gonzo127

ok this isn’t urgent just after some advice.

Basically my situation is as follows (if you can’t be bothered reading skip down 3 paragraphs for my question.....)

I brought my first tank about 6-8 months ago nice little 60 liter one and followed the LFS directions about setting it up, leave it a week, bring in some water and if things are good get a couple of fish. great me thinks (ugh you know) ……. anyways after i have got my first 2 fish in, within a couple of days the tank as you can guess goes cloudy and start to get some green algae all over everything, so i instantly jump on the internet and check out some sites find this wonderful one which i read and realize how little i know about fish, so started doing daily water changes went out to buy the master test kit etc and get everything nice and dandy and cycled. Then on with the idea of slowly adding a few more fish at a time always keeping an eye on the water parameters (and of course nothing brought from that fish store again)

Anyways little did I know at the time that my lovely platys where both pregnant when i got them and they where just waiting for some good parameters to lay their fry. by the time i realize this i have already got another platy and a guppie which also turned out to be pregnant.

so here i am with a little 60 liter tank 3 pregnant platys and a pregnant guppie... first batch arrives great 15 fry…keep an eye on them… only lose 4 before the second batch turns up, which is where things start to get hard to keep track of, I believe the second batch was of 10-15 fry as well which once again didn’t lose many of them. Guppie gave birth to another 10-15 fry didn’t lose many of them that I can see then the last platy gives birth with once again 10-15. Now at this point I have roughly 50-60 fish and I am thinking what the heck am I going to do with this amount of fish. So I pop to the other LFS and see if they will take them, yes they will BUT only once they have matured a bit, so I go and buy another little 35 liter tank as I just couldn’t afford anything else and use this to separate the males from the tank as and when I manage to sex them, anyways a few months down he road with having to do daily/every other day water changes and I am now down to only having my original 4 fish and a few resulting fish from other batches of fry that have arrived because I didn’t manage to sex and separate them quick enough, so have got 5 guppies and 15 platys, ok I know still over stocked but I am getting there (and I have not actually had any of them die on me yet).

So for my main question/request for advice

Now the strange thing has happened through all of the effort I have put in…. I have come to love keeping fish more than ever so I have started saving for my next tank and expect that within the next 4-6 months will have saved enough to buy this tank

http://www.seapets.co.uk/product-det...egory/939.html a 450 liter tank if you can’t do the link

however due to my experience above I have realized that I really need to plan this tank a bit better as I can not afford the time it would take to do daily water changes on such a big tank. I want to get rid of either the 35 liter or the 60 liter once this new one is set up and properly fishless cycled (probably the 60 liter as It takes up more space, then just keep the 35 liter one as a quarantine tank) so I plan to move my remaining guppies and platys over to the new tank.

So can people please suggest some other fish which would go nicely with my guppies and platys in the new tank? I am hoping to have quiet a few live plants supplemented with a few other decorations from my current tank,

I am basically after a very colorful and active tank during the day as I have a 4 month old daughter who really likes to watch the fish as it is at the moment and I want to keep her being interested in them. So my initial thoughts moved towards a couple of large groups of tetras however I would also like a few bigger fish in the tank as ‘eye catchers’ but of course I don’t want anything that is likely to eat the others

Personally I really like the look of the red tailed black shark but know this can be an aggressive fish but would it be ok in a tank this size even with the smaller fish or would it more than likely eat the others?

So any and all advice is welcome

Barbrella

So you've caught the MTS bug! That is a beautiful tank!

The thing is, if you have male/female livebearers even in a tank that size, they'll soon fill it up with fry. It's great that your petstore will take them, but if they'll continue to do this endlessly is another question.

A Red Tailed black shark will be fine in a tank this size. Just give him some sort of cave at one end of the tank to defend, and he shouldn't be too troublesome. He won't eat your other fish - they just chase since they are highly territorial. And of course, you can have only one.

You could have a good sized school of the tetras of your choice in this tank.

You could also have something like an angelfish if you want a larger species, or a couple of Dwarf Gouramis which come in many gorgeous colours. Two males should be okay in this big tank, but no guarantees.

For both action and beauty, you might want to try Dwarf Neon Rainbowfish. A school of those is quite stunning.

With the low light that comes with this tank, you need plants like Java Ferns and Anubias. You could attach them to a nice piece of driftwood for a quite lovely effect.

Fishies-for-me

If you put the angels in like Barb says that will help take care of the baby problem as angels love livebearer fry...I have heard of people keeping livebearers in the angel tank just to supply the angels with good quality live food every now and then...lol Tetras are very nice fish imho...I have glowlights and neons right now and have had black skirts and black neons in the past.Brilliant raspboras are also a very pretty fish and I had no probs with them being aggressive at all. Some cory cats for the bottom...coolie loaches are real cool as are weather loaches..both are also bottom fish...plecos are cool. I have only ever had commons but I have learned there are smaller better species like bristlenose plecos...I currently have albino corys and they can be a hoot. Like finny puppies..lol

J J Indy

I agree with Barbrella that the live bearers will continue to breed and that the red tailed black shark would be ok with those fish you already have. You might consider a red finned black shark they look almost identical except that all of their fins are red with the rest of the body being black (also called a rainbow shark) they are a little less agressive than the red tail. I also think that a school (6 +) of neon tetras or small tetras would go nicely. I would do a little research on the different types of tetras because some are well known to be fin nippers which wouldnt be good for the guppies. Other schooling fish that are active are the cory cats they stay small and are very active and like to be in groups as well as they are bottom feeders and will help clean up left over food that falls to the bottom.

