# Stocking a 37 tall



## colio (Dec 8, 2012)

hi all. 

I got a 37 tall yesterday (thanks joel.c!). I am cycling it now, kick starting it by adding some plants, decorations, and filter media from my old tank. I am gonna plant it fairly heavily, and it has some rocks with holes/caves. I hope to get a decent piece of driftwood to. The substrate is playsand. 

I need to decide what fish to add. My other tank (a little 10 gallon) has a betta and neon tetras, so no repeats. 

There are two specific things I want in the tank: Kuhli loaches (I love em!) and shrimp (ghost, red cherry, maybe yellow). Other than that, I'm not sure. I like fancy guppies, but the wife is no fan. I'd like both mid-level and high level fish, and preferably some schooling and maybe a somewhat larger centerpiece fish. 

What we want to avoid: most chiclids (I have the impresion they are harder to keep), no angels, or discus.

Parameters: Very hard (GPH over 180 ppm), Ph around 6.5, temp depending on what I get for fish. Lots of plans and some good hiding spots. The filter is an Aquaclear 300 HOB, which produces a fair amount of water movement, and is excessive for the tank. 

But I'm pretty new to fish keeping, so nothing to complex. Thanks for any ideas!


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## pyrrolin (Jan 11, 2012)

make sure you have good lighting as 37 tall tanks are quite tall.

Guppies breed like ummm, guppies, not recommended

Take a look at the different tetras for schooling fish, Neons are lovely


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## nightowl1350 (Mar 19, 2006)

not sure if rainbow fish would take the hard water, but there are some awesome ones out there (never had any myself) Someone else may be able to reply to that.


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## colio (Dec 8, 2012)

I like neon tetras, but I have them already in my 10 gallon. I want to branch out a bit, and maybe find something a bit larger.

I also think I may add Ottos. Them, plus shrimp, plus loaches, should keep my sand nice and cleaned up.


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## pyrrolin (Jan 11, 2012)

can't go very big with a 37 tall, its only 30 inches long. I wouldnt put in fish over 3 inches


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## ppaskova (Apr 27, 2010)

What about:
- Tiger barbs
- Cherry barbs
- Golden barbs
Easy to keep and very hardy. Could be schooling or single. The only downside may not be compatible with neons or guppies or bettas.
Also Gurammy is very nice and easy to keep as well. And some of them are big enough for your tank


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## colio (Dec 8, 2012)

The problem for the barbs is they are not nice community fishies, and I'd like to have a few types (especially the loaches). But maybe the barbs would get along with them. I really like the tiger barbs, but I don't want a huge tanke with just one type of fish in it. And I am crazy for kuhli Loaches.



ppaskova said:


> What about:
> - Tiger barbs
> - Cherry barbs
> - Golden barbs
> ...


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## pyrrolin (Jan 11, 2012)

kuhli loaches should be fine with tiger barbs, they are very fast fish. I have a couple of them and I rarely see them.


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## colio (Dec 8, 2012)

Actually turns out it is a 38, not a 37 tall! The footprint is 36 x 12! Nice to know what your tank is!

My wife saw some cardinal tetras today when we went to see Boris of shrimp-tank.com. Even though they are very much like the neon tetras we have, she wants them, so I'll probably get them into the mix.


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## pyrrolin (Jan 11, 2012)

bigger footprint means you can go slightly larger with fish


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## colio (Dec 8, 2012)

We may have settled on a potential scheme for this tank. We'll be adding plants (some today), and I hope it to be a moderately to heavily planted low tech tank. 

For a centerpiece, I think I want a blue gourami. They are nice looking fish. The only thing I need to decide is if I will keep a solitary fish, or mix up a few (one male and 2-3 females). 

Besides the gourami, We plan to add:
7 or so cardinal tetras
6-8 kuhli loaches
4 or 5 otto cats


Sadly the gourami means no little shrimpies for this tank : (


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## Fishfur (Mar 4, 2012)

Have you considered keeping any Danios ? While they are quite common, they have some nice advantages. They are hardy, tough fish, for one. Swift swimmers who like the upper and mid levels, they don't get too large, a couple of inches for most or less, with the one exception being the Giant Danio, which can get much bigger.

They are active and entertaining and very adaptable to hard water conditions and higher pH levels. They prefer cooler temperatures than most tetras, much as shrimp do, so I can get by without a heater most of the time. Only have it in case of real cold snap to prevent it getting really chilly. Saves power use. They enjoy a current, and so do kuhli loaches, so that's a nice combo. I'm very fond of the loaches too. Keep the regular ones, black khulis, which seem quite hardy, and another species I've yet to ID, which looks similar but has no markings to speak of.

I've found Danios get on fairly well with shrimp as well, provided there are plenty of hiding spots for the shrimp to take advantage of.. heavy planting helps with that, as does wood and rock. Danios don't bother plants, and they come in a variety of species & colours. Longfins are available as well in some species. Most are either striped or spotted.

I particularly like the Kyathit danio, which has large black spots on a rich dark golden body colour. To me they it is very like a leopard or cheetah pattern.. while the danio that is called a Leopard danio has quite tiny spots that are not quite as decorative. I've found Leopard danios also seem to be somewhat prone to dropsy. This may be just unfortunate luck on my part, but no other danio's I've kept have had this health issue.

Long fin Zebras are quite pretty and come in a very attractive gold variant that is highly visible against plants. As do most fish, danios will likely eat baby shrimp if they catch one, but they spend very little time at the bottom, so are less likely to find baby shrimp. I've had quite a few Snowball [ white Cherry shrimp ] and Ghost shrimp babies grow up just fine in a 30 G tank full of Danios of various species, along with loaches and cories.

There are some smaller species too.. Orange Hatchet is one that's nice, and smaller, not much over an inch and quarter long. Or the Dwarf Spotted, which is like a Leopard but with spots only on the lower half of the body and about the same size as the Hatchet.

They don't seem to have many health issues, other than the one with the Leopards I mentioned, but you should watch out for really weedy looking specimens. They are bred in large numbers and while males are always going to be slimmer than females, some look almost anorexic, or stunted. Usually you can ask not to have any that look overly slender or bent in your purchase.

I'm biased, I've always like these fish, but I think they are sometimes overlooked in favour of the tetras, but I find them much easier to keep than tetras.


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