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Phillip
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Hey everyone! We got our daughter an aquarium for Christmas - 36 bow front. She loves animals an we figured this would be a nice addition. We've learned so much this past month! I had no idea you had to cycle a tank. It's been great learning and teaching her about the nitrogen cycle. We are getting close to being cycled - still have some nitrites, but nitrates are coming up. Can't wait. We want a community tank and are thinking about adding zebra danios first (not set in stone). I've really gotten into it and can't wait to get my own tank. I've also really started getting in to the plant side of it, which is funny because I don't really know anything about plants! 

We haven't decided what fish we are going to add, but we have a list of possible.

Fish on our list (in no particular order)

Zebra danios

She loves guppies, mollys and platties - I told her we probably won't be able to get all three, I think they all are live bearers and produce a lot of off spring??

Harlequin rasboa

Some kind of tetra -  Cardinal maybe?? I've read neons are not best for newbies

And some kind of coy cats

 

I'll take any tips or advice you have.

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Neons shouldn't be too bad. They're not great for the "fish bowl" mindset. In my opinion. I've tried cardinals in the past and from what I've seen neons are a fair deal easyer. If you just want different kinds of fish that arnt too hard to do I think neons would be good. Green eyed tetras. White cloud minnows and all that should work out ok. If you search long enough you will  find someone who didn't do the research or take care of the tank as a whole and then say whatever fish is hard to keep. Breeding neons can be a pain. But just to have from what I've seen they arnt too bad. All that being said I don't think cardinals are too bad either I think we just got a sickly batch. But even if they are similar in difficulty neons are a bit cheaper per fish from what I've seen.

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Welcome to the forum and to the hobby! I second the suggestion to keep all males. Though you could add a predator to the tank to keep the fry numbers down, such as a golden wonder killifish (might eat the neons though, hmm). But you probably would still need a backup plan if the population managed to get too much. 

Edited by H.K.Luterman
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5 hours ago, OceanTruth said:

Good luck with the setup! Yes, guppies, mollies, and platties are all livebearers. You could just get all males if you don't want to be overrun with fry. That way you can keep all 3 types as well.

All males is a good idea. We plan to start with one kind of fish, then slowly add more. So much to choose from!

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3 hours ago, Nick L said:

Neons shouldn't be too bad. They're not great for the "fish bowl" mindset. In my opinion. I've tried cardinals in the past and from what I've seen neons are a fair deal easyer. If you just want different kinds of fish that arnt too hard to do I think neons would be good. Green eyed tetras. White cloud minnows and all that should work out ok. If you search long enough you will  find someone who didn't do the research or take care of the tank as a whole and then say whatever fish is hard to keep. Breeding neons can be a pain. But just to have from what I've seen they arnt too bad. All that being said I don't think cardinals are too bad either I think we just got a sickly batch. But even if they are similar in difficulty neons are a bit cheaper per fish from what I've seen.

Good to hear about the neons. Someone on another group recently told me to steer clear of them. We had some when I was a kid, forever ago, and I really liked them. We are just looking to get a variety of fish, not really set in stone which ones. 

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There is always a variety of factors from water quality to the health of the fish when you first get it. But if you do some research quarantine and make sure they eat and go to the bathroom then in most cases you will be fine. Just make sure you know what kind of chemistry your fishes need and what they do amd don't go well with (and on the topic of chemistry I wouldn't chase numbers too much when it comes to ph and hardness steady parameters seem to do better than ones that fluctuate too much)

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The joy of setting up that first tank is unlike any other! I personally loge the choice of tank I have a 47gal bow front planted community tank. I think your on the right track as far as stock list I have zebra danios giant danios guppy’s Cory cats kuhli’ loaches if you don’t know what those are look them up I feel you’ll really like those so will your daughter! Remember to be patient with yourself and the selected fish accidents will happen but as long as you use it as a learning curve. To educate yourself all will be ok in the long run fish are so relaxing and fun no matter your age. I’ll end with there’s a lot of people who are gonna claim to know better or more than you Aka fish police etc and you need to take with a grain of salt because in truth they might or might not it up too you to do the research get more than one opinion check multiple sources there’s a lot of hood people on this forum and of course Cory knows his stuff
p.s this is what I wish I was told when I first started

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Welcome to the forum.  In addition to the comments above I wanted to mention that corys are great fish, and a lot of fun to watch, but I wouldn't recommend having them with mollies.  When I had them together the mollies would follow the corys around waiting for one to find a piece of food, then chase it away.  I got rid of the mollies and haven't had any since.  I don't know if that behavior is typical for mollies or other livebearers, though I doubt if it would be a problem with guppies.

Also, you may already know this, but if you do get corys it's best to get all one species.  While they don't school tightly, they are shoaling fish that do best with others of the same species.  You'll often see 6 mentioned as the minimum number, but that's arbitrary.  More is always better, space and filtration permitting.  I have 9 trilineatus, 10 pandas, and somewhere around 15 pygmys (each group in a different tank).

