platy ben

hi i have a 15G tank and was wondering what to stock it with, any suggestions?

Alessa

well... your profile says that you dont know about the nitrogen cycle, and before thinking of stocking you need to know about it otherwise your fish will die:

take a look at this it is REALLY very important... http://www.fishlore.com/NitrogenCycle.htm

reply back once you have read it and understood it and we will be more than glad to help you stock

Welcome to Fishlore!!!

platy ben

read it

Alessa

ok, now the question is do you plan to cycle it with fish?

If you do I would recommend getting "Tetra Safe Start" with that thing you can fully stock your tank inmmediately without worrying about spikes.

If you dont get the safe start you are either: going to have to do daily 50% water changes until it cycles or do a fishless cycle as recommended in the article.

Now, about stocking...

5 neon tetras and 2 guppies
or
4 platies and 2 Otos
or
5 guppies and 2 otos

you can always add ghost shrimp as they add almost nothing to the bioload!

platy ben

ive heard of this thing thats like 1 inch of fish to every gallon, something like that anyway, do you know anything about it?

probably a tetra safe start.

Alessa

yes... it is one inch for every gallon... although this is not always true. I posted the previous fish listing because most of these fish are about 2 inches each. following this rule you could add about 7, 2 inch fish. You need to also take into considearation the fact that some (most) fish need to be in schools.

you also need to get a test kit to monitor your water parameters. You can find the safe start almost everywhere online, and I believe walmart and most LFS' carry it too.

platy ben

ive been reading through websites and books i have and i waswondering if i would possibly be able to have,
a well planted tank
5 cardinals
2 otos, does this sound ok?

Alessa

yes, that sounds good. Although a warning, both cardinals and otos are very sensitive to water conditions and will not survive a cycle.

sou you either have to cycle fishless or get Tetra Safe Start.

platy ben

i'll cycle fishless then

Alessa

Good, Congrats on the choice! You will have to get the test kit and pure ammonia to start. Here is a good link to a thread in how to do it.
http://www.fishlore.com/fishforum/aq...less-tank.html

platy ben

oh dear, my grandad gave me the tank and he didnt realise it had a leak, luckily i hadnt filled it up yet but wen i put a little bit of water in it came out so heres what i did, ive ordered a 31.5G (125L) tank.

stocking suggestions for this?

Alessa

OMG...

you have way more options with this one:

5 cardinals
4 otos
5 guppies

or 5 cardinals
3 platies
2 otos
3 guppies
1 mystery snail
4 ghost shrimp

r u gonna do the fishless cycle or are you going to try the tetra safe start?

angelfish220

You could go with your original plan, but more like 15 cardinals and 5 ottos. you could take away some of the cardinals and add a pearl gourami for a "center peice" like 10 cardinals 5 ottos and 1 pearl gourami.

Or since you have more room, do you want to change your style? If so what do you like? A graceful peaceful tank I'd stay with the original plan. for a lively playful tank, how about a school of 6 tiger barbs and 5 cory cats? Or you could go for a colony tank of like 4 trios of guppies and about 10 cherry shrimp? Or if you like the weird and bizare you could get a butterfly fish for the top and an elephant nose for the bottom.

platy ben

i wouldl ike to stick to the original plan of cardinals, and a well planted tank.
i quite like the idea of having the cardinals and then maybe panda corys for the bottom?

then any good suggestions for the top?

im going to stick with the fishless cycle still.

angelfish220

Cories dont do good in planted tanks. they like to dig in the soil.

that was the reason for the gourami they hang in the top 1/3 of the tank.

platy ben

oh, fair enough then, looks like some otos will do

would a pair of blue rams be ok?

this iswhat i would like to have,

10 cardinals
2-3 otos
1-2 gouramis (dont know what species but definitly a small species)
2 blue rams

is this over stocking? or should this be ok?

angelfish220

I would say about 8 cardinals, 5 ottos (these fish school as well) 1 gourami (2 would fight, their territorial) and a breeding pair of blue rams. that would be good.

maxijazz

Yes it is overstocking, better off with three oscars... only joking. A tank of 6-7 tiger bards would be nice and theyre vey active fish. A shoal of neon tetras also looks good if a sandy base and planted tank. good luck

platy ben

not to keen on tiger barbs or neons im afraid maxijazz, but angelfish, thanks for your help and i will get exactly 8 cardinals 5 ottos 1 gourami and some rams .


Do you know any plants that look nice but require low maintenance, i am a new to keeping liveplants, ive only ever had one amazon sword.

angelfish220

What kind of lighting do you have over your tank?

Alessa

careful with gouramis. they are awesome fish but right now are suffering of a horrible virus that kills them in 48 hrs after the onset of symptoms. I lost my 2 dwarf gouramis in a matter of 2 months.
here is the link to the thread: Dwarf Guorami, Bettas and Iridovirus

platy ben

my lightings bright, i would say its kinda like flurescent pink-purple.

Blub

That would be overstocking! You would have about 32" of fish in that. That is twice as much as would be comfortable according the the " per gal guieline... It's only a guideline but if you have around 2" of fish per gallon you are in trouble, especially when talking about sensitive species like Cardinals, Otos and (Very delicate!) Blue rams. Please understand that in a small tank like 15gallons you can only have a small amount of fish. 8 cardinals would stock this tank to the brim. 3 Oscars would be exaggerating, but it proves a point as to how badly overstocked that would be.

I would suggest forgetting about Rams. They are very delicate, and the FL profile says 20gal for 1 pair. Of course, we all know that in small tanks parameters change quickly if something is a miss, meaning delicate fish are bad candidates. Neons would be a better choice than Cardinals - and 6 neons would give you space for 3 Otos/Honey gouramis as well. Remember, you could always add some shrimp (As long as you don't get gouramis, because Shrimp make a nice gourami meal!), like a small colony of Red cherrys to add variety!

Plants. In order to find out which ones you can grow, you need to find out the number of watts your light has. Find that out for us, and we can tell you some good plants for you.

platy ben

its not a 15G any more hatchet, the 15G has a leak so ive got a 31.5G now.

my light is 30 or 40 watt, depending on which one is best,

Blub

In that case, your good.

Well, in 30-40W, you will have about 1 watt per gallon. This means you can only grow basic plants. Good plants for you would be:
Cryptocoryne, Hygrophila, Hornwort, Anubias, Africa fern, Java fern and Java moss. The last 4 species mentioned need to be tied down to rock or wood, but Anubias can be planted in the substrate as long as the rhizome is above the substrate.

www.Tropica.com and www.PlantGeek.com are good places to look up plants.

angelfish220

Watersprite is great as well, as is waterlettuce. Both float at the top of your aquarium, you can also plant watersprite.

platy ben

i saw some jave ferns on wood in my LFS today so i know i can get them

Blub

Hygrophila should be easy to find, and so should crypts.