Aquarium Stock Question

M

mbiggs03

AC Members
Feb 16, 2007
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Kansas
OK.. I have this in mind for stock....

1 Silver Dollar
1 Molly
8 Zebra Danios

What do you all think of this "beginner fish" stock. And BTW.. what is dH?

I was looking at the PH levels the fish require... and the mollies like it anywhere from 7.5-8.2 whereas the danios like it from 6.5 - 7.0. Yet timstropicals.com says they are compatible. The pH levels are completely different though. Silver dollar likes it anywhere from 6.0-7.2. So even the mollies wouldn't be able to survive with the silver dollar. But definately getting at least 8 zebras and a silver if they are good beginner fish.

Hardy I want.

Our water is has a PH level of 8.4. Is that dH?
 
What size tank is it?
As long as the pH is stable 'most' fish will be fine. Your pH is a little high so I probably wouldn't keep amazonian fish, like tetras. You can bring the pH down by adding driftwood but I wouldn't add any chemicals to reduce the pH.
Mollys and zebra danios are good beginner fish.
Silver dollars get fairly big so they need a big tank, also they should be kept in schools.
 
My tank is 30 gallon. What kind of fish could I get then for a center piece fish. I like Danio's. I was told to bring my pH down to 7 from a guy at the local shop. There is stuff there that will bring it to 7 ph... either from high or low numbers.
 
With the fish length and all... it comes up to 30 inches or around that.. maybe a an inch less or so. My tank is 30 gallons. What is wrong with that
 
First, you can't trust what people in pet stores or LFS tell you. 99% of them don't know what the hell they are talking about.

8 zebra danios is a nice school. They are hardy. I think they are a good choice. I have a school of these in one of my tanks. Fun to watch.

Mollies are a great little fish but I think you'd want at least a pair of them. In a 30 gallon you'd have room.

Definitely you don't want the silver dollars. A single one would be unhappy most likely since they are a schooling fish and they get much too big for a 30g tank and they are not beginner fish.

Your pH is a little high but its fine. Its best to not use those chemicals to alter your pH. A changing pH will stress and possibly kill your fish. A pH that is stable is always better, unless it is extremely high or extremely low. Your pH is probably high coming out of the tap. If you want a more neutral pH in the future, you can try filling your tanks with distilled water. You should aerate it first they recommend though.. but it should have a pH closer to 7. We have very high pH out of the tap here as well. My pH stays around 8 and all my fish do well.

See this article here http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=97203 for some stocking options. Look at whats listed under 29 gallon.

My personal opinion, you have potential for a nice schooling tank, which are fun to watch because of the activity. I would go with something like:

8 danios
2 mollies
4 cory catfish
6 hatchetfish
 
Ugh...the old neutral pH fallacy.

Not only is it not necessary, it's not even the optimum pH for danios (And most fish). They're soft, acid loving fish. They do best around 6.4-6.8 in all truth.

And mollies are hard, alkaline loving fish. They prefer it about 7.6-8.

8.4 is a little high though. So to be honest I would rather see you get several mollies and some other livebearers like platys, swordtails, guppies, etc. They would do far better in your water than soft water fish like danios, tetras, barbs, etc. You can keep them no problem, but you will get a lot more out of your fish if they're extremely happy instead of just happy.

Back to the "neutral" pH topic - the reason why that is preached is because most people keep general community aquariums - for example your plan to have danios and mollies in one tank - and that is the midpoint where most species can do well.
 
So I can't lower the pH while cycling before I add fish to make it 7pH? I think that having that high of a pH will make it harder to get fish because lots of them require lower ph levels.
 
No, you can keep most common aquarium fish in your pH. They would just like it a little better if it were lower.

But the thing is, to lower the pH chemically, you would be messing with chemicals and also creating instability and pH swings, which are far more dangerous to the fish than a consistently high pH.

The other option is peat filtration but that is very advanced and also creates a "blackwater" effect which some people find undesirable.

Honestly I would just keep things the way they are. Your water is perfectly usable for most fish, and highly prized for those which prefer hard, alkaline water.
 
So I could still use it even for acidic fish? Would a Betta be good with these? According to timstropicals they would. Hoping a male would do good by itself. Along with 2 mollies and 8 zebras.

I think that would look pretty good. Enough room for all.
 
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