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I just bought a 29g tank that came with fish, gravel, plants (some live) and filter and heater (old owners had to move.)

Right now in it are:
1 red wag male platy
1 sunset wag female platy
1 sunset female platy
1 blue dwarf gourami

Here are some ideas I have for the tank, but I don't know what would work best. I'd love to hear suggestions! I also prefer friendly outgoing fish that are active, but am open to any good suggestion.

Sunset tank - a tank with lots of little fishes that are bright red, orange, and yellow to go with the platys. No idea for what bottom feeder to have for this though. Maybe some Kuhlis?

Personality Fish - I could also trade in the fish I have now and get perhaps one medium size fish that would have a lot of personality. On this one I am completely open to ideas, as I know a lot of these kinds of fish are cichlids or other fish that would get too large for my tank.

Peaceful tank - a small school of harlequin rasboras and a pearl gourami or two. Not sure if I have the room for that and any bottom feeders though.

So what do you guys think? By the way, sorry I dissappeared for years. I had to get rid of all my tanks because I was moving around a lot, and I just finally got a tank again so I'm so excited!!!



The pottery that growls!

Well it seems that the longer I have these platys the more i like them. The other thing is... my cat loves watching them! I think that's it then.. I will have to go with my sunset tank idea. Any suggestions for other fish that could work with the color theme? How many platys could I have? Could I have some swordtails? I'd really love some advice here!

The pottery that growls!

Well if you want to go with the sunset idea, you could add

Cherry Barbs - Red
Gold Barbs - Yellow
Pineapple Sword Tail Platies - yellow/orange

I agree on your bottom feeders they sound good.

Cyclids you could do Bolivian Rams which are great community fish. Or i think KeyHole Cyclids would be fine and they have the colors you are after.

Thanks for your input as always, Shane
http://thetanklog.blogspot.com/ - [ Thanks to ScottF ]
http://www.natureaquariumclubofutah.com/main.html

Sorry I didnt see that reply in time. I ended up getting a bunch of platys and a pair of guppies! I'll try to post a pic soon. Right now they're still all new and scared though, so I'm going to get more plants for them to hide in and then take a pic once they aren't so shy, probably in a few days.

The pottery that growls!

How many is a bunch?
Also what mixture M & FM?
With the guppies I would always consider a ratio of at least 2-3 FM to one M.
The reason for these questions you will be very quickly over loaded once they all start breeding.
Live plants will better for the tank and the fish. I would consider also getting some floating water sprite this will give some cover for the fry.

Have a look in [link=My Profile] http://www.fishprofiles.com/forums/member.aspx?id=1935[/link] for my tank info

Look here for my
Betta 11Gal Desktop & Placidity 5ft Community Tank Photos

Keith

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I kept the ratio 2:1 for Platys, for the guppies I just bought one pair, but the female is pregnant so I will probably keep one of her daughters. The guppies are actually OK as is though, because the male guppy is in love with one of my female platys and one of the male platys. He barely looks at the guppy!

This is the tank right now:
1 red wag platy
1 sunset wag platy
2 sunset platys
2 rainbow platys
6 dwarf coral platys
2 tequila sunrise guppies
1 powder blue dwarf gourami

The pottery that growls!

by the way, I'm having lighting troubles. The hood's light isn't working but i'm looking into that. Once I have better lighting i will get more live plants, but for now it's fake ones.

The pottery that growls!

If it's just the bulb look in at homedepot or lowes, or if you havent got one of the chains around your friendly local hardware store. They usually carry a wide variety of floro bulbs (some of them might even have florescent bulb recycling cause they shouldnt be put in the regular trash). Look for ones that are "daylight" rated. They generally give a cleaner looking light, and are IME best for the plants.

Depending on what lenght bulb your hood takes you may or may not be able to easily step up to a planted tank. Most low light plants do okay in the standard lighting that comes with most store bought tanks, but usually you need to upgrade the hood and the bulbs (so annoying!) in order to go planted with any success. Don't forget you'll want to start thinking CO2 thoughts if you're headed in the planted direction.

^_^

I was thinking of staying with easy plants.. Java Fern, Java Moss, and Anachris were mentioned. I've seen Anachris around, but haven't seen any java moss yet. I'm still waiting till the lights work though! I searched all over for something higher than 20w for the size, but it doesn't seem to exist. 30" tank with a 24" bulb. I'm going to try and get the starter replaced, and if that doesn't fix it then I might have to get a new light. I've never made it far enough with plants to get to co2 injecting, so I don't know anything about that! I'm worried the plants that came with the tank will die with the low wattage, so i posted on craigslist to see if anyone wanted to trade them for the above listed plants. No responses so far. ={

The pottery that growls!

Here's the problem with floro tubes and plants.

Lenght determines wattage.

That's it. If you have a 12" tube it cannot be replaced with a higher watt bulb like you can change around the screw in kind to either a 25 watt or a 100 watt. In order to get higher wattage you'll have to go to a dual tube hood, and I highly suggest looking into an all glass lid as well.
Even low light plants like java fern can do well with CO2 and 2wpg, mine just took off! A 29 is a bit on the large side for a DIY CO2 but that can be a starting point if you're a tad low on funds (like most of us!) .

^_^

Turns out it was just the starter!!! Thank you SO much everyone that was in chat that day that helped me out. It was a $2 problem instead of $50. Unfortunately, i'm not in a situation to spend a whole lot right now. I guess that means i'll have to live with fake plants for a while? I'll try to get a pic up soon. I just rearranged the tank a little bit, but i'm still not quite happy with it. At least it is evenly lit now though.

The pottery that growls!

I love those types of problems! Glad you found your solution, hopefully it wont need to be replaced again, from what I rememeber those don't go out all that often.

Fake plants can sometimes be okay especially the more realistic looking ones (ie not the florescent pink hornwort and yes I adopted a tank that had that ).

Have you tried looking around for some slate or other flat rocks to add, sometimes making a focal point of rock or wood can help heaps! Driftwood from the stores is usually tons expensive , but some of us are daring enough to use wild caught wood...it's a use at your own risk type deal but can sometimes work.

Once you get a pic come join us over in aquascaping we'll see what we can do. And yes, usually it comes down to looking at the tank for half an hour then sticking your hand in it and messing around for three hours and doing it all again in a week .

^_^

here's a blurry webcam pic of it! http://img440.imageshack.us/img440/10/picture23nt0.jpg

The pottery that growls!

well the pic gives us a good idea of what setup you have. I like the rocks in the center of the tank.

Thanks for your input as always, Shane
http://thetanklog.blogspot.com/ - [ Thanks to ScottF ]
http://www.natureaquariumclubofutah.com/main.html