How many fish for an Eclipse 12?

[Hb2000]

Hi. I'm new to freshwater aquariums and am thankful to have found a helpful forum such as this. My first tank is an Eclipse 12 from Marineland. I would like some guidance on how many fish I can safely have in the tank. I understand that the often heard 1" per gallon is not really accurate.

I want the fish to be happy. I want the fish to get along (no nipping at each other). And have all prefer the same water temperature. I would like to have:

1 - Male Betta, 2 - Dwarf Gourami's and a small group of schooling fish say 5 - neon tetras.

Would they get along? Is that to many fish for the tank? For a pair of dwarf gourami can you have two males of different or the same colours together? Will I need a heater for these type of fish? And what wattage?

Thanks for your help.

[TKOS]

Well you will have to drop either the betta or gouramis. Those fish just don't mix very well. There will probably end up being a dead betta. I would keep the 2 gouramis and then add the school of 5 neons. Maybe you could even add 3 dwark peppered cory catfish to the bottom. All of those fish do not add a whole lot of waste so the 1 inch rule is sort of in effect. But as long as you do weekly water changes of about 20-30% you can push the rule a little bit.

Definately get a heater. These are tropical fish that need to be in the upper 70'sF. You need a heater of around 3-5 watts per gallon, so aim for about a 50 watt heater. That will do fine.

[OrionGirl]

Agree on the betta/gourami mix--not a good idea. Sometimes it works, but often it ends in a dead fish. Different types of gouramies can be mixed, usually without any conflict, as long as there are lots of visual breaks in the tank---plants/decorations they can hide from each other among and behind.

Will you be fishless cycling the tank? I would use this time to monitor the water temperature. Most homes tend to fluctuate a bit, but stay right around the mid 70's. This is a bit cold for the tropicals, and means you'll need a heater.