panicFREAK Posted August 30, 2007 Report Share Posted August 30, 2007 Hi all At the moment i have a 40L tank (heated, filtered, planted with live plants) that currently has 4 platys (and some babies) and a lone male cherry barb (friend was going to flush him alive if i didnt take him). Anyway the platys breeding is getting out of control and i dont really want the male cherry barb so i was going to see if my lfs will take them for store credit. My question is how many neon tetras can i get for the tank? Oh and i would also like to get about 2-3 sparkling gourami. The neons and sparkling gourami will be the only fish going in the tank. I kinda want to keep it simple. Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brettc777 Posted August 30, 2007 Report Share Posted August 30, 2007 Not sure what a limit would be on Neons. But for me if i was going to stock neons i would have 8 at a minimum (they just look better in larger groups then 2 or 4 floating around). For a 40L tanks with 3 sparkling gourami's you could have 20! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stuart Elflett Posted August 30, 2007 Report Share Posted August 30, 2007 I'd go 11 as a max for a start, bearing in mind the tank needs to be cycled and mature because they are delicate for water quality changes... they're not big, dirty fish even fully grown, and you could definitely run more when the tank is mature and aged... my experiences with less than 10 neons has shown them to be solitary and skittish, but with 11 they form a nice, cohesive group... at ten they don't shoal so often, and I remember reading an 'always an odd number to get fish to shoal nicely' in one really good text book ages ago... As both the sparkling gourami's are small, as are the neons, yes... 19 or 21 neons and three gourami's would be a practical upper limit - you'd want at least 160lph in filtration... and if you're not running a spray bar to break the surface, I'd recommend aeration from a bubble wall or ring... I'd personally be inclined to keep it down aroun 15 neons though, and include say 3 dwarf cories (panda's, julii's, etc), or a single mystery snail, to keep any missed food under control... even better, glass shrimp if you're having some plants, they'll help with algae, too, and make a nice contrast to the fish... (Neons like plants - helps them feel safe... they look particularly effective with broad leaved plants, like anubias... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
panicFREAK Posted August 30, 2007 Author Report Share Posted August 30, 2007 The tank has been running for nearly 6 years. Never had problems with my fish, except when i was first starting out, i didnt cycle the tank and was misinformed about fish (didnt have the internet back then either). Its planted with green hygro, lots of java fern, and i have an anubias on a piece of driftwood aswell. I was thinking of getting 3 panda cories or pygmy cories, but i have a roughish gravel as my substrate so i dont know if it would be healthy for them. Would it be better to stick to normal neon tetras or could i get some black neons tetras aswell? Im thinking to just stick with the neons and just get one big school, unless the black neons school with the normal neons? Also is there any way to tell the sex of sparkling gouramis? If there is, what should the female to male ratio be? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stuart Elflett Posted August 31, 2007 Report Share Posted August 31, 2007 Black neons will school with neons or rummy noses - blacks are actually smaller than neons too, which will cut your bioload even more, and give more variety to your school, too... As for sexing sparkling gourami's, apparently males have a bold row of reddy brown spots above their lateral line. Females don't show that row of spots, or it's very faint... There is also a difference in their dorsal and anal fins, the males are pointier and longer, but it's not as definitive - as with many other small fish, shining a good torch on them may well reveal the darker ovarian section of the females, it's further back than the sexual organs of the males... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Callatya Posted September 1, 2007 Report Share Posted September 1, 2007 How high maintenance are you wanting and what sort of filter are you running? Generally speaking (and bear with me because I tend to go a bit imperial when it comes to fish) the rule of thumb is 1" of fish per gallon of water. 40L is close on 10USG. If you take that at adult size then you'll be overrun pretty quickly. Still, it is only a guide There are ways around such things. I think you could safely push that to about 13 small fish and keep it stable long term. The problem I find with tanks that small is that it is a giant juggling act to get the balance right. Visual balance is important, but you also need the bioload to be suited for the tank and the types of fish to grow slowly or stay small. They can be tricky to get right and be content with. Myself, I'd avoid cories. There is some personal bias here, I admit (the devils ruined many a good net!) They are very active and even though that size tank could probably support them, they do get quite big and they are mighty playful. I had a pair in a 2', and