Fish for my young son

HI All. I'm new to this fascinating world of fish, and have been busy cycling a new tank for my 8-year-old son over the last month. Testing the water successfully last weekend, we were ready to add our first fish and went out and got 6 very small neon tetras. They seem to be doing fine (though one of them is smaller than the others and gets left out at feeding time...). We are hoping to add some more fish this weekend and would be grateful for any advice... What sort of fish would go well with the tetras, and would give plenty of variety and interest in the tank for an 8-year-old boy? (Obviously Dad is on perpetual standby...!) I was thinking of dwarf gourami and maybe guppy...maybe Cory? Would be great to have variety of size and speed, and occupying different levels of the aquarium. The tank is 70 litres, with silk plants. Any advice gratefully received.

 

Hi, welcome to Fishlore! Good to hear that you started with the cycle, and also awesome that your neons are surviving they don't always do that.

Let's see, 70 liters is about 18 gallons. Do you know the dimensions of it? That would make a difference on if typical cories would be happy in the tank, because they spend their whole day wandering around the bottom looking for food. So the more surface area they have, the better.

I think a DG would do nicely, as well as a couple of guppies (male! Unless you want to take care of fry...). But be careful to add fish slowly so as to not overwhelm your cycle, which tends to be more fragile in the beginning. And neons are notoriously sensitive, so they will not do well with ammonia spikes.

If you do get cories I think I would personally leave out the guppies for the sake of the bioload, because you'll need six or so cories. A DG centerpiece, neons, and cories would fill out your tank

 

what about a small school of cherry barbs like 6 of them they are fun and move around a lot

 

I second just getting 6 cories, the albino or bronze version are super neat. Plus mine do not stay at the bottom all the time. With 5 or more cories they will cavort all other the tank! Mine like to head dive into the bubbles from the air stone and let themselves get pushed to the top of the water. It's hilarious. I have a 20 gallon (75 liter) tank and they are all doing super.

Also, nerite snails are great little algae vacuums. You can supplement their diet with a blanched carrot or cucumber every once in a while. Here is a thread of mine eating a carrot just today. It was amusing to watch it.

 

I think that it is great that you are involving your son in this, as basically you are teaching him how to be curious, observant, and how to learn.
That said, cories are really entertaining fish IMO, always on the go, and making trips to the surface now and then--put it this way, they are anything but shy.
However, that's my opinion; your choices seem good, perhaps ask your son after showing him various choices? Best to you, rick

 

Thanks everyone. Looks like cories are the popular choice, and I also like the idea of a dwarf gourami centrepiece. Viriam Karo, the dimensions of the tank are 56cm x 32cm (22" x 12"). Would that be ok for half a dozen cories?

Should we add 6 cories at once or is it best to introduce them in smaller numbers gradually?

As for the survival of the neons, we are a bit unsure if we are feeding them enough, being careful not to over feed. We are crumbling a small amount of flake food down through the water and they eat away at it until it reaches the bottom, which takes a minute or so. We do this twice usually. The littlest seems not to be eating much, while the others clearly have food inside them. We'll try to vary the food a bit too.

And let's see how they are after my boy gets going with some tank maintenance today...!

 

You can keep the 6 neon tetras, 6 corys and 1 dwarf gourami. What is your substrate? You will need something fine and smooth like sand for your corys.

 

I'm surprised no one has mentioned the possibility of the DG eating the neons... >.> They do that sometimes. Turn pet fish into really expensive feeders lol.

If you got one of the nicer varieties, like a honey gourami (they come in many different colors) you would have to worry significantly less.

<-- this is my favorite color variety, but there are bunches to choose from.

 

You can keep the 6 neon tetras, 6 corys and 1 dwarf gourami. What is your substrate? You will need something fine and smooth like sand for your corys.

Good point... Substrate is just gravel. And I think we might have a bit too much of that...! Maybe we should think about sand, or alternatives to Corys?

 

HI I have had two goldfish for about half a year and I just introduced some danios into the tank they are super fast energetic fish. They are not to big and super fun to watch. I have four in our 20 litre tank so if you are looking for another breed of energetic fish later on these will be good. My 9 year old sister loves them. Btw they r about 4-6cm long

 

Goldfish require 20- 30 gallon tanks minimum depending on types. Yours is a 5 gallon tank and they are messy eaters

 

Plz don't hijack threads.

I suggest 15 dwarf corys. Whaha

 

Good point... Substrate is just gravel. And I think we might have a bit too much of that...! Maybe we should think about sand, or alternatives to Corys?

Cories will *probably* be okay with very smooth gravel, but not always.

In that size tank, you could do one of the smaller varieties of pleco. A rubberlip or albino bristlenose would be great, but they'd need to be your only bottom dwellers.

There are also a few varieties of asian catfish that might work, but strangely I've done very little research on them. I do know that most of the asian cats are softwater fish and can be picky about their water conditions.

 

Thanks Junebug. I thought about changing the substrate to sand, but decided against it for fear of ammonia spikes which would challenge the neon tetras... So I'm sticking with gravel, which is not all smooth enough for cories. Can plecos handle roughed gravel?

LFS man said I could have a pair of dwarf gouramis and a couple of rams in addition to 6 neons and 6 cories... Surely this is too much for a 70 litre tank...?!?

 

sounds like too much to me, and plecs may get too big. They tend to poop alot. I loved my plec but he was the only one in my tank. Nerite snails are awesome algae eaters and really fun to watch

check out all the awesome colors they come in

 

I second the idea of cherry barbs, I love mine. Also I keep black neons which combined with your blue and red neons might look nice.

 

Thanks Junebug. I thought about changing the substrate to sand, but decided against it for fear of ammonia spikes which would challenge the neon tetras... So I'm sticking with gravel, which is not all smooth enough for cories. Can plecos handle roughed gravel?

LFS man said I could have a pair of dwarf gouramis and a couple of rams in addition to 6 neons and 6 cories... Surely this is too much for a 70 litre tank...?!?

Yeah don't listen to the guy at your LFS. That is a really overstocked tank IMO, and DGs should not be housed in pairs unless in a larger tank and by someone with plenty of experience to deal with the aggression. Also two males would be a disaster.

A pleco will be fine with gravel. My Albino BN is in my livebearer tank with gravel and she's just fine. They will need real driftwood, however, so that's something to consider.

However there are many small plecos available in the hobby, so if you decide to go with one, you should check them all out. I think Clown Plecos are the smallest. Here's a list of other small species:

These won't all be available to you, but it's worth looking at them to see what interests you.

sounds like too much to me, and plecs may get too big. They tend to poop alot. I loved my plec but he was the only one in my tank. Nerite snails are awesome algae eaters and really fun to watch

check out all the awesome colors they come in

A single small pleco in an 18 gallon tank is fine, as long as the tank is appropriately stocked Mine is in a very heavily stocked 20 gallon with live plants and all is well. The OP is looking for a bottom dweller and a small pleco is the best option I can think of given the gravel substrate.

Oh! Phillipo, you could also look at getting a few ghost shrimp. They're hardy enough once established in your tank and are good little cleaners, albeit ugly things lol.

 

Just checking... Will a clown pleco be comfortable in my tank (56cm x 32cm bottom)? I've read they can grow up to 14cm.

 

I wouldn't reccomend it, you'll need to do much more frequent water changes and it will limit your stocking of other fish