P.S. you have been officially been diagnosed with MTS (Multiple Tank Syndrome) i think it happens to everyone good luck with the new tank.

soldieroffortune1974

Let's see a show of hands~ who believes they will be getting rid of the 60 litre,when they acquire the bigger 1?

My remedy for taking care of MTS......GET MORE FISH

gonzo127

hehe MTS yep and my wife is gonna kill me when she realises

well thanks everyone for the quick responses, its a interesting idea about getting the angels in as 'fry control'

just thinking, going on a quick conversion the 450 liter tank is roughly 118 US gallons so that i dont over stock it i am thinking if i just take it as a 100 gallon tank and do the 1 inch per gallon rule i still have a bit more to go working on this set up at the moment going on suggestions

Platy x 5
Guppie x 3
Red tailed black shark x 1
Angel fish x 2
Tetra x 10
Cory Cat x 6

i would still have about 30 inch of fish left (not including the 18 i have taken out for a safty margin) but i am guessing the above would be a nice looking tank with plenty going on but i know i would be itching to get more to fully stock it, or would it be better to work on 1.5 inch per gallon in which case the above would fully stock it,

any other thoughts? and and extra thanks to Barb about the lighting as i would have thought 2 x 54 watt bulbs would have been very light so thanks for the info on the plants

soldieroffortune1974

That's a nice cocktail,for 118 gallons lively,colorful and busy. I would always leave a little room for error,as you have with your safety margin. I would say that would give you a fully stocked aqauarium. (are you really getting rid of the 60 liter aquarium AHEM, really?)

pinkfloydpuffer

I highly recommend the cories, they are so cute! I have 3 false juliis (C. trilineatus) and they are so fun to watch! Good luck with your tank! I personally try to understock, because you never know when you'll see this fish that you've just gotta have, lol.

Barbrella

For the angelfish, if you get only two, you may end up with two males who may be aggressive to each other. The best way to get a compatible pair is to buy around 5 babies and let them grow up until 2 pair off. The extras can be given to a petstore or given away. The angels may eat some fry, but you're still going to have many that live.

I would not put corydoras with a shark. They occupy the same area of the tank, and corys are totally without defenses and don't have any idea about territories. They can't learn to stay away from the shark and are likely to be severely beaten up and harassed.

Agree with JJ Indy that guppies are not the best tankmates with many kinds of tetras and may get their tails nipped.

Your lights are less than 1 watt per gallon. That is considered very low light. The plants I mentioned will probably live, but won't grow much.

Another awesome addition to your tank - when you start getting algae - is a Bristlenose plecostomus.

I think it's as much fun for us to plan your tank as it is for you!

gonzo127

for the light i have seen a set of LED spot lights that are not too expensive, to improve the light would you think a couple of sets of 3 would be a worth while addition? i was also thinking i can use them to light up areas of the tank that might be a bit more shaded, you can also get them in blue and red colours to add a bit of something extra to it.

would it be better with the red finned shark as suggested? to keep the aggression down so i could have them and the Cory's and would it be that hard with the size of the tank, 5 foot long, if it is planet/decorated quiet a bit?

which are the best tetra's for not nipping? i like neons but i think they would be eaten by the angels

Barbrella

The Red finned (or Rainbow shark, although they are actually cyprinids) is the same as all other "sharks", that is, territorial and intolerant of any fish entering their territory. Very young, small sharks may be fine, but the intolerance and aggression increases with age.

It would be, if you could somehow keep the corys out of the shark's territory, but that can't be done.

Sharks will be fine with other semi-aggressive and/or fast and/or mid-to-upper range swimmers. I would never combine them with bottom dwellers, especially ones as helpless and clueless as corys.

For a big tank like yours, one type of larger tetra I would consider is the Bleeding Heart. They're not known for fin-nipping, are very attractive and are very compatible with angelfish. Aside from those, most laterally compressed tetras (Serpaes, Skirts) do tend to nip fins.

I dont' know if LED lights do anything for plants. For detailed and expert discussions on lighting, you really might want to check out

The Planted Tank Forum

IF those people don't know something, it's not worth knowing!

gonzo127

Once again thanks Barb, all this is being really helpful, well it looks very much like the LED's dont usually do much for plants as the spectrum of the light isnt broad enough but every little must help

hm so its looking like Cory's or a Shark and not both, now that is a tough choice as the Sharks are gorgeous in my eyes but the corys are cute and supposidly fun to watch, well at least i have a few months to plan this out otherwise i know i would have ended up making some form of mistake.

i am just so glad i have found this forum