What would you stock in this hex tank?

[HenryC]

Got this acrylic hex tannk for just $20! Couldn't pass it up, I'm starting to love acrylic tanks, and especially when they have the dark background. It's a little scratched, but ah well, I already polished a 100G one, so this will be a breeze haha. The seller didn't know the gallons, but I'm guessing around 20-30g?

What would you stock in here? I was thinking some angels but I wonder if its too small for them. I already have tetras, guppies, mollies and gouramis. Do you have any suggestions as to what fish might like the odd proportion? Something that likes the vertical lenght hehe. Water bottle for scale lol.

Edited December 3, 2020 by HenryC

[FrozenFins]

What a steal! You could do one angelfish in that tank. 

[StevesFishTanks]

Planted. one epic mother sword. And a bunch of plant friendly nanos

[lefty o]

bunch of plants with some cherry shrimp, and some small rasboras.

[SpiritLiefe]

I agree with one bushy centerpiece plant then some shrimp and cherry barbs or neon or cardinal tetras.

[Fonske]

I would try a sand waterfall with a bunch of bigger shrimp, or a mossy cliff/waterfall design with a fiddler crab.

Or grow a big mantle of pothos/tradescantia from the top, covering most of the tank and stock with a dwarf pearl gourami. 

[HenryC]

Thanks! Neat ideas. I'm thinking either Chili rasboras or celestial pearl danios, and the big amazon in the middle seems like a good idea! Maybe even a huge cluster of vallisneria.

[Marc]

I think I have this tank. Each side is about 9 inches and it's about 16.5 inches tall. I think its 14-15 gallons. I have had a bunch of small CPDs and shrimp in it, I also have some dwarf corys in there but I want to get them out. Not enough bottom space for them.  I might add something colorful too the top once the juvenile CPDs have grown up or I may make it a tank for a Betta.

[CanadaAmanda]

This might help 🙂 

http://keisan.casio.com//apple-touch-icon.png Volume of a regular hexagonal prism Calculator - High accuracy calculation

KEISAN.CASIO.COM

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Calculates the volume and surface area of a regular hexagonal prism given the edge length and height.

Looks like 15 gallons if it's the same one as Marc.

Edited December 3, 2020 by CanadaAmanda

[CanadaAmanda]

What about a dwarf male gourami as the centre piece fish, a school of your favourite small tetras (I'm a sucker for Embers, could stick a nice size school of them in there and they look awesome in planted tanks), and for clean up crew a few ottos?  Since you already keep gouramis you likely know how much space they need, so maybe a regular one, not a dwarf, I'm not sure?

 

I'm setting up a columnar tank (10" diameter, 25" deep, 8 gallon volume but realistically 5-6 gals of water) and from what I've read so far, the main concerned is not stocking fish that are true top/bottom only dwellers unless the footprint is large enough for them (I don't really know of any small enough) and choosing fish an appropriate size for the footprint so they'll have sufficient swimming room.  For my tank I'm set on a school of ember tetras, a golden mystery snail (if I can feed him adequately to get him to stop eating LIVE plants... think he must have been starved at the store?) and beyond that I'm up in the air!

[RovingGinger]

I have a 10 gallon hex for guppies and they use up all the levels. It's kinda funny as they self-segment by size, smallest fry on the bottom, adults up at the surface.

[Lemon]

neon or cardinal tetras and one center piece plant like a sword

[QuiteContrary]

Neon Green kubotai rasboras are on my nano wish list. 

[ChefConfit]

I've got a 29 hex. Looks close to the same size as yours in relation to a water bottle. Hex tanks are really cool because you've got a ton of height to play with and can do cool stuff with it but because the footprint if so small compared to the volume your limited to mostly fish that would do well in a 10 gallon (except for stuff like angels that usually need a larger tank because they need more height).

Mines heavily planted with a Crinum Calamistratum in the center that has grown all the way up the tank and some rock work behind it. The back three panels are planted with various stem plants. The foreground is crypts and some rhizome plants. I've also got some pothos coming out the top with the roots reaching all the way to the substrate. 

For stocking I've got 12 neon tetras, 4 corydoras, 5 ottocinclus and 3 Amano shrimp. I'm getting ready to add another school that will just use the top of the tank and a centerpiece fish. 

You can do a lot of cool stuff with that tank, but it also has a lot of limitations. My best advice is get fish that will use all the levels of the tanks. Either different fish for different levels or multiple of 1 species that will use multiple levels. Otherwise you'll have a lot of wasted space. 

[ange]

Try comparing the size of the tank's footprint to fish compatible with that tank size. I have a 50 hex and it's great but I avoided very active species because it's only about the same footprint size as a 20L (and it's only 24" at the widest point).

[David Ellsworth]

You could make a tall rockscape column with plants and anubis/ferns on it and tall bushy growth in back? If it is big enough maybe some pencil fish for the top to swim and because they go vertical at times and apistos in the bottom?

 

I've always wanted to try a pvc network of pipe tunnels in a securely stacked mountain scape for fish that love hiding places. That might work here. Maybe do this with the rock dwelling dwarf african cichlids?

[MAC]

What about a more "blackwater" set up? Maybe a nice vertical root looking driftwood piece set back, a natural sand-like substrate and floating plants over some leaf litter. 

I like the recommendation above about pencilfish up top-- N. Eques are some of my favorites--and something like apistos below or a school of micro rasbora's.

[ange]

10 hours ago, MAC said:

What about a more "blackwater" set up? Maybe a nice vertical root looking driftwood piece set back, a natural sand-like substrate and floating plants over some leaf litter. 

I like the recommendation above about pencilfish up top-- N. Eques are some of my favorites--and something like apistos below or a school of micro rasbora's.

You just described my tank 😂

[MAC]

6 minutes ago, ange said:

You just described my tank 😂

Nice! I really like the blackwater setup with taller tanks. For me it solves the issue of getting light all the way to the bottom. Cool looking tank 👍

[Nataku]

You could do a species only tank with julidichromis transcriptus if you wanted a neat fish. Have a pile of rocks in the middle - you can stick anubias and java fern to the rocks, I haven't found julis to be destructive to the plants. Do some floater on the surface, either a crown of pothos as was suggested above, or dwarf salvinia. They will breed and cooperatively raise the fry. And they will move at any angle, up or down, front or back, so they'll  use the whole rock so long as there's enough rock structure for them.