gmann21193

How many neon tetras could fit in a 150 gallon tank with a foot long pleco? I was interested in planning to start a large tank with a large school of neons. Would a Large group of neons (60+??) be hard to care for in a well planted 150 gallon aquarium? Would the school be hard to feed?

hamstermann

going with the rule of 1 inch of fish per gallon and assuming that your pleco is done growing, you could have up to 138 inches of other fish. figuring that neon tetras only get to 1.5 inches at adulthood, you could have up to 92 neon tetras in that tank and be okay with a suitable filter. Bear in mind, though, that it's only a rule of thumb. you 12 inch pleco, for instance, would not be at all happy or healthy in a 12 gallon tank.

bbfeckawitts

Don't think it would be too hard... but it surely would be hard to count them!
That would be very cool to do though. 60 neons is 90 inches of fish... plus a pleco which requires about 2 gallons per inch BECAUSE they are HUGE waste producers.... so that would be about 114" of fish. Maybe a few bottom feeders (corys) to top it off? Would be a very AWESOME tank, would love to see pics of this huge neon school

gmann21193

Well maybe instead of a pleco, I could get a large group of corys or some otos. A well planted tank with a huge neon school and a school of corys.... that would be cool..... is there a pleco that isnt as messy of a fish? Or maybe a large algae eater/ clean-up'er that doesnt poop a lot. Or maybe ill just get a large population of Ramshorn snails goin....

bbfeckawitts

Hi,
Yes there are other options of plecos that would be great for your tank. The first one is one that I can personally recommend, a Rubber Lip pleco. They get only 5" and are great algae eaters, very cool looking too.

The second is a Bristlenose pleco. They also get 5" max, and I know Tan.b has one and loves hers, it does a great job on the algae. The males are easily distinguished from the females because the males get a lot of "bristles" coming out from their mouth area, whereas the females get little to no bristles.

A school of cories, a huge school of neone, and one of the above algae eaters would be a great tank. You could also get some shrimp! Love those little guys!
Brianna

COBettaCouple

I love the schooling behavior of a school of corys or otos. They're busy little fish and fun to watch as the clean and play.

griffin

that sounds like a cool tank you're going to have! i'd suggest a few otos as algae eaters for your tank, especially if you're going planted

gmann21193

yes the tank will be heavily planted.... but since it is such a huge tank, maybe the tank would look cool only 2 thirds heavily planted with an area for open swimming.... or something like that.... anyways if i get a school of say.... 75 neons, then i could get a school of 15 corys or maybe 8 corys and a few otos. or maybe 6 corys, a few otos, and a smaller pleco. yea that sounds cool.

mojoman101

This idea sounds great and i envy your tank. good luck and please post pics i am waiting impatiently.
mojo

Butterfly

A large school of neons in a heavily planted tank would be awesome. As was mentioned a school of Corys, a couple of bristlenose or a large group (6-8) otos would also be great.
Carol

gmann21193

well I wont have the tank for awile... so it might take some time.

Tom

IMO, you would probably have better luck with black neons and they still look as cool as the regular. But, if you get the neons when they are not super small, yo should be fine.
Tom

gmann21193

why cant I get them when they are small?

vin

What could also be very cool is several schools of different tetra varieties....They'll generally school together and there would be an entire variety of colors....Neons, glowlights, bloodfins, rummy noses, brass, black, white cloud, bleeding heart....That would be really neat!!

COBettaCouple

That does sound like a great idea.. i love the idea of a large tank with schools of various types of fish in a family.. tetras, cichlids, livebearers or clowns (SW).

mojoman101

Its great one of us gets a new tank and all of us get excited. This whole site is infected and spreading MTS. BEWARE.
M :P J :P

gmann21193

haha yeaa

Tom

If they are too small they have an even greater risk of dieing. They are also able to be harmed by the water parameters compared to larger ones. I have this happen to me so many times, I just gave up and went with black neons. I hope you have better luck then me though.
Tom