# Community tank advice please...



## joanna1984 (Jun 14, 2010)

Hello,

I have bought a 130L tank (an Aqua One 620T) so its tall not long. I will be using aquarium sand and would like to put quite a lot of plants in with some rocks and bogwood (which i want to attached java fern or moss to).
My first question is, which plants would grow tall enough so as not to make the top half of my tank look empty?
And my second question is which fish would be good to put together for a community tank? I would like some corys and i love the colours of tetras and harlequins and would like maybe 2 or 3 different schools of fish (including the tetras and harlequins) but i would love love love a Siamese Fighter. I have read up a little and have found that as long as they're not kept with other betta's or pretty finned fish they can live quite happily in a community tank. Is this right or would you advise against the Betta and just stick to the more relaxed species?

Thanks
Jo


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## NaomiM (Sep 22, 2012)

Hi 

First of all, have you/are you planning on doing a fishless cycle before adding fish? It's highly recommended as it's the most humane way of cycling a tank, and can save you a good deal of effort and stress too. Please feel free to ask if you need more info 

There's lots of different background plants available and others should be able to advise more than I can, however I have anubias and ludwigia in mine and they're both pretty tall.

People's experience can vary with bettas as individual fish have different temperments, however I wouldn't personally recommend them in a community tank to be on the safe side. Maybe have a look at dwarf or honey gourami, apistos or rams as 'centrepiece' fish instead 

Aqadvisor.com is a great site to help with stocking ideas and how many of each species to have!

Hope this helps a little


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## joanna1984 (Jun 14, 2010)

Hello, 

Thank you for your reply.....

I keep reading about people who cycle their tanks and thought it was just about setting the tank up and letting it run for a week or so but i'm now thinking that there may be a little more to it than that!! If you could let me know what i would have to do that would be brill, i'd rather do it fishlessly as to save stressing / losing fish  

I'll have a look at both of these, thank you  I have looked at Amazon Swords but just wanted something a bit more unusual that you don't find in very fish shop.

I will defo check these out instead or a Siamese Fighter. I don't want to upset a whole tank because of one fish! 

Will also have a look on aqadvisor.com to find some suitable tank friends for my new set up.

And yes you did help, more than a little, so thank you very muchly


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## NaomiM (Sep 22, 2012)

Forgot to mention that anubias is like java fern in that it needs to be attached to bogwood or similar. There are different varieties and some grow much bigger than others!

Re fishless cycling, there's a step-by-step guide here: Tropical Fish Forums UK - Setting up your new Aquarium. If you know anyone else who keeps fish and you can ask them for a small piece of mature media to put in your filter, this will greatly speed up the process. And feel free to ask if you have any questions at any stage


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## Phoenix24 (Apr 6, 2013)

You might even be able to house an angelfish (just the one) amongst a community of smaller species (just make sure if you put small tetras in there they are bigger than the angel's mouth!). My angelfish is doing just fine with a whole range of tetras, and also with cherry and golden barbs (which are the most peaceful of the barb family). There is also a dwarf gourami in there, and not seen any interactions at all between them, let alone negative ones!

The thing with the angels though is they are messy fish, so you will need a filter rated for a much larger tank than you have (i'd go for a 250L filter, or thereabouts).


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## joanna1984 (Jun 14, 2010)

Thank you so much for your replies, they really are helping and very much appreciated 



NaomiM said:


> Forgot to mention that anubias is like java fern in that it needs to be attached to bogwood or similar. There are different varieties and some grow much bigger than others!
> 
> Re fishless cycling, there's a step-by-step guide here: Tropical Fish Forums UK - Setting up your new Aquarium. If you know anyone else who keeps fish and you can ask them for a small piece of mature media to put in your filter, this will greatly speed up the process. And feel free to ask if you have any questions at any stage


I found this out about 2 days ago!! Alot of people have recommended Anubias actually, so will defo be having a look 
Brill, will look at this and hopefully understand it....if not be prepared for more questions!



Phoenix24 said:


> You might even be able to house an angelfish (just the one) amongst a community of smaller species (just make sure if you put small tetras in there they are bigger than the angel's mouth!). My angelfish is doing just fine with a whole range of tetras, and also with cherry and golden barbs (which are the most peaceful of the barb family). There is also a dwarf gourami in there, and not seen any interactions at all between them, let alone negative ones!
> 
> The thing with the angels though is they are messy fish, so you will need a filter rated for a much larger tank than you have (i'd go for a 250L filter, or thereabouts).


My parents had a huge tropical aquarium when i was younger and they had Angels and they were bullies!! It put me off them but apart from that the tank i have has a built in filter so probably wouldn't cope with their messiness anyway! I was talking to someone who used to mainly keep marine fish (has also kept tropical freshwater) and he said that Dwarf Gouramis are lovely and would do well in a community tank so i'm going to do some reading up on them.

Thank you muchly, any more info is more than welcome! 
Jo


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## NaomiM (Sep 22, 2012)

I was looking at gouramis myself today, thinking of getting some honey gouramis for my tank 

If you do decide to go for dwarf gouramis, see if you can find a shop that stocks females. Many shops will only stock males as they're much more colourful, but if you get more than one male, they may well fight. One male with one or more females is a much better option, and you may then be lucky enough to see them build a bubble nest


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## Phoenix24 (Apr 6, 2013)

I heard that some gouramis fight even with mixed sexes or females - so I just got the one male to be safe (neon/powder blue dwarf)? Not that I have room for more... 

Yeah angels can be bullies, but they also get picked on too. I bought a lovely shoal of Indian glassfish and a couple of days later the angel's fins were wrecked. The glassfish went, I kept the angel. Most of the time there is no trouble in my tank, though when i first put the small tetras in he did think they were lunch...


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## magicmike (Jun 7, 2012)

For plants, I would also recommend anubias. In my opinion they are the easiest to look after. Whatever type of plants you decide on make sure they all require similar light spectrum level.

Here are some low light aquarium plants :
Aquatics: Low Light, Beginner Aquarium Plants


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