Stocking ideas for 46g Bow

[Opicana]

A couple years ago, I had to tear down my tank when the light fixture and heater broke within a week of each other. I lost a bunch of fish, and I didn't have the time or money to fix things (I was a grad student). So, I tore it down (and became inactive in the forums).

Well, I graduated a couple months ago (yay!), and now I'm looking to restart a tank.

I haven't looked at all my equipment yet, but it will be a 46g bow with a canister filter, decent lighting, and flourite substrate. Moderately planted (something tall and grassy) and we have slightly hard water (don't remember the numbers).

Since it'll be my only tank for awhile, I'm thinking a community tank, but that's as far as I've gotten!

Some of the things I like (but none of them need to be included):
- Livebearers (esp. fancy guppies and endlers)
- Khuli loaches
- shrimp
- snails
- big schools of tiny fish
- NO zebra danios (not a fan of them and in my last setup, I had inherited one....so I felt compelled to make it happy by having a school , so I've gotten my fill).

Any suggestions?

Excited to be back in the world of fishies.

 

[TheFishBoss97]

I would skip the livebearers especially since u aren't a newbie, I guess. And you can't do shrimp OR snails with loaches, unless it is heavily planted. If you want shrimp(I personally would take shrimp), you can get corys instead of loaches. This is what I would do instead of having platys, I would add 1 pair of dwarf cichlids like rams which make everything more colorful. German blue Rams are really colorful, so are golds, and bolivians are also great. If you want them to breed which is a pretty cool experience, I would take golds or bolivians since they are better parents than GBRs.

This is what I would do, you can change it up as how you like, but kind of stick to the basic compatibility of the fish..................

1 pair dwarf cichlids(your choice)
Red Cherry Shrimp OR Yellow Shrimp
(red/blue/regular) Tiger Shrimp OR Crystal Red Shrimp
Snails(not common, rest would work without loaches)
BEST TINY FISH IMO, 24 Green Neon Tetras(but you need to slow down the rate of the filter for these until they grow to their max size(1") OR 16 harlequin rasboras(1.5") or even micro rasboras
4-6 Corys

Good Luck

 

[Opicana]

Thanks so much for your suggestions! . I love Bolivians and cories, and have experiences with both (I lost my Bolivians with the heater/light fiasco...so sad...I'm getting all teary just thinking about it). This is an excellent combo, I think...I love shrimp, and my other half loves neons (and I have yet to let put them in any setup I've done). So PERFECT. Thanks!

 

[TheFishBoss97]

Oh, yeah, instead of green neons or harlequins, you can put in neons, but green neons are just like mini neons, while cardinals are like big neons. Post pics of the tank

Are you going to make it planted, as all the fish will appreciate that

 

[Opicana]

Just showed the stocking to my other half, and he loves the idea. He's fine with green neons, we looked them up. We'll post pics on our progress. Definitely doing a moderately planted tank, my last tank was planted and I think it helped both the fish feel more comfortable, and improved the water quality....and planted tanks look so much nicer!

 

[TheFishBoss97]

Yeah, plants do. Keep us posted For green neons, in stores, they are like $4 each Plus tax, but on aquabid, you can get them pretty cheap + shipping.

 

[TheFishBoss97]

are you doing Co2? Or just a reg. mod. low-med light planted tank?

 

[Opicana]

I don't know yet...if I do, it'll be the homemade yeast in juice bottle kind of system...which I have done; but I found my plants grew fairly well with or w/o that. I forget what my lighting was...it was on the high-side of moderate, I believe, but it worked for me with no algae issues....and it'll be the same fixture once I get this setup again. When I pull out all the equipment and setup the tank, I will post more detailed specs.

 

[Taari]

Ember tetras would be great instead of neons (I'm not a fan of neons). They are a deep burnt orange/copper color, stay about 1" and school nicely if given enough room. Also, if you like shrimp, a giant blue fan shrimp would be great. They get about 6" long, are a pale gray-blue and are completely harmless to everything, even eggs and the tiniest fry because they do not have claws. They filter feed with modified claws that are each like three little fans in which they catch tiny particles of food carried on the current. They are pretty easy to care for, I just squeeze out the pre-filter on my hob a few times a week and mine will come out and feed on the bits of decaying matter squeezed out of the pre-filter. It also picks up little crumbs of the pellets I feed the guppies. very cool shrimp, but they can't be kept with anything that will pester them or be aggressive, as they have no way to defend themselves.

 

[myswtsins]

Welcome back to the hobby and the forums!!

I like the idea of the stocking suggestion but I see a lot of water requirement conflicts there and predation issues.

CRS, tiger shrimp and green neon tetras prefer softer acidic water. Most of the dwarf cichlids and corys you'd be looking at it do well at neutral but the RCS and snails definitely like slightly harder alkaline conditions, in fact need some hardness and above 7.0 pH to maintain there shells and exoskeletons. Nearly any fish will pick off newly hatched RCS but dwarf cichlids will easily devour adults, with dense planting some may survive though. I'm not sure even amanos are safe with rams, anyone??

A pair of centerpiece fish, a large school of small fish with shrimp and snails mixed in is a great setup (I am going for the same thing myself in my next tank) just be sure whichever species you choose likes similar conditions or is far enough removed the wild that it doesn't matter. Green neons are rather delicate and almost demand soft acidic water. Not saying they are too demanding for you just keep these things in mind, my LFS won't even keep them unless there is a large demand because the survival rate is low. Of course these are the fish I want though but I am a RO unit for that.

Good luck with your setup sounds like it will be great and of course make sure you take lots of pictures.

EDIT: Ember tetras are great, I have some and absolutely LOVE them. Beautiful color and great schoolers IME and the giant blue fan shrimp sounds pretty cool, how do you think they would fair with breeding dwarf cichlids?