27 hex and Tiger Barbs

[spudboy]

Hi all! I've been lurking in the forums for a couple of months now trying to glean some knowledge from you folks. There is a lot of wisdom out there that has been very useful to me. So here's my questions. Hope someone can enlighten me.

I just came up on a craigslist special. 27 hex with a nice stand for $20. Stuff was in super excellent condition - score! -. I have never owned a hex tank before and therein lays the problem. I want to keep a species tank of Tiger Barbs but I am unsure if this is the correct tank shape to keep them in. It is 24 inches high but only 20 inches wide from the farthest corners. So my question is, is the tank too deep and not wide enough? I would imagine that a tank with this shape would be more suited to Angels but I really want the barbs. If barbs are not the best choice, what would be?

Thanks in advance for all of your help.

 

[jpappy789]

I personally find that to be small for both species. JMO.

Hex tanks are not the easiest to stock correctly. You might be better off with smaller tetra species for some schoolers.

 

[dani_starr]

I have to agree with Jpappy, 20" long is only the length of a 10 gallon aquarium, which isn't that long at all. Perhaps some cherry barbs if you want a barb?

This site might help http://www.howmanyfish.com/hex.htm

 

[spudboy]

Well, if tiger barbs are out of the question, I'm open to suggestions. I'm not married to the barb idea. I just want something cool in there that's going to be able to thrive despite the limitations of the tank shape.

jpap - are you talking neons and cardinals?

d-star - cherries might be interesting but it seems to me that I should diversify and find top mid and bottom feeders. What do you guys think?

 

[jpappy789]

There are certainly others...pristillas are another small tetra species as are embers. Microrasboras are cool little fish as well.

 

[AquaticAustin]

just careful with the bottom feeders as not much floor room, maybe a small rubber lip pleco? they stay small and mine never comes out of its cave except to eat anyway so what good is the rest of it to him? lol personally I think a cardinal or neon tetra species tank with maybe 30 or so of them would be pretty cool! I like how they all school together and they are so small that you can stock it a little over with proper filtration. Also consider maybe a dwarf crayfish (dwarf are supposed to be fish safe). I would just get one bottom dwelling thing tho... if you did go with a small species like neon tetras (or rummynose tetras, or glofish, zebra danios, guppies etc) you could instead put some dwarf shrimp in there like RCS, CRS, blue etc... many possibilities!

 

[AquaticAustin]

side note-i am tempted to get one as well as good deals often come up on craigslist! if I saw one that dirt cheap id of been on that in a heartbeat, nice buy!

 

[spudboy]

Another question. The tank is 24 inches deep. What kind of lighting would I need to grow plants? Seems like a loooong way down!

 

[AquaticAustin]

thats actually relatively short for a hex, standard 55 or 75gals are almost that deep but still to really grow plants your going to want good T5 lighting though you could just go w/ low light plants and use T8 bulbs

 

[spudboy]

So it's been over a year since I acquired this tank and, to be honest, have had a difficult time trying to stock it. Rather than a hexagon, this tank 'feels' like a cylinder. Finding specimens to occupy it wasn't really the problem. The challenge was putting in something that was aesthetically pleasing. My mistake was trying to fill all areas of the water column. I had a Scarlett Badis in there for a while but it was so small that most of the time, the tank looked empty. I eventually moved him to my main tank and the hex stayed empty, filter running, heater on for months. Last week, I got tired of looking at it that way and was going to dismantle it when my five year old daughter suggested that we save on of the Bettas that she sees when I take her to the fish shop. Uh...wow! That really never occured to me. Off we went and she picked out a very beautiful crown tail. Some driftwood. anubias and wisteria later, excellent Betta tank. I picked up some Ghost Shrimp yesterday and my daughter couldn't have been more right. Beautiful. So I'm thinking of filling it out with some neons. Is this something I should do or am I falling back into the trap of not leaving well enough alone? What do you guys think?