New 25 gallon tank.. suggestions please

[fishynewbie]

Hi, I have a new 25 gallon tank waiting for some fish residents... I wanted some suggestions on what to stock it with... I love to sit and watch fish swim so I wouldn't want a tank full of tiny fish... i am doing a natural scene, natural colored rocks, etc and would like to add some brightly colored fish, maybe some larger ones (as big as I can have in a 25g). So, I guess the question is... if you had a new 25 gallon tank, what would you put in it? Waiting for your list, thanks in advance
:read:

[Star_Rider]

it may depend on your tastes.

if you like cichlids ..it's a good size for rams, kribs, apistos etc(just maybe not all these together) ;)


you could do a SA tank with neons, cardinals etc toss in rams(Bolivian)
and maybe oto's or small pleco
you could do a shoal of tiger barbs

[Mgamer20o0]

apistos. you do have a lot of options. what you should do is go to the lfs and check out what they have. write down anything you like and come back to look them up.

[fishynewbie]

Hi... after many hours of internet searching and talking to several different shops, I went with 2 dwarf gouramis (male and female), 2 gold gouramis, 2 flame gouramis and 1 very tiny zebra danio. Is this too many fish for a 25 gallon? The guy at store said I could put 12 in there.. that sounds a little overloaded to me but it does go with the inch/gallon rule! What do you experienced fish keepers think? Would you get more? And if you would, what would you suggest. I had a snail from years ago, we put him in the 25 gallon and within minutes..one of the flames bit his antenna off.. so, he's back to his 1 gallon on his own! The gouramis are gorgeous, each pair swim together almost all the time.. the gold gouramis seems to spend most of their time in the aerator bubbles - is that normal?
Thanks for any and all help.

[fishynewbie]

My gouramis act like they're always hungry?? They gobble anythng that moves, a piece of plant, a bubble, another gouramis antenna (I'm not sure if it's called an antenna on the gouramis) they even bit the antenna off my old snail! Is this normal behaviour? How often should I feed them. I got them some freeze dried bloodworms (ugh!) for a treat and they went nuts... two of them would grab one and they'd fight over it... looks like Lady and The Tramp when they're eating the spaghetti!! Am I not feeding enough? I feed once in the morning and once in the evening...maybe I'm not giving enough food at feeding time. I was feeding flakes, but noticed the gold gouramis wouldn't touch it so I ran out and bought granules and they gobble those down.. so now I mix them.. They also seem to get quite aggressive at feeding time, another reason I think I'm starving them!! If I offer more, will they just leave it or will they overeat themselves to death!
Thanks.

[Ketso]

Well, my thought is that you are maxed out, but I am still fairly new to all this myself. However, if others think you can get more in there, I would suggest adding more danios. They prefer to be in groups of atleast 5 or 6 (depending on what profile you read). JMO.