40 gallon community tank

[tekjunkie28]

I never thought I would come to the point of asking this question but here I am..  I have. A 40 breeder tank that's been setup for 2-3 months now.  I added plants last week and am dosing easy green.  The tank is not cycled which is fine.  I'm going to transfer one of the sponges from the quarantine tank to the 40 whenever I bring the fish over.  That leads to my next question....   what can I stock in it?  I feel crazy asking this question because I have kept tanks for pretty much my whole life. But this time the tank is in the living room and is a centerpiece so I feel more inclined to pick stuff that attracts.   For my schooling fish I have thought about guppies, ember tetras or cardinal tetras but if there's others that i should look at let me know. As for the amount I was thinking like 30-50?  I'm not sure about other fish but for the bottom dwellers I would like to have a bristles nose and some corys of some kind. After the tank get good and established I also thought of the idea of introducing a shrimp and or snails also.   I have done all this I'm saltwater before but never freshwater.  I fact I find saltwater to be somewhat easier to pick what I want. 

[CorydorasEthan]

2 minutes ago, tekjunkie28 said:

I never thought I would come to the point of asking this question but here I am..  I have. A 40 breeder tank that's been setup for 2-3 months now.  I added plants last week and am dosing easy green.  The tank is not cycled which is fine.  I'm going to transfer one of the sponges from the quarantine tank to the 40 whenever I bring the fish over.  That leads to my next question....   what can I stock in it?  I feel crazy asking this question because I have kept tanks for pretty much my whole life. But this time the tank is in the living room and is a centerpiece so I feel more inclined to pick stuff that attracts.   For my schooling fish I have thought about guppies, ember tetras or cardinal tetras but if there's others that i should look at let me know. As for the amount I was thinking like 30-50?  I'm not sure about other fish but for the bottom dwellers I would like to have a bristles nose and some corys of some kind. After the tank get good and established I also thought of the idea of introducing a shrimp and or snails also.   I have done all this I'm saltwater before but never freshwater.  I fact I find saltwater to be somewhat easier to pick what I want. 

Great looking aquarium! Here are a couple of stocking suggestions:

Schooling Fish: Like you said, tetras like the cardinal and ember tetra work great. Other options include the harlequin rasbora, white cloud mountain minnow, cherry barb, threadfin rainbowfish, and plenty of other tetra varieties. In terms of numbers, I would go for around 15 or 20 of one species. If you are doing smaller species like the cardinal tetras, ember tetras, neon tetras, chili rasboras, or similar, then you could probably go to around 30.

Other fish: You mentioned guppies, which were be a great option in addition to the other schooling fish. You could do a group of all males, or a mixed group of around 6 females and two males if you want some babies. Other livebearers like platies, freshwater mollies, and swordtails might work as well. A couple more options include the honey gourami, pearl gourami, Bolivian ram, or apistogramma species.

Bottom Dwellers: Corydoras would make an excellent choice. Do a school of around 6-8 of one species. You could choose albino/bronze cory (C. aeneus), peppered cory (C. paleatus), sterbai cory (C. sterbai), false julii cory (C. trilineatus), or panda cory (C. panda). Cories are very peaceful and perfect for a community aquarium. They might eat baby shrimp though. If you are looking for something completely shrimp safe, try the pygmy cory. They grow less than an inch long. Get a group of around 15 of these guys. Other options for bottom dwellers include kuhli loachs, dwarf chain loaches, and upside-down catfish.

Bottom Dwellers (cont.): Bristlenose plecos would work well, but I personally would go for otocinclus catfish. They are like plecos, but much smaller and equally efficient eating algae. They are also very similar in appearance to pygmy cories, so they would school with the pygmy cories if you got them both. Other bottom dwellers that fit in this "algae eater" category include the hillstream loach, siamese algae eater (doesn't suck on glass, but great against hair algae), and rubberlip pleco.

Invertebrates: Yes shrimp and snails would work fine. Personally, I would go for nerite snails and amano shrimp. But if you wanted breeding go for ramshorn snails and cherry shrimp. Everything I mentioned above is pretty shrimp safe, but you have to be careful with larger fish like the cichlids and gourami. Also the baby shrimp will likely get eaten by all but the smallest fish on the list.

Hope this helps, and good luck!

[tekjunkie28]

Thanks for saying that. I didn't scape it though, the wife did and thats the 1st time she ever done it. Took her about 5 seconds. Literally!    I will look into the other fish you listed. My quarantine tank just got done cycling today so I'm good to go. 

[AquaAggie]

10 hours ago, CorydorasEthan said:

I would go for nerite snails

One word of warning, that I didn’t receive in a similar situation. If you end up with a female nerite you will get little white eggs everywhere. They won’t hatch but they hang around for a while. May not bother you but I’m not the biggest fan. Have fun. 

[tekjunkie28]

10 hours ago, CorydorasEthan said:

siamese algae eater

Can I put them with Otocinclus?  Idk why but I love that classic glass huger.    Do any of them actually eat off the glass?

 

Also that pic was a week ago... look at the crazy plant growth... atleast for me. No Co2.

 

[Brandy]

cardinal tetras are a classic, but silvertips would be amazing...

 

[CorydorasEthan]

1 hour ago, tekjunkie28 said:

Can I put them with Otocinclus?  Idk why but I love that classic glass huger.    Do any of them actually eat off the glass?

 

Also that pic was a week ago... look at the crazy plant growth... atleast for me. No Co2.

 

Yes I have a siamese algae eater in my 29 gallon planted community with a group of three otocinclus. They do not bother each other, and their "work styles" compliment each other. For example, the otocinclus will eat the flat algae on the glass, while the siamese algae eater will eat hair algae and black beard algae.

[JettsPapa]

I have a 40 gallon breeder with Pearl gouramis, serpae tetras, pristella tetras, and Corydoras trilineatus.  I'm pretty happy with it, though if I was doing it again I might skip the pristella tetras.  I like them, but the longer I keep fish the more I like fewer kinds of fish in a tank, but larger groups of each kind of shoaling fish.

You may see reports that the serpae tetras are bad fin nippers, but from what I can gather that's almost always as a result of not keeping enough of them.  If they have enough of their own species to hold their attention they generally won't bother other fish.  They're beautiful fish, especially in planted tanks, and I hate to see people pass them up because of an undeserved reputation.

I've had them with the pearl gouramis for close to two years with no issues.  I currently have 15, but I have had as few as 8.

[Colu]

Bristlenose and pair of bovlian rams and a group 10 x-ray tetra or ember tetras and some nerite snails

[tekjunkie28]

I got my Ember tetras out of quarantine and into the 40.  I have 23 of them and they all did great. I will eventually add another 15 or so embers. They school surprisingly well. That is only something that I have no witnessed before as all my tropical tanks have been smaller than 40 gallons.  I have cleaned out the quarantine tank and am ready to get more fish whenever they come in stock.

 

As for stocking additions I am thinking of some sorta or Gourami but not I am not so sure.  I think I may do some live bearers but am undecided ATM.