Hi all,
First post for me here. So, quick background - I had a slew of tanks when I was a kid, through high school, but the largest at the time was a 29g who had a large Tiger Oscar as the showpiece fish. Another tank had killifish and kribensis. Then I got out of the hobby (went to college, etc.)... anyhow... all that was a few decades ago.
About a year ago, I got back into it with my daughter. We've been doing pretty good with our current tanks - 65g, 10g, 3.5g, 1.5g. The 65g is primarily a community tank with a pair of breeding angels (they lay eggs every few weeks, some hatch, then the fry get scarfed up by the other fish). The 10g is mostly a live-bearer tank - platy fry that are growing up. The 3.5g just has a Betta and a small cory in it, and the 1.5g has a gourami that was beating up other fish too much, so now he's basically in solitary confinement. All our tanks have live plants.
My experience is that I'm generally okay with somewhat overstocking a tank IF: I have a decent filter; have plenty of live plants; do appropriate water changes.
I'm setting up a new 30g tank (approximate dimensions are 36"x18"x16"). I'd like to try small dwarf cichlids, primarily Central/South American, that are not too aggressive, as a semi-community tank. Right now, I've got the tank about 75% filled with water, and nothing else.
So my questions now -
1 - What specific substrates would folks recommend? I know that the fish I am thinking about prefer sandy/fine gravel, and dark in color.
2 - Fish I am thinking about, with my hoped-for eventual total quantities (no, I would not be getting and adding all these fish at once)
Kribensis, quantity 2, bottom-mid tank dwellers
Red Fire Dwarf Gourami, quantity 2, middle-to-top tank dwellers
Dwarf Flag Cichlid, quantity 2, bottom-mid tank dwellers
Bolivian Ram, quantity 6, bottom-mid tank dwellers
Checkerboard Cichlid, quantity 10, bottom-mid tank dwellers
Millenium Rainbowfish, quantity 7, middle-to-top tank dwellers
Red Coral Platy, quantity 6, middle-to-top tank dwellers
Originally, I was going to go with a lower quantity of Checkerboards, but saw articles suggesting that they need to be kept in groups of 10+ of their species.
My plan is to:
1 - solicit advice on substrate, purchase and set that up.
2 - solicit advice on aquarium plants - was thinking several amazon swords for sure, and probably some other smaller plants for the foreground
3 - get plants and decor (rocks/caves) situated
4 - cycle through the tank with just the plants for a couple of weeks
5 - start with the platys as they are usually pretty hardy
6 - add in other species as I find them (depending on availability in the LFS and based on advice).
As a note, the 30g tank is being set up in our basement family room - no natural light in their whatsoever.
Thoughts? Thanks in advance.
First post for me here. So, quick background - I had a slew of tanks when I was a kid, through high school, but the largest at the time was a 29g who had a large Tiger Oscar as the showpiece fish. Another tank had killifish and kribensis. Then I got out of the hobby (went to college, etc.)... anyhow... all that was a few decades ago.
About a year ago, I got back into it with my daughter. We've been doing pretty good with our current tanks - 65g, 10g, 3.5g, 1.5g. The 65g is primarily a community tank with a pair of breeding angels (they lay eggs every few weeks, some hatch, then the fry get scarfed up by the other fish). The 10g is mostly a live-bearer tank - platy fry that are growing up. The 3.5g just has a Betta and a small cory in it, and the 1.5g has a gourami that was beating up other fish too much, so now he's basically in solitary confinement. All our tanks have live plants.
My experience is that I'm generally okay with somewhat overstocking a tank IF: I have a decent filter; have plenty of live plants; do appropriate water changes.
I'm setting up a new 30g tank (approximate dimensions are 36"x18"x16"). I'd like to try small dwarf cichlids, primarily Central/South American, that are not too aggressive, as a semi-community tank. Right now, I've got the tank about 75% filled with water, and nothing else.
So my questions now -
1 - What specific substrates would folks recommend? I know that the fish I am thinking about prefer sandy/fine gravel, and dark in color.
2 - Fish I am thinking about, with my hoped-for eventual total quantities (no, I would not be getting and adding all these fish at once)
Kribensis, quantity 2, bottom-mid tank dwellers
Red Fire Dwarf Gourami, quantity 2, middle-to-top tank dwellers
Dwarf Flag Cichlid, quantity 2, bottom-mid tank dwellers
Bolivian Ram, quantity 6, bottom-mid tank dwellers
Checkerboard Cichlid, quantity 10, bottom-mid tank dwellers
Millenium Rainbowfish, quantity 7, middle-to-top tank dwellers
Red Coral Platy, quantity 6, middle-to-top tank dwellers
Originally, I was going to go with a lower quantity of Checkerboards, but saw articles suggesting that they need to be kept in groups of 10+ of their species.
My plan is to:
1 - solicit advice on substrate, purchase and set that up.
2 - solicit advice on aquarium plants - was thinking several amazon swords for sure, and probably some other smaller plants for the foreground
3 - get plants and decor (rocks/caves) situated
4 - cycle through the tank with just the plants for a couple of weeks
5 - start with the platys as they are usually pretty hardy
6 - add in other species as I find them (depending on availability in the LFS and based on advice).
As a note, the 30g tank is being set up in our basement family room - no natural light in their whatsoever.
Thoughts? Thanks in advance.
