How many fish for an Eclipse 12?

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Hb2000

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Aug 26, 2003
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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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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