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Hello Everyone.
I have an aquarium which has been setup for about 2 years now. I had some Malwawis in there before, but have now moved them to a larger tank. The Ph is around 7, but I think it will be better to have it around 5-6 as I want to keep tetras from the Amazon, I was thinking neons, cardinals, phantoms, penguins, hatchets, glowlites, and maybe some rasboras from the asian waters and some glass cats. I've kept most of these fish before, but they didn't thrive due to them being housed with more robust species where the water was allowed to fool quickly.
My tap water is pH7, if I want to keep these tetras, should I just use that water, or use RO water? Also I was thinking using peat to lower the hardness? Can somebody give me some advice? Thanks.

To be totally honest I've only concerned myself with pH when I started keeping Tangs. I think a pH of 7 would be fine with these fish.

What size tank is this? Just asking because you mentioned 7 types of fish that should be kept in schools.



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There is water at the bottom of the ocean

A pH of 7 is perfect. 2 out of 3 of my tanks have a pH of 7 and I keep different types of tetras. I haven't had any problems.

Knowing the tank size will help us suggest fish. I see you mentioned about 7 types there....I don't think you would be able to keep that many types of schooling fish unless you had a HUGE tank. So help us out a little and give us the size.

*Kristin*

I am with the others, your ph of 7 should be fine.

I also second (or third) the opinion that mixing too many schools (which then in turn would have to be rather small) is not a good idea, it just doesn't look right.

Ingo

Instead, try this:

Attached Image:

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

That's a great pic I have 20 neons in my 30g and they look great...unfortunately I can't get a nice shot like that

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There is water at the bottom of the ocean

Great shot LF. I have only 6 Harlies in my 10g, but I can't get a still, clear shot to save my life.

*Kristin*

Thanks Theresa and Kristin,

You have to peek into my 125G log in the planted tank forum more often . I know there is a lot of stuff in there that you may not be interested in, but there are also lots of pretty pictures (including the one above).

Thanks again,

Ingo

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

Nice rasboras. I have a 5 foot tank and thought it would look good to have lot's of different schools of fish. I've had lots of species tanks, but thought it would be interesting to have lots of tetras in the same tank. At one point I thought of having just one of each species of tetra to form one big school!

How many gallons is your 5 foot tank? I'm guessing its pretty big, so I would have 3 schools...since you want a variety.
When you add too many types, the tank will look chaotic.

I love the idea of one big school of fish....but I like all kinds and I can't pick just one type. I see you have the same disease.

*Kristin*

Tetras are least stressed out and usually get far better coloring as well as hiding out less if they have lots of their own kind. The more the better but at least 6 of each is usually the minimum quoted. I prefer to try keep my schools closer to 8-9 fish. In a 5ft tank depending on the size of the exact tetras chosen I would probably do 3 schools. The will be visible more, they will school more naturally, they will feed better, and as a result will have better colors than if you do lots of schools with only a few fish in each. Especially if you have a good mix of males and females for each species.

Ok, let's do some sums.

If your 5 foot tank is 60" x 12" x 12", that's 141 litres. However, I suspect your tank is probably not that small, as that's a very odd size.

If your tank is 60" x 18" x 18", then we're looking at 318 litres. Which is a fairly reasonable volume for 3 shoals of 12 fish each. And still gives you some space to put some Corys in there as bottom feeders if you want.

If your tank is 60" x 24" x 24", then you have a volume of 566 litres. In that, you could make your Tetra shoals comprise 16 fishes each, which would make them very happy indeed. And again, still have space for a group of Corys.

This gives you an idea of the kind of stocking you can plan around given various tank sizes.

My personal preference? If you have the space, 16 each of Cardinals, Rummies and Lemons would make an AWESOME display. That would be a Technicolor blast of an aquarium if you planned it correctly - remember, you will need a combination of plant thickets for security, open water for swimming, and some areas shaded with floating plants to make your Tetras feel at home. If you pop in a nice intricate piece of bogwood with some Java Ferns and Java Moss growing on it (like the kind I have in my Panda Fun Palace™) at one side of the aquarium, leave a gap, then stick in a nice big Amazon Sword, then leave another gap before adding another piece of bogwood with caves in, then once it's all bedded in, it'll make a nice home for your planned Tetra shoals. If you have the space, stick some Vallisneria at the back for that "curtain of reeds" effect, and you'll have happy fishes.

Oh, if the aquarium requires any cycling, don't forget to add your fishes piecemeal. Six at a time, with a minimum 21 days gap between additions is the way to go. Do that, and you'll end up with a nice, healthy lot of fishes that will blossom beautifully.

Remember also that if you go with Lemon Tetras, the ones you'll see at the dealer's will look washed out because they're juvenile and need time to colour up. Best way of colouring these guys up is to intersperse feedings of live Daphnia with colour flakes. Feed them on that mixture for 6 to 12 weeks, and they'll end up looking like little balls of golden sunshine with fins. Before my water company overdid the treatment chemicals in October last year and wiped my Lemons out, I had a lovely collection - Sirbooks also has some nice solid yellow ones that show you how good these fishes CAN look when they're coloured up properly!


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

Thanks! My tank is 5ft by 2 ft by two ft.
I think I'll go for 10 cardinals, 10 rummies, 10 glowlights, 10 black neons, and a few cories. Thanks for the advice. I do like lemons, but I think I'll get another tank for those.

I might go for the harelquins actually, I'm not sure.