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Mutt guppies are flat out awesome for kids because babies are sooo much fun. So I am going to buck the tide and say get males and females, and then a fish that will eat just fry. I have seen a golden wonder killie eat a near adult male guppy, so I would choose something a bit smaller. Maybe some male platys or mollies, and just add them once your first batch of fry is big enough, and you get worried about overpopulation. The guppies were my childhood unicorn pet, and I didn't get to have them until I was in my 40s. I bet your daughter would love to gift them to friends.

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4 hours ago, Casual aquatics said:

The joy of setting up that first tank is unlike any other! I personally loge the choice of tank I have a 47gal bow front planted community tank. I think your on the right track as far as stock list I have zebra danios giant danios guppy’s Cory cats kuhli’ loaches if you don’t know what those are look them up I feel you’ll really like those so will your daughter! Remember to be patient with yourself and the selected fish accidents will happen but as long as you use it as a learning curve. To educate yourself all will be ok in the long run fish are so relaxing and fun no matter your age. I’ll end with there’s a lot of people who are gonna claim to know better or more than you Aka fish police etc and you need to take with a grain of salt because in truth they might or might not it up too you to do the research get more than one opinion check multiple sources there’s a lot of hood people on this forum and of course Cory knows his stuff
p.s this is what I wish I was told when I first started

Setting up this tank has been a really fun experience so far! We have learned som much also. I just discovered Kuhli loaches! They are so cool looking. I’m going to look in to them some more and see if we can add them to our list. Thanks for all the info. I’ll be asking questions all over the forum, I’ve already been hitting up the plant section a lot.  

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4 hours ago, JettsPapa said:

Also, you may already know this, but if you do get corys it's best to get all one species.  While they don't school tightly, they are shoaling fish that do best with others of the same species.  You'll often see 6 mentioned as the minimum number, but that's arbitrary.  More is always better, space and filtration permitting.  I have 9 trilineatus, 10 pandas, and somewhere around 15 pygmys (each group in a different tank).

Thanks for the info on Cory’s and molies. I didn’t know that.

I did hear that you should get the same species of corys for schools. I’ve been seeing the word shoaling lately and thought it was a typo at first. I’m assuming it means similar to schooling, I’ll have to go look it up. 

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4 hours ago, Brandy said:

Mutt guppies are flat out awesome for kids because babies are sooo much fun. So I am going to buck the tide and say get males and females, and then a fish that will eat just fry. I have seen a golden wonder killie eat a near adult male guppy, so I would choose something a bit smaller. Maybe some male platys or mollies, and just add them once your first batch of fry is big enough, and you get worried about overpopulation. The guppies were my childhood unicorn pet, and I didn't get to have them until I was in my 40s. I bet your daughter would love to gift them to friends.

She loves guppies! We were planning on getting one kind of fish, then slowly adding to the tank. Would it be best to add a hardy fish like danios first, or start off with guppies?  Do you have a fish you’d recommend instead of golden wonder killi? I was watching a video on them earlier. 

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1 hour ago, Phillip said:

She loves guppies! We were planning on getting one kind of fish, then slowly adding to the tank. Would it be best to add a hardy fish like danios first, or start off with guppies?  Do you have a fish you’d recommend instead of golden wonder killi? I was watching a video on them earlier. 

Mutt guppies (the kind labled "fancy guppies" in pet stores) are usually sold in a bunch of random colors from 2 tanks--one for males and one for females. Mine, which I got for about $2 each, are the toughest little fish I have right now. I have soft water, and I don't heat my guppy tank (though my house is warm) which is the opposite of what guppies should want--warm hard water--and they have just been bullet proof. They eat, breed, are happy, colorful, and healthy. Out of hundreds that I have had now I have had one causalty, and I am not sure it wasn't just that it was trapped by some tank decor. 

I have heard imported and inbred show strains can be a whole diffferent thing, finicky and sensitive, so I would steer clear of those unless they are being raised locally in your water for generations.

To be honest, if you feed less and don't provide too much cover the guppies will be their own population control. If you want more mouths to feed, most fish that are the size of a guppy will eat the fry, including danios, and I think males of other live bearer species would also be an easy and compatible mix.

Looking at your original list, all will probably snack here and there, mostly are compatible, and are very good for beginners. The only fish that will be harder is the tetras. Guppies like harder water, tetras like softer, and if you are going to stress someone out, stress the guppies. The tetras are more fragile. So if it were me I would start with the guppies, let them breed a bit, then corys/rasboras, then the ever hungry and very fast danios and/or other livebearers(population control!), and finally, only if you still want them, the tetras.

Other poulation control fish that would focus on fry would be a small gourami, a single angel fish, or a small hardier cichlid like an apistograma or bolivian ram. 

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2 hours ago, Phillip said:

Thanks for the info on Cory’s and molies. I didn’t know that.

I did hear that you should get the same species of corys for schools. I’ve been seeing the word shoaling lately and thought it was a typo at first. I’m assuming it means similar to schooling, I’ll have to go look it up. 

 

Shoaling is somewhat similar to schooling, but very few freshwater fish are true schooling.  Shoaling fish don't stay in tight groups, all swimming in the same direction, like some salt water fish, but they do feel safer in groups of their own kind.  If they're comfortable in your tank, and don't feel threatened, they'll go off and do their own thing sometimes.

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