even in that small of a group they were pretty cramped for space. Those things just rocket around! If you go the pygmies, keep in mind they can be fussy about water quality and even if you are fastidious about changes this drought/flood water is unpredictable. I'd give those a miss until your water supply has stabilised a bit. If you are after bottom dwellers, perhaps kuhlies? Still zippy, but less messy IME. If you go for pygmy cories, I'd consider dropping your neon school back to try to under stock a bit. In smaller numbers they don't tend to school as well, but in a tank that size it might not matter as they'd be all over the space. I'd probably also hold off on the gouramis for a little while to see what the stocking levels look like once you have all you want in there. Oh, and totally go the black neons, they look awesome. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
panicFREAK Posted September 2, 2007 Author Report Share Posted September 2, 2007 Yeah i dont think i will get cories. The 2 LFS i go to do have cories however one sells dyed ones (EWW!!) and the other only sells the larger kinda, like the bronze cories. Would kuhli loaches be alright with a roughish substrate though? I went and swapped all the other fish yesterday and have now got 10 neon tetras and 1 sparkling gourami. At first the neons were staying in a close group in the back corner of the tank where i couldnt see them. But now that they've settled in they're darting all over the tank. Quite pretty too. The filter is a internal filter made by aqua one. Its the maxi 101F for aquariums up to 40L however when i get some money i'd like to upgrade it as it seems a bit small. So would 10 neon tetras and 11 black neon tetras look alright? Or should i just get 9 or 11 more neon tetras? Also would it increase the bioload alot if i get a small apple snail the control some algae? Or should i just try and remove the algae myself? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Callatya Posted September 2, 2007 Report Share Posted September 2, 2007 Those 101Fs pack a fair punch, I'm running one on a 4' at the moment as an interim measure and by golly it moves the water around! It could do with more media room, but I suspect it'd have a very decent turnover in a 40L. How rough is rough? I had them on 2-3mm black gravel and they were fine. It wasn't the best for cory barbels but the loaches seemed to cope fine. Apple snails are another thing that eats and poops, so they are going to increase your bioload. I'd count them as 2-3 fish, depending on their size. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
panicFREAK Posted September 2, 2007 Author Report Share Posted September 2, 2007 Ugh my mum decided to go out and buy 2 apple snails . I didnt want them though as i thought they would increase the bioload alot and well they kinda freak me out too. One is really big the other is only tiny. She 'wanted something yellow in the tank'. At least she didnt get a fish that would outgrow my tank. Its not your normal pea gravel which is kinda smooth, its too rough for cories though. I might take the snails back and get some store credit and then get some kuhlis. I was going to get some black neon tetras today but they had ich so they werent for sale. So the filter i have should be ok with the fish i plan on getting? I think i'll stick to the one sparkling gourami, unless they need to be kept in groups :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Callatya Posted September 2, 2007 Report Share Posted September 2, 2007 Any chance of a piccie of the tank/gravel? Filter could be better as it has limited media room, but it should handle a stocked tank. I'd upgrade before you try to put much more in though, something with more room for media. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stuart Elflett Posted September 3, 2007 Report Share Posted September 3, 2007 Hopefully you have two males, or two female apple snails... one of each means babies... potentially lots and lots of babies - the good thing is they lay very clear batches of eggs above the water line, so are easy to control... One Apple/Mystery snail can happily keep a 60L tank clean of everything it's going to eat... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chuckie Posted September 3, 2007 Report Share Posted September 3, 2007 I think your instinct to keep it simple is a good one! But then, I like a zen-type tank rather than anything especially colourful or clashing. I would personally stick to one tetra species in a tank that size, or it may look like there's too much going on in there. I have no more than 3 species in each of my 80 litre tanks: a feature species (usually a cichlid) and a couple of schools of dither species (usually a single type of danio and a single species of rasbora). Or alternatively you could go for, say, 4 sparkling gouramis and some corydoras hastatus, which are small and school a lot like tetras but IMO are a bit more interesting (just because neons are so common, and the cories are different). The cories look like this: http://www.azgardens.com/images/corydorus_hastatus.gif http://linkoff.info/UserFiles/Image/6237/f798.jpg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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