Stocking levels question

I've got a new 60L tank and I'm hoping someone can give me an idea of what the max number of fish I should have in it is?

I'm thinking I'd like some cardinal tetra's and possibly a betta (fighting fish). Also something that eats algae would be good as the tank is for our sitting room...(the missus has me warned about having a manky green tank! )

Also I read somewhere that I should have fish for the top, middle and bottom of the tank. Its only a 45cm high tank so I'm not sure if that applies.

I'd love to get your opinions on what a good combination of fish would be, oh, and the volumes

Thanks,
Neil

First of all, it's probably not a good idea to keep a betta with tetras. Tetras can be nippy and you'll end up with a very unhappy betta with tatty fins.
If you have your heart set on having a betta, White Cloud Mountain Minnows are a better (if not as flashy) choice.

As for stocking it depends on whether the tank is already cycled. You shouldn't dump all of your fish in at the start if the tank isn't cycled yet.
You can also get away with having more fish if your tank is planted as the plants will suck up some of the extra fish waste.

The best algae eaters that I've ever had are Nerite snails. They eat 90% of the different types of algae, they're attractive enough for a snail and can't breed in fresh water so you wont have a population explosion (unlike apple snails).

If this were my tank, I'd plant it with some low-light plants (Anubias, Java fern, Java moss) and either have eight White Clouds, a male Betta and some Nerites or ten female Bettas and some Nerites, but I'm a bit of a Betta nut so that might be just me!

Sorry I probably should have said that the tank is going to start cycling on Sunday. For that I'm going to put some food in to create the ammonia and I have some "safe start" stuff that's apparently crap but I'm going to put it in anyway, along with some frozen shrimp and some plants. Its going to be running for at least two full weeks like that before I even have a chance to test the water (holidays) so when I get back I'm hoping that a few tests and some tweaking will have me up and running in relatively short order.

I'm going to chuck a bunch of plants into it (before I go) with a piece of boiled driftwood and some shells (I've heard they are good for keeping the nerites shell from cracking).

Interesting about the female betta's, not sure why, but I thought I could only have one of them in the tank because they don't play nice with each other. But by the sounds of things that;s just when you mix boys and girls? Or have more than one male?

I was told that I might have problems with the Cardinals but that the Black neon tetra's were very dis-interested in Betta's and get along great. Do you (or anyone here) have any idea if that's true?

Just not a huge fan of the WCM Minnows.

Thanks,
N

Just been thinking about this again and I've approached this whole thing from the perspective of having a Betta and then working everything else around BUT, I do love the Tetra's and really anything with a lot of colour (main reason I love the Betta is their finnage).

Also I was sort of thinking of attempting to breed Betta's, a difficult task I'm aware.

So for a tank the size of mine, maybe it would better to look at what plays well with Cardinal Tetras?

Interesting about the female betta's, not sure why, but I thought I could only have one of them in the tank because they don't play nice with each other.

Hi ya Niall

It's the male bettas that don't get on with each other not the females,as for tetras - I keep a fair few different types mainly with Angels some with fairly long finnage and the only problem fish I've had have been "Penguin tetras - Thayeria boehlkei" Nasty little buggers... maybe put some corydoras catfish in for the bottom try and keep at least 4 of them ,I'm not a snail fan myself.With a capacity of 60ltrs I reckon you could put in around 24ins of fish but bear in mind that fish grow and you should consider the final size of the fish not the size you see in the shop.I'd say a good approach would be to have a look in a few shops see if anything catches your eye and research the fish before you buy.Maybe put up a list of fish which have caught your eye and get peoples views on them.

Good Luck .... Lar

Ps - Welcome to the forum....

neil0r wrote:

Just been thinking about this again and I've approached this whole thing from the perspective of having a Betta and then working everything else around BUT, I do love the Tetra's and really anything with a lot of colour (main reason I love the Betta is their finnage).

The thing with Bettas is that depending on the individual they might be able to be kept with a wide range of fish or with none at all. I've had mixed results with Bettas and guppies for example, some Bettas wont touch the guppies but for some those tails are like a red rag to a bull.
Guppies would be a better choice than tetras, they're not as aggressive or fast. You would have to watch them carefully for the first few weeks to make sure that the Betta isn't homicidal.

