needs more variety

[fishboy87]

Hi

I've been working on my first planted 29 gallon tank for about a month now and I currently have 3 otos and 4 green cories. I will soon remove the cories because i have sand over my soil that was supposed to cover the entire tank but not any more thanks to the digging . I was planning on adding 2 german blue rams, 7 cardinal tetras, and 12 rummies until i discoered that the rams dig when they prepare to breed and took them off the list.

This is where the question comes in. Should I add more tetras or is there another rather good-looking fish that is of the size of a gbr that i can keep without digging.

Thanks to anybody who can answer my question

[lauraleellbp]

If you want to stick with South American fish a small school of Colombian tetras might work.

Otherwise you could try some gouramis, or a betta (plakat/short-finned male would probably be best, or a female betta)

[@marko@]

you could put in a pair of pygmy gourami (sparkling gourami), or a school of rasbora.

[fishboy87]

I did some research on care of dwarf gouramis and I was wondering if 2 males would be OK without any territory issues.

[Good Wolf]

I had two males housed togather for about a month before one showed signs of it's fins being nipped. I tried a Blue Gourami with a Dwarf Gourami and I had to take the Blue out with a matter of minutes.

It is best to either have one or have a male and female but femals are hard to come by.

I would add a gourami, I like the Flame Dwarf, and fill out your school of Cardinals. The more you have the more they will school/shoal togather, and the more comfortable they will be.

I plan on moving mine to my 75g once it is up and running and getting a couple dozen Cardinals and Blacks.

[Riley]

Rams like to spawn on flat surface.

If you put a flat rock or similar structure....they will spawn on that and not dig.

If you want rams, take a flat rock and place it a corner of the tank...somewhere were there is a couple of sides protected.

If you still want to go rams I would as long as you can provide the suitable spawning media.

If you want something like a ram I would look into Apistogramma sp. They are great little cichlids for planted tanks.

I would add a dozen rummies or cardinals and a pair of some type of dwarf cichlid to the tank.

[fishboy87]

Thanks to a slight re-do on the stocking list, this is what I've come up with:
-15 rummies
-10 cardinals
-3 otos
-2 gbr OR 2 dwarf gouramis

This will probably be my decision-maker. If I was to let my tank grow out until my micro sword covers the bottom, would the rams uproot them if they try to breed?

[Lupin]

I'm not going to recommend dwarf gouramis lest you know the source where your stores get them. These are not as hardy as they used to be due to fish farms feeding them foods laced with hormones to change their sexes to males. Males are in higher demand compared to females.

[Good Wolf]

Not to contridict Bluebell whom has a lot more experience than I do but I bought all three of mine from Pet Fart and haven't had any issues. I guess with every other thing in life it is luck of the draw.

[forddna]

Riley, I had several flat (slate) rocks in my old tank, and my GBRs still dug small pits in my substrate.

They will set up a territory and spawn in/on whatever is in that territory.

[fshfanatic]

Originally Posted by Good Wolf

Not to contridict Bluebell whom has a lot more experience than I do but I bought all three of mine from Pet Fart and haven't had any issues. I guess with every other thing in life it is luck of the draw.

Now thats funny

[Lupin]

Good Wolf, your source may have been different because in Asia, most of the dwarf gouramis we get are quite weak. Glad to hear yours are doing well though.

LOL fshfanatic! What store is it?

[forddna]

If he's referring to Pets Mart, I've had nothing but success with fish from there. At least, the one store I have used.

[dthb4438]

Originally Posted by forddna

If he's referring to Pets Mart, I've had nothing but success with fish from there. At least, the one store I have used.

I've had better luck with Petsmart and Petco that two of my local LFS's. Now that I know the people that wield the fishnet better, they keep me posted on new fish, sick fish to stay away from and all the newest on the pet food issues.