Introduce Yourself!

As well as fish I have 5 children,3 cats and a labrador. We own a race track and I run drift events based in the northeast.

Hi Jen. I take it you like the quiet life then?? 

  yes that's me loving peace and tranquility, mind you never a dull moment.

The tank was a complete impulse buy we had just bought a juwel 180 long type tank new a few weeks before  but were offered this one for £100 so as I'd always wanted one so we got it that night. never had to replace the lights so no idea how bad that'll be when they blow, got me worried now as everything else on the tank has blown up or just stopped working this year.

I live durham side of darlington and we work in southbank.

In that case you are not far from Chilton Aquatics or even Paddock Farm (though that's not what it used to be since it changed hands). Nice choice of dwarf cichlids at Chilton.

Hi there
I decided earlier this year to get a tank, at first I was going for cold water fish but since have changed mind and going for tropicals, have no fish yet..am beginning to cycle my tank. I have some plants in, and waiting pateintly for woods to become waterlogged...seems Im in for a lengthy wait by all accounts
Cannot decide what to get in tank, probably 4 0r 5 neon tetras which I love, a few bigger fish and would like a shrimp and a snail...my tank is only 54 litres so hoping this isnt too many fish!  I live in Belfast, with my 3 dogs, other hobbies inc dolls houses and cross stitching, interests inc greyhounds and reading and now fish!

Ill find out, but when talking about it other day I was told its about half way between soft and hard...Ill call the waterboard tomorrow and see

Hi, welcome to the forum 


It can take a while for wood to become waterlogged, but hopefully it will be by the time the cycle finishes.

54 litres can hold a reasonable number of small fish - I have one around 50 litres. Provided the tank is rectangular rather than cubic, you could have 6 plus neons (they do better with at least six). But it does depend on your water hardness. Do you know if you have soft or hard water? Your water supplier's website should give that info somewhere, though a good indicator is whether or not your kettle/shower head get furred up. Neons prefer soft water. If you find you have hard water you'd be better having fish that prefer it hard - it is easier to get fish to suit your water rather than try to alter the water to suit a particular fish.

I'll wait till I know your hardness before suggesting larger fish 

I found out, soft to moderately soft water on a 1-5 scale, its 1.5

I found out, soft to moderately soft water on a 1-5 scale, its 1.5

In that case, neons are fine. If it had been 4 or 5 on that scale, they wouldn't have been suitable. Or any other small shoaling fish from the Amazon.

For bigger fish, you can't go really big in 54 litres, maybe up to 2 or 2.5 inches, but a fish that would do well on its own or in pairs. How about a pair of honey gouramis? The photo on here is the wild coloured form, most shops don't sell that particular colour. But they do sell the yellow or red forms. Or perhaps dwarf gourami, though they are prone to an incurable disease 
If your tank is 60cm long, apistogramma agassizzi would be suitable, a male/female pair. This is one of the hardier, more easy to find apistos.

Or perhaps a bigger shoal of neons and a shoal of one of the dwarf species of corydoras - that's C pygmaeus (pygmy cory), C habrosus (salt and pepper cory, not to be confused with the larger peppered cory) and C hastasus (don't know if that one has a common name). With cories you need sand or smooth gravel on the bottom of the tank.


Shrimps would also be fine, but a group of them. They don't add much to the bioload. Cherry shrimps are the hardiest of the small shrimps, and if you had just neons and dwarf cories they would breed. Bigger fish would eat the babies. Snail - I like nerite snails, they are good algae eaters. They are becoming more common in shops, but they also travel well by post if you need to use mail order.
If you do get shrimps, make sure you have hiding places for when they moult. Until their new skin hardens, they are very vulnerable to being eaten. Plants, dense ones being better, or ornaments with shrimp sized crevices are good hiding places.


Some ideas for you 



My '54' litre tank (it doesn't actually hold that much water!) has Sundadanios, pygmy cories, cherry shrimp and nerite snails, the orange-red with black markings variety.

do the snails multiply quickly?

I mean the big ones like the apple snail, not the little ones that come in plants, I have already found a few of those since planting last week

yes was told that at aquatic store that apple snails can no longer be sold, will be up there later so can ask which one would be suitable