28g stocking questions

[Dennisb]

I just finished cycling my semi new 28 gallon bow. This will be my first fishtank since I was a little kid and owned a few goldfish, mollies and tetras(well my grandpa did). Im just curious on what sets of species may go well with eachother without outgrowing the tank too quick.

 

[Coler]

well, not goldfish and tropical fish

you have tons of options - what interests you ?

for instance, 6 - 8 corydoras, a school of neon tetras/harelquin rasporas (8/10 of 'em) and a Flame Gourami, with plants and driftwood would be lovely.

or lose the Gourami and have some apistogramma species

or put in a load of rocks and some tanganyikan shell dwellers

have a read around and look at some of the tanks in the photo forum - see where you're leaning - its the fun part, planning a tank

 

[Quinn1928]

Put in a few jewel chiclids and watch them breed. Or put In about 6-10 Egyption Mouthbreeders. But they are hard to get

 

[Coler]

and what I should have said also was, those species won't outgrow the tank at all, as opposed to too quickly

 

[jm1212]

1 pearl gourami
8 lemon tetras
4peppered or schwartz's corydoras.

 

[galen]

you have many options. you can house a wide variety of fish in a tank of that size. what sort of fish interest you (catfish, south american cichlids, african cichlids, loaches, etc)?

 

[Dennisb]

This being my first "Real" tank I would like to start out with something semihardy. I will slowly move it from all fake to planted to better substarate then gravel. I would like this to be my entrance into the hobby. So I would like something that will be able to survive newbie mistakes.I also dont want to discourage my fiance when if they all die >.< So I am looking for something hardy and pretty. Ive got feeder fish in atm which I cycled with. They will be fed to my pacman frog since he likes to eat feeder fish still.

 

[cohazard]

when I first started out, I would browse sites that sell fish and sites that have databases with fish profiles such as liveaquaria.com and ageofaquariums.com

Find stuff that looks attractive, find scientific names, google, learn if it fits what you're looking for, then research some more.

HTH

 

[persephony]

Zebra danios are a great starter fish. They are hardy, beautiful and so energetic, you can happily watch them for hours on end. They are not at all shy once thay have settled in, mine take food from my hand, they all swim to the front when i go near the tank, and they always make me laugh - they are crazy! Plus they only grow to about 2 and 1/2 inches and get on well with most other fish. You can get them with stripes (zebra) or with spots (leopard), with long fins or regular, they are all beautiful. They are schooling fish so groups of at least 6.
Good Luck!

 

[OldMan47]

Another hardy fish that is not very common but is very active is endlers livebearers, Poecilia wingei. They are great looking, hardy and very active. My wife describes them as looking like guppies on speed. They need a temperature in the 70s F, most any typical tap water will do for hardness and pH. The only problem with them is that if you get a few in a reasonable sized tank, you will need another tank in a few months to house the offspring. My avatar is a poorly focused picture of one of my endlers, they won't hold still for pictures either.
To go with the endlers, I would get a small shoal of any small corydoras like the paleatus, skunk cories, panda cories or most any of them. They are also very active but tend to keep the lower part of the tank moving.
Of course, as you would expect, these are some of my personal favorites.