triaddad

After much looking and wishing, I finally broke down and bought my first aquarium!!! Now, I need to decide on some inhabitants. Being a beginner, I was thinking some platys, swordtails, and maybe a few dwarf gouramis. Do any of you more experienced fishkeepers see any problems with this combination? I still have to cycle the tank, and I need to be aware of the 1"/gal ratio, as a general rule.
I would also like to have live plants. Any suggestions?

Kevin

well i'm not experienced, but i started out with a couple of Paradise fish, they are very hardy and really cool fish, and if you wanted to add some swordtails later, they should get along quite nicely, and live plants are always good! i've heard java moss and some of the sword plants are good

did u see my message to u on your other topic?

Howeyg

live plants are must have for cycling, i think any way

i havent stocked my tank yet but i already know that dwarf gouramis get territorial when in breeding pairs so maybe just one male or female ( if your looking for colour male)

as for the platys and swordtails i think theyll be fine they also love planted aquaria

I would recommend some pearl gouramis they are beautiful fish and arent very agressive (or so im told)

Kevin

you will probably want a "cleaning crew" i would suggest small loaches corys or otos
just dont take the leopard cory at aquamains, i'm grabbing that one as soon as my tank is cycled!!!

COBettaCouple

live bearers like platys and swordtails are great fish but you'll want to stock all males unless you plan on having fry. you've definitely got room to have 3-fish schools of a bunch of varieties. you could also put in some tetras if you'd like - they should get along with the livebearers. and like mentioned, you want a cleaning crew of at least 2-3 otos (or loaches or shrimp like amanos or cherrys) and 2-3 corys.

if you go with gourami, tetras wouldn't be good since they'd nip that gourami silly.. and the gourami are territorial so if you get more than 1, just keep an eye on how they interact with the other fish.

livebearers love nibbling at stuff, so we packed our livebearer tank with lots of plants and decorations and the girls keep busy all the time nibbling and looking for food.

Jim

Hey, congrats on the new tank. So happens, my tank is a 46 bowfront. And I have all live plants. Here's a pic:

The fish are:
2 young adult Angelfish (paired)
5 clown loaches
5 glass cats
4 otos
1 bristlenose pleco
1 banjo cat
I know that's a bit over the 1" per gallon rule, but all the fish and plants are thriving.
A tank like this swordtails and platys and such would do great.
Now, 1 thing I have to stress to you, if you decide to go with live plants, read up on them first. There's some great threads on here about plants, especially this one from Isabella:
General Guide to Low-Light Planted Tanks
I'm not kidding, a planted tank like this takes a lot of time and effort, as well as $$$. I know, I've probably made every mistake you can before I picked up a few books and finally got it right.