tkfury

I need to stop planning little projects and get to finishing the tanks I have! Ah well, I need something to do while the two finish cycling ^^;

I've been thinking of what my realistic "dream" tank would be and I've come up with a rough idea of how I would like to go about decorating it and such but I'm a little stuck on the stocking list. Ideally I'd like to go for a 90g+ (mostly depending on how much room there is and how long I can take saving up month after month for a few years).

So far I'm thinking a pair of angels, 8-10 cherry barbs, 8-10 harlequin rasboras, 6-8 otocinclus, 6-8 dwarf loaches and 6-8 cories (probably some small snails and shrimp as well but they're more along the lines of what the loaches and angels would call food). That is given that they will get along - I believe I've read that if angels are raised with smaller fish they wont mess with them when they are fully grown?

If someone just gave you a 90g-120g tank, planted, eco-complete/black sand substrate, wood and rock caves with the fish listed above - how would you finish stocking it (increase schools, new fish, remove, etc)?

BoSox Fan7

How about a school of Zebra Danios?

Kevin

i'd go with
a pair of red angels
a pair of zebra lace angels
7 angelicus botia
4 zebra plecos
14 galaxy rasboras
5 bosemani rainbows
14 true rummynose tetras

might be overstocked...but i could always do this in a 110 gal.

oh, and it would have around 3.5w per gallon and be co2 injected so i could have a really nice planted tank

Isabella

Your stocking plan is very similar to mine I have a 75 gallon tank that, at the end of stocking, will have a total of: 2 Angels, 10 Harlequin Rasboras, 8 Zebra Danios, 6-7 CHerry Barbs, 3 Rams, and 4-6 Otos.

As for a 90 gallon tank, your plan is perfectly fine, both in terms of fish compatibility and fish numbers. I can see you did your homework well .

My Angels were raised with smaller fish, so they don't bother any of my small fish. If you do the same, your Angels should be OK with smaller fish.

In a 90 gallon tank, you can have schools of small fish like Harlequins in groups of 10's and more. A schooling/shoaling species looks best in a large number. They also feel safer in larger numbers. In fact, a large group of small schooling fish looks stunningly beautiful .

You said you're thinking of: 8-10 cherry barbs, 8-10 harlequin rasboras, 6-8 otocinclus, 6-8 dwarf loaches and 6-8 cories. That's about 60" - 77" of fish (if you count by the rule of "1" of fish per 1 gallon of water" - though this is only a general rule; the body mass must be taken into account as well). Anyway, even with 77" of fish, you're OK in a 90 gallon tank. When you stock, leave some free extra space (i.e. do not stock to the full 90") because gravel and decor/plants take up a lot of space too.

tkfury

I'm hoping when I get to start on this tank that I'll still have all my current little fishies but I may end up leaving them with my parents when I move if they want them. I always have to stop by the tank with what petsmart calls fancy zebra danios?, very beautiful and elegant in my mind.

There are those rainbows again. I was looking into the dwarf neons before those are the only ones I can find any infomation on. I take it the bosemani get along with both smaller and larger fish?

I thought the plan looked familiar somewhere. I love how the harlequin rasboras look, the lfs guy has about 20 of them on display (along with about 3 other fw and 2 large sw tanks) and they really just brighten up the room somehow. I see a lot of talk about rams but I've never seen any at the fish stores or found much online about them

I was orginally thinking of just schools of six but in a tank that large it seems they might get "lost". I seem to enjoy watching the smaller schooling-type fish more so I'm really hoping I end up with a tank large enough for another grouping (thinking of rummy nose tetras, serpae tetras, the fancy zebra danios or maybe some of the medium-small size rainbows - they are a schooling fish as well, correct?)

I think I'm over-estimating fish sizes again - not a bad thing but I thought what I had was really going to be pushing it!

jsalemi

Rams are a species of American Cichlids, native to Central and South America (though most found in aquariums are now raised in Asia). There's a couple of types on this page, with lots of info about them.

tkfury

Reading up on the Rainbows and Rams, I just want to go for a 180g+ tank now! Plenty of room to house all my "dream" fish as well as my current (yet equally dreamy ) fishies all in one tank. I'm really wishing I had waited until I had plenty of money saved up for a nice big tank but I probably wouldn't be enjoying the hobby as much as I am now if I had waited. I wonder if I know anyone I can talk into buying me my own auqarium, the one in Baltimore is very nice

I've ordered from DFS a few times and I have to say I'm very pleased with everything I've gotten and the delivery times but how is their LiveAquaria? I have no idea what I'll beable to find after I move, might not even be any pet stores in the area for all I know.

jsalemi

Haven't ordered fish from LiveAquaria.com, but I ordered plants from there, and they shipped them quickly, packed them very well, and the plants were in great shape.

tkfury

I'm happy to hear about the plants, I can't find any place that sells decent plants in my area right now so I'm expecting to have to order online when I move.

Kevin

ive heard they are really good with their fish...i have never heard anybody speak badly about them

tkfury

Great - I've been trying to make a list of sites to look into for fish and plants just incase but I feel better about using a site that a good number of people here like.

Kevin

www.aquariumlivestock.com is also really nice...great plants too