New Tank Suggestions.

Before we can make any suggestions, it would help if you gave us some more information please.

What is the length of the tank (because some fish prefer a lot of swimming room so don't like narrow, tall tanks)

What is the hardness of your tap water? The value should be somewhere on your water company's website. Make a note of the unit as well as the number as there are several (like miles and kilometres for distance)

Would you prefer lots of small fish or a few bigger ones?


Once we know the answers, we'll be able to suggest fish for you.

Don't worry, we were all new once 

50cm is on the tall, narrow side for 65 litres, so you need to avoid fast swimming fish.

There are two units commonly used on fish keeping websites; your 110mg/l calcium converts to 275ppm and 15.6 German degrees. Some sites use one unit, some the other, and some use both.
Hard water makes it slightly trickier than soft water would have done as it excludes all those Amazonian fish. Unfortunately, guppies suit your water and tank perfectly, but I quite understand that you want something else for this tank.

Here are a few suggestions, though I don't know how availble they are in your area or how much they'll cost.

Celestial pearl danio (galaxy rasbora) Celestichthys margaritatus
Emerald green rasbora, Celestichthys erythromicron
Forktail blue eye, Pseudomugil furcatus
If you could find them, one of the smaller, rarer livebearers such as tiger teddies Neoheterandria elegans or the least killifish Heterandria formosa


If you wanted a challenge, you could try shell dwellers such as Lamprologus ocellatus

I can highly recommend the Pseudomugil species. I keep a shoal of 7 Red neons (also known as Paskai or Iriani). They vary widely in cost from £3.50 to £6.50 each. They'll probably look pretty drab in your LFS and often they have been seriously fin nipped. However, get them home and give them a couple of weeks and they will be a vibrant orange with bright blue eyes and a blue neon stripe down their back. They are amazing fish and you will never tire of their displays.

I would never pay £3.50 for a fish that small, let alone £6.50, especially when they have a relatively short lifespan. I was fortunate enough to find 5 poor souls in with some barbs at my LFS. They would happily compete with the barbs for food, but their fins were badly nipped. I managed to negotiate all 5 for a tenner. I then found another 4 at another LFS and got them for £3 each. Unfortunately one found the gap in my hood (they're good jumpers - I have had to drop the level in my tank) and another passed during a water change (possible stress).

I adore my red neons, and would definitely recommend them. Others such as the Furcatus, Gertrude and Signifier aren't LFS staples, but are quite often on offer. They also mix well (supposedly) with Peacock Gudgeons/Gobies which are larger, highly colourful fish. I'm toying with getting a couple of these myself!

I'll be honest, if they're aren't labelled you'd probably skip passed them. Tiny little chaps that look a little like lampeyes, that's until you get them home!

If Richard says most tetras would be OK, I'll go with what he says. Just avoid those that need soft water and go for those that prefer it but don't need it.
And stick to smaller species since your tank is just 50cm long. Bigger fish will be stressed by the lack of swimming room and could behave aggressively.

I think a shoal of 5-6 lemon tetras and maybe a small shoal of CPD's would look nice.

Are there any algae eaters that would be suitable for my tank.

thanks, aiden

Nerite snails sound perfect, and I am toying with the idea of keeping shrimp in my 17 litre when my guppy fry are 6 weeks old.

could I have Malaysian Trumpet Snails as the tank has sand. i heard they were good for that.

Thanks again, aiden

Ok I think I know what I'm going to do.

1)Fishless cycle
2)after fishless cycle, add guppies from 30 litre
3)1 week later add 5 lemon tetras
4)1 week after add 5 CPD's
5)add 2 MTS's and 4 nerite snails

Would this work?

I would go with Extreme_One's second option.

Putting the lemon tetras and cpds in the 65 litre as soon as it is cycled will quarantine them in there - and make enough ammonia to feed the newly grown bacteria. After the quarantine period of two weeks it will then be safe to move over the guppies, and adding them to a tank with 10 fish already in there shouldn't stress the filter too much.

Then get your shrimps for the 30 litre.

With 65 litres, I would get 2 of the larger nerites or 4 of the smaller ones, or 1 large, 2 small. Zebra nerites are the biggest, followed by the red ones with black markings. The grey/brown ones with horns and the black and yellow striped ones are small.


Re the fishless cycle, if you steal a bit of media from the 30 litre tank, the cycle will go much faster. It doesn't matter what you take, just cram it in the 65 litre's filter somehow.