which can tolerate a wider hardness range - 2-20 dH. If these aren't of interest, then there are still plenty of other fish options but that's the first which springs to mind.
Once a fishless cycle is complete, it should be fine to add all your proposed fish at once.
As for your other guppy-related questions, you might find this http://www.seriouslyfish.com/species/poecilia-reticulata/ helpful as a starter-for-ten, if you haven't seen it already.
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To add to what has already been said:
It's just the live bearers you need all males for.
You can certainly mix the different colours of male guppies and platie.
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All colour forms and patterns of guppy are the same species. Like chihuahuas, labradors and great danes are all the same species.
You may see fish described as endler guppies - these are hybrids of endlers and guppies. Most, if not all, of the fish sold as endlers in shops are really hybrids.
Here are a couple of links to give to some ideas
http://wetwebmedia.com/fwsubwebindex/fwhardness.htm
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/FWSubWebIndex/HardWatrCommTkStkMonks.htm
Check out the actual hardness requirements of fish on Seriously Fish http://www.seriouslyfish.com/knowledge-base/