Tetras and Plants

Hi Guys and Gals,

I apologise in advance if this has already been discussed or mentioned in another thread, I assure you i tried to search the forum for any answer before adding this thread.:amuse:

I currently have a 100L setup. Between today and yesterday I found new homes for my 30cm Pleco and 2x22cm Tiger red Oscars. Physically their size was below below the tank requirements, but they were growing out of it rapidly and i believe its cruelty when the tank is under their requirements and happy that I found them new homes before they were to big.:rock:

Ok, So now i did some shopping and ended up with.

22 x Red eye / Yellow band Tetras
1 x Brislenose pleco
1 x Glass Bloodfin ( waiting on stock, then I will get 21 more )
1 x African Butterfly Fish.
2 x Clown Loaches (Sponsored by Jakkals)
2 x Bronze Cory's (Sponsored by Jakkals)

I Currerently have a fairly rough substrate. 3-7mm. a bunch of rose Quarts and Drift wood.

What i would like to achieve is to add to the driftwood with a huge piece of wood.

Then plant around that. Say 30% Planted, I dont feel like adding livestock as i think what i have is enough (50 Total) 2 liter per fishy.

I would like to attach some Java Moss to the big piece of driftwood so that it creates a nice base for everything around it.

Would Java Fern work?

What else would make nice plants?

Where could i get Java Moss

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you

 

To start off with, 50 on 100 liter tanks is a bit overstocked. What does your filter setup look like and what does your lighting looks like? If you can give an idea on this it will be easier to give some advice on plants. Glad you could find a new home for your oscars and plec. For Java moss, not easy to find. I'm also looking for some, can maybe try some of the other members for a piece or two.

 

Overstocked? 44 tetras?

So should I then rather leave the bloodfins?

I Have a canister filter 400l/hour. Stuffed with carbon, ceramic rings, black and white sponge.

2xt8 25watt tubes on 30 watt balasts, blue and white, would i have to go over to pink, so white and pink?

 

Apologies, the filter is actually 600l/hour

 

Your tank will be VERY overstocked! Don't get any more fish, and take the African Butterfly fish and the Glassbloodfin back to the pet shop. The ABF will eat your tetras.
The Clown loaches will also outgrow your tank. They get to around 20cm when half grown and can last more than 15 years.
Corys like to be in schools of 6+, so rather take some tetras out and add some corys.

Did a pet shop tell you that you could fit 50 fish in the tank?

As for lights. rather stay with plain white. Sure it can look boring, but the other colors can cause algae outbreaks. Look for Flo-glo or sun-glo or something around 6400Kelvin rating on the box.

HTH. Ask more questions if you need.

 

Hi Firefly,

Thanx for the advice

Previous setup was

1 x African Butterfly fish
14 x Neon Tetra
10 x Silver tip Tetra
8 x Leopard Danio's
2 x Cooli Loaches
2 x Clown loaches
8 x Tiger barbs
6 x Ghost Catfish
2 x Dwarf Gourami's
1 x Spotted Pleco
2 x Bronz Cory's
1 x Crown Betta
4 x Platties
4 x Mollies

Had white and pink T8 lighting and a corner internal filter.

All lived in harmony for over a year untill the heater went and my tank went dormant for 6 months. Then I started with the malawi's and then the oscars and now the tetras again.

I agree 50 Fish might be overstocked, but tetras take 4 to make up one mollies waste easily, so to me, having 20 tetras, make up 5 Mollies.....IMO

I therfore concluded that +- 40 tetras would be ideal for 100 Liters.

So in conclusion, skip the bloodfins, pass on the ABF and clown loaches and invest in more cory's, Im a bit cautious of more than 2 cory's, previous expierience has dealt me a bad card when it came to them. Any other suggestions? Wouldn't pink help with planted tanks?


Back to the topic.............

Which plants would work well and where is a trust worhy supplier of plants. I usually support pet a pond on plants as i have not seen better in PTA YET. But the guy annoys me as he tries to be so smart, but is always contradicting himself. and i have left there many a time, ears bleeding.

 

Vallis,Java fern,moss and some other plant looks like vallis growing from a stem...... these plants seem to do well with my tetra tank