Suitable fish for a 24"x12"x12"? Advice please?

Chele&Luke

Chele&Luke

Confused Mostly...
May 18, 2007
133
0
0
Auckland, New Zealand
Hi there,

I have just started my fishless cycle, and want to be ready to go with a clear idea on what to get once it's set to go!!

The basic criteria is to have a lively/pretty tank for my 15 month old son - he adores watching fish when we go out! Wish I'd paid more attention at the beginning because I've since discovered he would be just as happy with a couple of goldfish... lol

I think for his benefit I would need at least a couple of 'larger' fishies for him to see - I like the idea of Angelfish, but am not sure how comfortable they would be in the 24"x12"x12" (I know this tank used to have 2 in it with some other fishies). Would Angelfish be ok and what would I put with them?

I also like the look of the tigerbarbs, but know they definitely NOT going to work with Angelfish...

Neon's I like the look of too, but I think I'm going to need something larger in there too to keep young Lukey interested! :D

I would really appreciate all your advice on what fish I could put in there that would be a happy community, NOT overstocked, be fairly hardy and look pretty for my son. Anything suggested would also have to fairly easy to get!

If you have any suggestions could you please also advise me of an appropriate temperature for the group?

At this stage there are no live plants in the tank, and I'm not sure that I'm 'brave' enough to attempt keeping them alive just yet!

Big ask I know, but would really love to hear your suggestions and appreciate your taking the time to read this thread!

Many thanks,

Chele & Baby Luke :)
 
A 15 gallon (~57L) tank will not be enough space for angelfish or tiger barbs. If you want a single "large" fish, the bigggest I would go is a dwarf gourami. Then you could add some harlequin rasboras (8) for some activity and maybe some snails or shrimp for the bottom...
 
Chele&Luke said:
The basic criteria is to have a lively/pretty tank for my 15 month old son - he adores watching fish when we go out! Wish I'd paid more attention at the beginning because I've since discovered he would be just as happy with a couple of goldfish... lol
-----
Neon's I like the look of too, but I think I'm going to need something larger in there too to keep young Lukey interested! :D
-----
At this stage there are no live plants in the tank, and I'm not sure that I'm 'brave' enough to attempt keeping them alive just yet!
Click to expand...

A+ on doing the cycle!

If you will humor me...

In my opinion...a big fish in a small tank is...well...kinda boring. They swim BAACK and forth and may mooch food...but...Lively?

I'd go with several smaller fish. I think you could easily do:
--a half dozen or so Endler's...livebearers related to guppies, VERY lively, males are very colorful...sizes range from 1/2" fry to 1.5" females.
--Plus maybe 3-4 cory cats from the same species....corys foraging is always interesting.

Endler's occupy all levels, mostly mid-top, corys on the bottom...
Both are hardy and 'durable'. :)

This may seem understocked at first, but that's a good thing to see how it goes... Plus: Endler's would make up for it over time; and your son may find the babies interesting. Excess fry can easily be given away to other fishy people.

a side benefit of many small fish...YOUR small one may not miss one or two if/when they pass. kinda hard to hide when it's one big fish. Save that for when they are older...

Neons/rummynose/glowlight/cardinal tetras all sound good, they are bright and active...I just haven't had any in many years so I can't offer more advice.

I have ~20 Endler's from fry to adult, in a 20H...same 'footprint' as your tank but taller.. First you see the 75G with the Goldfish...typical reaction is "wow, those goldfish are huge"...then they see the 20H "hey look at all the cute little fishies" and they ignore the GF and watch the Endler's...

OK, I think I beat that dead horse up enough...:eek:


Plants are a plus...provides things for the fishies to nibble on as well as competing with the algae. java moss is a great hideout for fry as well as easy to grow. hornwort and anacharis sometimes drop their leaves when introduced to a new tank, but usually recover with a vengeance and grow well. Water Wisteria grows well, too.

Coupla ramshorn snails and Malaysian trumpet snails are neat too.

--Don (OPINIONATED? ME?)
 
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Good point, Don, about not missing one that looks just like the others. I just had to explain to my 3 year old what happened to our smallest goldfish (fins got munched off by the biggest goldfish and he got ich).
 
Thanks to all for your advice!

Kj5kb - you have made a BRILLIANT point about 'hey mommy, where did the fishie go??' That hadn't actually occurred to me (until now) and will be taking your advice seriously on board!!

Could you possibly help me out with the numbers? I have been looking at http://badmanstropicalfish.com/profile.html#profile and pretty much eliminated Rummynose & Cardinal - 'delicate' is perhaps not the best idea right now!!

Am thinking Neons and Glowlight - so what would good numbers be for them?

Liking the cory cats suggestion - 3-4? And are they going to be ok on a gravel substrate?

Here's the real 'kicker' - I have NO IDEA what endlers are or what they look like! Couldn't find them on badmans either - do they have another name?

JM1212 has also got me thinking that my 10 gallon might be better with Platies - I was going to put a Betta in there with maybe a snail, but you guys have me seriously thinking about the consequences of a LARGE DEAD fish! lol

Someone in the comments section at badmans said they kept 3 together in a 10 gallon, would that be acceptable? Or what could be 'pretty' in such a small tank?

Or am I just over reacting here and should stick to the Betta plan? The 10 gallon is going into my sons bedroom - the theory being that when he wakes up he will watch the fish and go back to sleep!! (hey, I'm an optimist :) )

Ok, onto the plants - you've ALMOST got me convinced!! Many thanks for the suggestions, and I will have a crack at Java Moss (availability depending) at least. I need to get a new 'bulb' (the florescent (sp) thingie) for my light, what wattage should I be looking at for successful live plants?

Also should I stick with the gravel substrate I have now (no one colour - but a speckled mixture), or consider changing it to something else before getting too much further in...

I saw in another thread about painting the back black, and someone mentioned using a black garbage bag cut to size and using that as a background - will DEFINITELY be doing that!! MUCH nicer looking than my poxy background :)

Apologies for turning this post into a novel! Am very keen to get things right (or as right as I can!!) from the start and not have too many fatalities and happy healthy fish from the start! :)

We appreciate ALL the help and suggestions you have given us so far,

Chele & Baby Luke :)
 
Not sure how hard it would be to find Endler's in NZ...

Guppies would work, too. I'd go for the cheap "common" ones plenty colorful and active.

I like the idea of platys...maybe 4-5 with 3-4 corys. They get on well...actually they totally ignore each other. I have a 30G (soon to be 40) with 12 corys and 5 platys. If you are lucky enough to find platy fry somewhere...they are fun to watch grow up.

IMHO, one betta in a tank is not very lively...but I'm not a "betta guy"

All the plants I've suggested did Ok in a 10G with an old 15W tube. Not fantastic, but they did grow and multiply.

I've used a natural river gravel ~pea size-ish from the DIY store...not sure what you have over there. corys are quite fine with it...and it allows me to run an RUGF (search AC on that for info)
 
I've read that guppies and mollies are not as hardy as they used to be due to inbreeding, but I think they're still a good starter fish. From what I've read, platties are hardier.

Most cory cats are fine with gravel, but there's one I read, can't remember which, that should have sand instead due to the delicate barbels (I think that was the word, the wisker things).
 
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