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FOAK tropical fish
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I know there's folk about with an interest in keeping fish, so I
thought I'd ask for ideas about stocking a small (24x18x12) tank with
tropical fish.
I'm thinking maybe half a dozen (at most) neon tetras, couple of
danios, couple of guppies, maybe a fighting fish or one of those
red-tailed black shark things (this is the OH's preference but I was
speaking to someone who has one and it has decided to prey on his
other fish, so perhaps not a good idea), something like that.
Anyone got ideas on a good number of fish to have? I've never set up a
tank before and I'm a bit hazy on how many fish a tank of that size
should have, also on which ones would make a nice community in a
titchy space but would survive the care of a pair of amateur
fishkeepers.
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I've remembered what it was now...we bought 6 Albino Tiger Barbs. 5 of
them were what we had bought, one of the turned out to be an Orange
Chromide. It was big. And it was hungry. So we ended out putting it
in a tank all on it's own. The only other fish we had in with him was
Fergal (Fergal Sharky) to keep the tank clean.
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The simple rule of thumb is 1" of fish for every gallon of water but,
once the tank is established, you can stretch that so long as you're
fastidious with water changes.
Siamese fighters are fine so long as you have a maximum of one male,
they're not particularly aggresive to other species.
Your tank isn't that big but look at buying fish that live at different
levels in the tank so that there is activity all around.
Consider buying two small heaters rather than one big one. That way if
one fails your fish take longer to freeze or boil and you have more
chance of spotting it before it's too late. It's less of a problem with
modern heaters but it still happens.
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Guppies and Siamese Fighting Fish don't mix very well. Siamese Fighters are
very cool, though. Your tetras might start nipping at its fins - depends.
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A black shark, yes. A red-tailed black shark is a completely different
fish and tops out around 5" long.
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Sorry, I was being a bit shorthand there. Indeed, they are not as large
but a 5" fish in a 2ft tank is going to look out of place with tetras
and such like.
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Only until it's the only fish left in the tank.
(cf. a peckish 5" goldfish and 21 white cloud minnows.)
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I have a red tailed black shark and he's fine - he chases everything else
around the tank once in a while but rarely bites (they have silly teeth in
any case)
I'd go for the red tailed black shark, a shoal of neon or cardinal tetras and
then some danios to mope around the top of the tank. A little corydoras
catfish will help clean up any excess food at the bottom of the tank, too.
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1 x red-tailed black shark (they hate company), check
9 x neon tetra, check
2 x peppered cory (they need company), check.
You been looking at my tank?
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That's a pretty big tank !
so a 2' by 1' square surface area will take at most a couple of neons ?
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