Female Bettas generally do better with other tank mates, and the tetras wouldn't be a problem for them. The only problem with that that I can think of is that female bettas that you get in petshops here are usually very drab. For comparison here are pictures of the average petshop females versus a copper halfmoon female:

Petshop females:


Copper halfmoon female:


If you don't mind waiting, I'm setting up a spawn at the moment and I should have some fry (male and female) to sell in a few months. You can read about it here: www.irishfishkeepers.com/cms/component/o...w/catid,27/id,55499/

Also I was sort of thinking of attempting to breed Betta's, a difficult task I'm aware.

Breeding bettas is easier than you would think considering how aggressive these fish are. Something that you should know is that it's probably not a good idea to breed bettas that you get from the pet shop. They are usually red or blue veiltails and if you breed them it will be very difficult to find homes for all of the fry (up to 300 of them!). Pet shops will be unlikely to take them off you and people will be unlikely to buy them.
If you want to breed it's better to get your hands on some good stock that are a less common tail type like crowntails or halfmoons and are a colour other than the plain reds and blues that you see in the shops.

Once again, if you have the room in a few months I would be more than willing to sell you a nice sibling pair to try breeding. There are also a few places on the internet that you can buy good quality Bettas, but the shipping prices are usually insane, have a look on aquabid.com to see what kind of fish are available in the Betta hobby..

yeah I might take you up on that. I'm not set up for it at the moment but eventually its something I'd like to try and do.

How much would you be looking for for a pair?

The black orchid is a fab looking fish, I'd be interested in maybe buying one of those from you if you are selling and get any from the spawn.

Neil

Depending on the quality of the fish, it would probably be between 10 and 15 euro for a male and between 5 and 10 euro for a female. A good bit less for what people usually charge for them on aquabid and ebay.

I doubt that I'll have any black orchids in this spawn since I'm now crossing a copper halfmoon with a blue dragon halfmoon plakat. But there might be some melanos in the mix, which are a blue-black colour. I'll let you know anyway.

Hey Spooky, yeah I read your other thread about the hoover/plug disaster!

Keep me in mind when you're ready to sell and I would say there's a good chance I'll take a few off your hands...

cardinal wrote:

I'd say a good approach would be to have a look in a few shops see if anything catches your eye and research the fish before you buy.Maybe put up a list of fish which have caught your eye and get peoples views on them.

Good Luck .... Lar

Ps - Welcome to the forum....

Thanks Lar,

I've been around to the LFS a couple times in the last few days and they have a pretty decent selection. In terms of what I've found that I like...
1) Betta's - Back thinking of getting one dark coloured male...they have nice dark bluey black one and the pricing is really reasonable.
2) Guppy's - they have some really colourful orangy ones with nice finnage. Perhaps if I was to get 2 males and then pick up four females from a different fish shop they would be good for breeding.

So here's what I'm thinking:

My tanks is going to have the following in it:
Four different types of plant, two tall, two shorter more bushy (apologies I bought them today but didn't get the names!). A piece of driftwood, some common garden rocks (cleaned obviously)and a slightly broken terracotta pot.

My plan is to put the substrate in (fertilizer stuff and gravel) plant the plants and cycle the tank. Once I've got that all okay I'm going to add in the other other stuff and test the water after a couple of days of each to see if anything has an effect on it. If so I'll remove things one at a time starting with the pot.

Once that's all okay and the water is inside of parameters I'd like to add a couple of trio's of Guppys. (maybe different coloured trio's?)

I'll probably do this in two stages. Once they're settled I'd like to get either a Corydora or a Nerite snail to look after keeping the tank clean. I'd love opinions on that.

And finally I'd like to put a Betta in my tank.

What do you guys think of that mix of fish and also I'd appreciate your feedback on my plan as a whole.

Cheers,
Neil

Oh, I should also have said that I'm aware that my Betta might be of a homicidal nature and I'm planning to keep an eye on that.

I was thinking of building a piece of netting on a frame that I can just slide in and out to partition off a section of my tank to keep them apart if needs be.