FishProfiles.com Message Forums

hi i recently purchased a 190 litre tank that i intend to stock with tropical fish of a south american theme. i would like to include fish such as: a couple of angel fish, some black widows, red and black phantoms, diamond tetra, bolivian rams/blue rams and then some neon tetra. i also like the look of those silver dollars and would love to one day include a discus or 2. all this would be in a heavily planted tank with lots of types of sword plants and hornwarts.

i have the tank and hopefully the filter next week so i can start it cycling. i was wandering what would be a good way to start to work toward this set up (what and ho to introduce first) and how feasible the fish selection would be as well as how many i could fit with out being in danger of over stocking. (its 190L and i hope to get the jebo 819 or fluval 305 filter next week)

all and any advice very much welcome. thanks!

i guess what im asking is what numbers of each fish would be good and in which order to stock them? and any advice with starting a tank of this size as it is my first.

Hi,
As you said its going to be a planted tank, i would be more interested in the plants first. What sort and how many watts of lighting do you have over the tank? For the type of setup you mentioned, you'll be aiming at at least 2.5 watts/g. Plan your aquascape first and get the plants before the fish.
Four angels with a school of larger tetras would be great. Neons could be a bad choice with angels as angels would eat them when the get big. What sort of water do you have there? If its hard and alkaline, i would stay away from discus.
-Mughal

Hi,

I would stick with the angelfish/tetra combination. Discus do better in groups of 5 or more, so it may be something you want to think about later down the track if you clear soom room.
Silver dollars tend to eat a lot of plants, particularly the ones with the finer leaves. Probably not the best idea if you are going to have a heavily planted tank.

Good luck

8 Corkscrew Val
* 8 Jungle Val
* 8 Contortion Vals
* 5 medium Amazon Sword
* 2 Large Red Rubin Swords
* 2 Anacharis
* 4 Cabomba
* 6 Narrow-leaf Ludwigia
* 2 Medium Ruffle Swords
* 7 potted tennellus Chain Swords

hi cheers for the advice!

with regards to plants i am going to work around the above inventory provided by another member of fishprofiles, i dont have any lights or filter as of yet as i am trying to buy a new item with each pay check. so 2.5WpG =125w of lighting- so 3 x 40W tubes?

also i put in a bid on a fluvel fx5 on ebay not realising how bigger filter it was and nobody else is bidding as of yet...! do you think it will blow everything away in the tank? maybe use a spray bar? or get a different one?

oh yeah and i think i will go for 2 or 4 angels and the tetra option- i have a few black widows to re house (3)- do you think i should get a school of them or a mixture of tetra?

120W should suffice. Make sure you get lights specifically designed for planted tanks. 6700K lights are the best.
Angels should be put in pairs only if you have a breeding pair. Otherwise, aggression is most likely what u can expect. A group of four will distribute the aggression quite a bit.
I'm not a big fan of black skirt tetras, but if u feel like keeping them, up the school to at least 6. Avoid a "mixture" of tetras, get a biggish school of just one species.

-Mughal

okey so get a filter (ex5?), lights 120, plants, heater and then get 5 more black widows and possibly a few angels and some cat fish (any type?) sounds good. will that pretty much fill the tank or would i be able to fit a couple of rams in? or maybe not?(or wait till every thing else is up and running!)
appreciate the help

Wait till everythings up an running .

With anysized tank you want to increase the stock gradually. Having the plants established first will of course help out, but we also want to make any changes to the environment slowly to let the biofilter catch up.

Once you've got the plants in, and tank fully cycled, and get a nice big sized school of tetras, and the angels settled I'd move onto some corys. Peppers or albinos are the common variety (ermm back in the states anyway not sure what's common here ). With the smaller sized tank I'd suggest staying with the smaller sized corys (no greens ). After all that's settled and you're sure that your specific setup can handle more fish, then look into getting the rams. I've never had rams myself but from what I've read of others posting here they're sometimes a bit touchy about water quality so you want your tank nicely settled before adding them .

^_^

Lets see, thats a little more than a 50gallon US correct?

I think you would do well with a setup like this:
2x Angelfish
10x Black/Red Phantom Tetras
6x Black Skirt Tetras
2x Rams
8x Panda Cories or other type of corie or perhaps a small pleco?

I would avoid neons, as Angelfish may eat them when they get bigger


Inky

cool, i reallly like all the ideas guys and cheers babelfish for the advice.

i think i like inklings suggestion the best- how would you go about getting a breeding pair of angels so they dot fight? or is that pot luck?