car421

It has been a long time since I had a tank and this year I got a 28 gal. for my son. We currently have 5 neons and 3 fish that I have forgotten the name of. They look like neons but have a black belly and an orange stripe(believe it starts with an R).

My question is what other fish would you recommend for this tank. My son - who is 5 - would like to get a snail, but from what I have been reading here I don't know if that is a good idea. I thought some male guppies might look nice, but would really like some input.
Thanks

sirdarksol

First of all, have you let the tank cycle? http://www.fishlore.com/NitrogenCycle.htm
If not, I would go through that before buying any more fish. As you've already added fish, follow the "with fish" section.
Do the fish in this article
http://www.fishlore.com/profiles_glowlight_tetra.htm
look like what you have? If so, they'd probably do best with two more of their kind as friends.
Presuming this is the case, that puts 10 fish at about 1.5 inches per fish in the tank. That's 15 inches of fish. You'll want to top out at around 28 inches of adult fish (one inch per gallon, which ceases to work when you're dealing with larger fish, but with the kinds of fish you're looking at, it will work fine) In my opinion, a single mystery snail wouldn't be a bad thing. Figure it takes up another two or three inches (they produce quite a bit of waste). That leaves you with about 10" worth of fish left.

As the neons and (presumed) glowlights stick around the middle to the bottom of the tank, it might be nice to have something going on toward the top of the tank. Guppies would be excellent for this. They would probably be my first choice for your aquarium, as they're hardy, colorful (important to kids), and peaceful, so your neons probably aren't in any danger from them.

One note if you're going to get guppies: If you get males and females, be ready to teach your kid the facts of life and death. They will breed, and they will probably eat their babies. Guppies make about the worst parents there are (of course, in the wild, there's much more room for the babies to escape).
This could be an excellent learning experience or it could be a parent's nightmare. If you think it would be the latter with your kid, just get males (they're the more colorful of the genders, and are really easy to pick out. Petsmart usually has them separated by gender anyway).

car421

Thanks for the quick reply. I cycled the tank for 1 week before adding the neons. They have been in there for 2 weeks now and just added the other fish yesterday. They are not the one's you mentioned. I can't believe I forgot the name already. It definatly started with an R. I want to say it is something like riniao, but not sure.

In regards to the tank, I have been doing regular water changes - around 3 gal. at a time. I use a penguin biowheel and 2 cartriges in the chamber.

How long would you recommend between adding fish?
Thanks again

sirdarksol

The official answer is "when the ammonia and nitrite levels zero out again."
My answer is "about once a week if it's only a few tiny fish at a time."

BoSox Fan7

How about a couple angelfish for your tank.

sirdarksol

Angels are large enough to swallow neons. If you look at fishlore's "compatible tank mates" for angelfish, you'll see "larger tetras", which neons don't fit.

Edit: Is the other fish some kind of Rasbora?

car421

That does sound familiar. It has an orange stripe that starts at its tail and then drops down towards it belly with a black spot under it.

Edit: After googling and looking at pics, the black spot on these fish loks too large. BUt the fish does look like a minnow.