My First Tank - 64L Planted

The tank looks lovely.


But you do have a problem with your stocking I'm afraid. I'll run through your fish list so you can see what I mean.


Platies - fine if you have hard water. With 3, you should have all males or all females or 1 male 2 females.
Zebra danio - these are shoaling fish so you need at least 6 of them
Neon tetras - fine if you have soft water
Male betta - bettas are not community fish and should be kept alone in something like a 25 litre tank
Albino cory - shoaling fish which needs to be in a group of at least 6.
Yellow plec - if it is a bristlenose, fine. If not it will get too big for your tank
Cherry shrimps - fine

Yoyo loach - shoaling fish that needs to be in a group of at leats 6 in a bigger tank at least 120 cm long
Rainbow shark - needs a tank at least 120 cm long, and has a reputation for being nasty.



The real problems are
The fish you didn't plan on - both of them
The shoaling fish that you only have 1 of - cory and danio
The betta, which shouldn't be kept in a community tank.


But if you have soft water, neons, danios, cories and the plec are fine.
If you have hard water, the platies, maybe the danios and plec depending on just how hard


I'm sorry to have to say all this 


A little job for you. Look on your water company's website for hardness. If you can find it, look for a number rather than some words - and the unit of measurement as UK water companies often use different units from fish keeping so we need to convert it. (If you can't find it, tell us the name of the water company and we'll see what we can find)
Once we know how hard your water is, we'll be able to talk about what's the best for your fish.




One last thing. Something we have all learned that hard way is not to trust anything a shop worker tells you. So many of them haven't a clue or don't care and will make up anything to get a sale. You have mentioned Pets@Home, and they have just about the worst reputation for rubbish advice.

A warm welcome to the forum, @Catal1N 

Your tank is really lovely. 

The only additions to the advice already given are that:
* platies are livebearers so, if you have a female that happens to have been in the presence of a male at any stage, they'll almost certainly produce fry (sometimes around 40 per batch) - and this can continue every month for 6 months even if no further presence of a male during that time;
* zebra danios need a tank of 90x30cm footprint - source Seriously Fish which is reputable like our Fish Profiles on this site but is more up-to-date in terms of recommendations.

I hope the advice/recommendations by us collectively aren't too disheartening. Have a think about them and we can help with pragmatic options or suggestions going forwards.

Incidentally, your neon tetras are actually cardinal tetras - the way to tell the difference is that the red stripe and the blue stripe on cardinals are the full length of the body, whereas the red stripe on the neons only start midway down the body and go to the tail. 

 

About the water hardness; I'm doing Tetra strips tests. By hardy water you mean water's total hardness *dH ? If yes, the strip tests say it's 9*dH (ranging 4*dH and 16*dH). Does this answers the water hardness question? Or do I have to look for the water company?

In my experience, test strips are really unreliable for hardness (and PH) but ok for nitrates, nitrite and chlorine. Check your water company's website, input your postcode, and there ought to be info for CaCO3 and German degress hardness.

And where will I give them? Sell them on FB market?

www.aquarist-classifieds.co.uk is a good option - the best by far, as it maximises the chance of them going to a good home.

Getting another tank is not an option I'm afraid, at least for the foreseeable future.
I tend to get attached to any sort of animals.

I empathise wholeheartedly - me too!

I've checked the water. It's provided by Yorkshire Water.

After I've put the post code I got this:

Water hardness type:
Hard
Water hardness average:
100.4mg/l calcium

Water hardness conversion:
100.4 mg/l as calcium = 17.57 English (Clarke) degrees
100.4 mg/l as calcium = 251 mg/l as calcium carbonate
100.4 mg/l as calcium = 14.056 German degrees

I've kept v. platies previously. The males are usually smaller than the female, but the more obvious way to tell is the shape of the anal fin - pointed on a male and curved on a female. If you google it you'll find plenty of images that show the difference, and you will probably be able to work it out. Or you could take some pictures and post them here and we'll try to identify them for you.
The males can also be quite persistent/aggressive in the presence of a female.

Should I get them more hiding spots? Those pipe caves?
Do I have too many fish? Too many plants?

I think your tank looks great. You don't have too many plants - that looks perfect.
I don't think there's any need for pipe caves for the fish you have. Sometimes I find that a cave can encourage timid/weak fish to hide in them and they go into decline, rather than being out with their tankmates. However, if you did decide to get any of these or any other decor to hide in, then I'd bear in mind what size your fish grow to and make sure that there's no possibility of any fish getting stuck in there as they grow - I type from experience!

Thank for the replies, much appreciated.

Sorry I couldn't reply faster.. Being an "essential worker" and doing 60 hours a week for the past six months started to take a toll on me.

I managed to re-home the Shark (I've caught the shark on few occasions chasing and nip fining the betta; I can see some of his fins are missing). Arranged with a local pet shop (pets@home won't take them back) to take the Yoyo Loach, the Danio and the Cory.

After these departures I will be left with 6x Cardinal tetras, 1x betta, 3x platies and 1x Pleco. Would this be okay? Would adding 3-4 guppies be okay? I have a friend that has fry and he said I can have some if I want. If not guppies, what species would it be okay to add?

@Matt  - Yes, I do have the carbon pad, algae pad and the biomedia. I do clean them about two times per week and change them roughly once per month (could be 3 weeks, could be 6 weeks). I would use the advice if you are kind enough. Cheers for that!

Have a good day everyone! Pretty hot today! 

My advice is simple - and echos what fcmf has said the carbon pad is not a useful addition to a tank in the long term, the algawatpad ineffective and quickly degrades. I took the whole lot out and replaced it with a simple block of filter foam. This would have to be done gradually if course - I took out the carbon and algaway pad, introduced half the sponge, waited 2 weeks, then went for full sponge. One single block of sponge is all you need and much easier to clean. Cleaning should be done in old tank water or decholrinated tap water - again so as to no kill off any beneficial bacteria.

Hope that helps!