~300L Sorority Tank Stocking Ideas

[bobo]

Hey guys,

 

The tank will be heavily planted, 120l x45d x60h aquarium.

I'm planning to keep some female bettas, a schooling fish, some bottom dwellers.

My current thoughts:

~6 female bettas

20-30 single species of a schooling fish.  This is where I am most stuck,  I am looking at emerald eye rasboras, harlequin/espei rasboras, x-ray tetra.  What are your thoughts?  

~10 Corys, probably peppered/sterbai.

Maybe some zebra or pakistani loaches.  6 or so,  Not sure about these.

 

Perhaps some odds and ends as the mood fancies: such as some kind of small dwarf cichlid(s), BNC, ottos  etc.

Any other ideas?

 

Particularly interested in your thoughts regarding the schooling fish and the loaches.

Advice much appreciated!

 

 

 

 

Edited November 27, 2015 by bobo

[JJWooble]

Schooling fish-- 20-30 of a single species sounds like an awesome plan, I am doing the same thing with my 200 litre and its really cool to see such a large group of fish swim accross the tank. 

Personally, I'd say go with the harlequins. From what I've seen in stores, they're cheaper than emerald eyes, more colourful than xrays, are very active, confident and school well together even when in low numbers (even as a group of 6 mine were very active and confident). I have a group of 21, will eventually top them up to 30, and absolutely love them.

Second best would probs be the emerald eyes-- I have noticed mine (group of 11) are more shy than the harlequins but they may be more confident in a larger group. Would be good if you wanted the bettas to be the absolute centre of attention of the tank. Very cute, and their eyes are absolutely stunning. They school reasonably well as a group as well.

X-rays... I haven't kept, but from what I've seen they don't have the same activity level or colour as the other two fish you've mentioned. If you were going to go for a tetra, I'd suggest rummy noses as they are adorable, but would suggest the rasbora over tetra  

 

Corys-- Sterbais are awesome  I have a group of 20 or so. They tend to hide in my scape even though in high numbers when people come to visit, but put a morsel of food in there and suddenly they all come rushing out. Not sure how they will interact with loaches, other people may have more experience on this. 

In terms of dwarf cichlids, I've always found German Blue Rams very cool, only concern I would have is how aggressive they would be in 'spawning mode' towards the bettas-- haven't kept them before though so I'm not sure if this would be an issue.

What does BNC stand for?