New Tank Setup

Hi guys, looking for your opinion on the future inhabitants of my 180l planted tank. Sand and gravel based.
I'm thinking lemon tetra, white tetra. 6/8 of each.
Either a dwarf or pearl gourami.
And lots of corys. Definitely pandas and possibly julii of agassazis. 6 of each ??
What do u think
It will have assassin snails and possibly shrimp too.
I've got the glowlight danios already. I know now that my water isn't perfect for them but they are doing great so would like to add them too.
I think I will be nowhere near heavily stocked based on what I've read.
Tank running at 7.8 ph and other water parameters look great for all but the danios.
Any input greatly appreciated. Tracy x

Hi Traceymeg,

I had started to reply but see that Sue has done while I've been typing, so I'll amend it slightly.

Re the tetras, I'd go for 8+ of each/any you go for - the behaviour of shoaling fish like these gets more impressive, the bigger the shoal, as well as being more natural. Just be careful to check on Thinkfish's fish profiles/Seriouslyfish that they aren't fin-nippers - some are and might make a beeline for gouramis.

Your suggestions for cories sounds good - on the basis of experience with pygmy cories, I came to the conclusion (which I see the LFS chain of stores now recommends on its website) that they might feel less intimidated/happier if of equal or larger size than their tankmates and kept in good-sized numbers, so, again, I'd err on the 8+ of each. Cories usually are better with sand than gravel, to avoid damage to their barbels, but I see that Seriouslyfish mentions the type of gravel that might be suitable, at least for julii and agassazis.

Hope that helps.

If you look at my signature you will see I have shoals of pencilfish (12) and cherry barbs (13). My centrepiece fish are a trio of apistogrammas, and the bottom dwellers are 3 dwarf chain loaches (I did buy more but have lost some in the 8 years since I got them), and 3 or 4 otocinclus (bought 4 but I can only see 3 at any one time). This is a similar arrangement to what you suggest.


I should add that the other fish are the last remnants of old shoals - 1 green neon tetra, 2 ember tetras and 5 Microdevario.


Ooooh nearly forgot! There are 2 stiphodons in there too. I don't know which species though 









[Eagle eyed members might notice that there are now no emperor tetras. They dove me nuts. They were like locusts, eating everything in sight, and they had the other fish cowering in the corners. I took them to the shop where I bought them and they gave me credit towards the pencilfish]

Sorry, I should have been clearer 

What I meant was 2 shoals, a centre piece species and bottom dwellers - what you were suggesting with the lemon tetras, glowlight danios, pearl gouramis and cories - is the same style of stocking as I have.
I like having a dozen each of 2 species rather than half a dozen each of 4. But other people prefer half dozen each of 4 species.