what to do with 40g?

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jpierce3

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Aug 1, 2011
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some of the most visually stimulating planted tanks that I have seen contain nothing but a lot of great plants, not only in placement and care, but proper variety; and a huge school of neon or cardinal tetras.

You love the plants and are building the tank around that apparently, so allow the plants to be your main center piece, or at least the thing people are inclined to see first. But then when you have a nice school of cardinals come flashing out of the plants and through the tank. Can really make for that "oh wow" you are looking for.

Then people could notice things like a large group of cory cats, or my favorite Aspidora cats. Then notice some nice shrimp or compatible invert (don't ask me about those, not my specialty).

Can work with any small schooling fish, but since you have a rather small tank, I would pick one type and make a large school of them. Same with the catfish, one species, one school. Make your focus the plants and aquascape. Would really go along nicely alongside a reef tank. Shouldn't be too much trouble for your parents later. Maybe some plant trimming with the water changes. Sometimes, simple is more.
 

livebearerfreak

you are hypnotized! LOL
May 31, 2005
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douglas harvey
i am honestly thinking of getting a 40B just for my convict/firemout pair and use the 75 for a pair of BGJD! you should do some firemouths in the 40B!
 

moonstream

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Jayne
I would do firemouths, but I dont want just one pair of fish in there and it seems like firemouth communities pretty much end with two fish pairing up and killing the rest. plus my mom doesnt like the way they look, and I'm trying to please everyone in the family since they keep complaining that the tanks take up so much room.

ok, so I've been thinking, and I have a few ideas for how to stock the tank (not all these fish together, of course, these are just the species I like grouped together in generic groups):

semi-aggressive community (not sure how plants would work with these guys, or how this list would work, period; thinking it might just not work at all)
tiger barbs
red tailed shark
serpae tetras
maybe a krib?
would a gold gourami or two work with tiger barbs?

more peaceful Asiatic community
pair or trio of larger gouramis (golds, pearls, blues, or opalines)
harlequin rasboras
cherry barbs
bunch of kuhlis or maybe cories, or smaller groups of both maybe

puffer tank?
bunch of dwarf puffers (how many is acceptable? I've heard something like 5g/puffer?)
kuhli loaches (heard they're okay with puffers?)
some ottos if algae becomes a problem

betta sorority tank
10-15 female bettas
big school of dithers
bunch of kuhlis or cories

goldfish (some potted plants, light sand substrate)
3 fancy goldfish or 2-3 fancy goldfish and 2-3 dojo loaches (how good at escaping are dojos? like, would I need a top for them?)

loosely SA-themed tank (obviously need to cut this list down to size a bit)
4 angels
pair of german blue or bolivian rams
some harlquin rasboras
few cherry barbs
maybe a gourami (dwarf or pearl)
some cories

non-heated tank (would stay above 75 degrees most of the time)
white clouds
danios (zebra and leopard)
some cories
pair of gold gouramis or some paradise fish

any thoughts on those lists? or ideas for others? subtractions?
 

allaboutfish

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Jul 12, 2011
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johnathon dunn
SA tank all the way! love angels id do a gold veiltail angel, a leopard veil tail angel, a blue philipine angel, and a platinum angel.
 

user_name

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May 23, 2010
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Cam
I like the DP idea, they're fine with Otos but I'm not sure about the loaches. Make sure to REALLY plant the tank, as they need lots of breaks in their line of site to not kill each other. 5g sounds fine per puffer to me, just keep in mind that you need to plant/decorate the crap out of it.

I'd stick to one schooling fish if you decide to try a community tank, having one big school looks much nicer than a bunch of smaller ones.
 

moonstream

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Jayne
so I've decided between doing:

GOLDFISH (3 goldfish or maybe but probably not 2 goldfish and 2 weather loaches)

TROPICAL (4 rams, pair/trio of pearl gouramis, 10-15 harlies, and 8-10 kuhlis)

BETTA SORORITY (10-15 female bettas, 10 kuhli loaches, maybe some cories, maybe a school (10+) of dither fish)
 
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