29 gallon stocking help :D

[FunnyGhost]

Hello,

My aquarium is cycling right now and yesterday I finished adding the plants as I wanted. I will add a photo later today of how it looks. Basically I plan on having quite a few plants, I have a big rock and 2 pieces of mopani wood inside. After a lot o research I made a list of fishes I want but there are too many . I also checked that they will be compatible with each other and they will not destroy the plants. On the ground I have plant soil and on top some fine gravel.
So, maybe you can help me deciding on a setup/list. Here is my list:
cherry barb( at least 6 of them I think)
a few guppy
3 sterbai corydoras
2 Ghost shrimps
Glass fish(3 or more)
1 gourami(now sure which type...I like all of them)
2 Killifish(not sure if I can find them at a pet store. Did not saw them so far)
platies(these are a must, 4 or more)
neon tetra(6 or more)
I also saw and liked a lot the gold and electric blue ramirezi and I think they might be compatible with some of the fishes here since they are peacefull.

As mentioned in the title it is a 110L aquarium.
So, any advice/ideas/help?
I want to avoid going to the pet store and buying impulsively .


Thanks!
Have an awesome day!

 

[exhumed07]

letting the tank sit does not cycle the tank. the cycle is a biological process. fish excrete ammonia out there gills and bacteria eats that ammonia converting it into nitrites, another toxic substance. then another form of bacteria grows to consume the nitrites into harmless nitrates. this can take weeks to months fo daily water changes to drop the toxic components till the bacteria catches up. add only a few fish at a time or you will lose them all.

a few guppy? you get a few and in no time you will have lots lol. They breed very fast. and if you get only males they can tend to fight each other and be aggressive to other fish like like the cherry barbs. they will also attack the shrimp. The 3 cories would be good. glass fish? are you talking about glass catfish? gourami should have more than 1. at least a pair is ideal. I'm a fan of the pearl. I just bought 2 more of them. Killifish your best looking online to buy the eggs and hatch them yourself. and there are hundreds of verieties and some only live for a couple months, some live for years. make sure you do research before buying any veriety. From what i can see what you are wanting i would start off with:
6 platies, more the better with them as they love to school, but also breed very readily.
3-4 cory cats
4 glass catfish
2 gourami
6-10 shrimp.
The platies and gourami may eat the shrimp, I've never housed them together.

This setup should be good and not to overstocked for a 29 gallon tank. with the plants filtration will be helped, however it's always good to overdue filtration. buy a filter one size bigger than needed. so like a penguin bio wheel 150 is made for 30 gallons, I'd buy a 200 for example. Also buy a heater one size bigger, that way it wont have to work as hard to heat the tank. Also you are wanting plants, make sure your lighting is proper for them, and by proper i don't mean buying just a plant bulb for a cheap t8 fixture. best off with a dual t5ho lighting fixture. you want at least 2 watts per gallon, 2.5 is best. so at minimum you will want 60 watts of lighting. also before setting up the tank you should look into a dirted tank. SOOOOOOO much easier, cheaper, and more reliable for plants then using ferts and chemicals. take a look at dustins fish tanks on youtube. well worth the watch but he is a bit excited in his videos so be prepared lol

 

[CAPSLOCK]

I think you are heavy in the schooling / open water types.
The plates are fine, though unless you are prepared for many you may do best to stick with all males.
Cherry barbs should be fine. You will find them more peaceful with only one or two males in that size tank. I think 6 total may push it a bit. They don't really school like most barbs.
Neon tetras - fine.
Killifish - research species. Lots of variety. Stay near the top and many jump. Some species are annual and only live a year.
Cories - the only bottom dweller you have - add more (6)
Guppies - you've got a lot already and these can be horndogs.
Gourami - fine as only one. Obviously avoid huge species (kissing, giant).
Ghost shrimp - shouldn't cause any problems but gouramis may eat...
Glass fish - these are glass tetra? Probably not enough space for a decent school. Don't get the dyed ones - is painted glass fish.
Ram - a single would prob be fine. A pair may be too bossy when breeding. These stick towards the bottom. Sensitive, prob best to add last.

Planted gives you a bit more leeway with regard to bioload but you still need to consider overall room / crowding / territory.

I don't see any obvious compatibility issues, and I don't really pay attention to water hardness / pH / etc as if the fish are either locally bred or at least in the local store a while they will have adapted to your conditions. Though your driftwood will probably lower the pH anyway. So will CO2 if you do that. Rams like pretty warm water.

 

[FreshyFresh]

Some good ideas there for sure funnyghost. Welcome.. by the way.

Keep focus on establishing a proper nitrogen cycle first. Are you using an API Master Test Kit to measure for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate? I assume you're doing a fishless cycle? If you can get ahold of some healthy used filtration bio media or a nice used sponge bubbler filter, you're good to go to stock the tank.

29s are a nice size that gives you some options, but like said, you gotta consider the schooling/shoaling needs of fish you like. You need more than 3 corys for them to be comfortable. Same goes with tetras and whatnot. As much as I like platys and all live bearers for that matter, breeding can be an issue and platys are huge hogs at feeding time.

 

[Daniel Ray]

If you are referring to Glass Catfish, I noticed a big difference when I jumped from four, up to five. They seem to school better that way, and commonly stayed in pairs w/ only four. But perfect w/ every fish I've had them around.

 

[exhumed07]

I've got 4 glass cats and they school together just fine in my 55, although i don't have anything really all that aggressive except my one evil female angel that has killed off all 6 of the others i've put in the tank. I even bought full grown twice it's size and it killed them as well. a fish that aggressive i can't get rid of since it has a spot in my heart lol

 

[Daniel Ray]

Sounds like my RTC, Dahmer. So far he's consumed 2 Peacock Bass, and a Bichir.

 

[exhumed07]

I think we have all run into that evil fish in our lives lol. I've had fish i knew would outgrow and eat other fish like a tiger shovelnose redtailed catfish hybrid that i got. I got it at about 2 inches long but thought i would be able to keep it for a couple years before it started eating my cichlids. oh how wrong was i lol. within about 6 months it got big enough to eat my smaller labs. within a year it was taking a fish a night, had to get rid of it after 7 days of one less fish every night lol.