Help me stock my 26 gallon planted tank...

[csaxe21]

Hey everyone, I am going to be stocking my 26 gallon long planted aquarium soon, and I wanted to make myself a stocking plan. I've had plenty of ideas, but here is another one of my thoughts. Please edit it if you want to, and tell me if there are any problems with it...

- 1 Discus
- 5-7 Harlequin Rasboras (How many?)
- 4-6 Corydoras Catfish (How many?)
- 1 Bristlenose Pleco OR (If it is around the same Bio-Load) 3 Otos?

Do you think this will work? Im kind of doubting it...

Also, I already have 5 Harlequin Rasboras, and 4 Corydoras Catfish in another tank that will be going into this new one, so if you edit it try to keep them included.

Thanks a lot, great to be on the forum!

[RyanH]

Welcome to Simply. :)

Discus are social and need to be in groups. By putting one lone fish in a tank you are asking for trouble. That said, a 26 gallon with decorations and other fish is not really large enough to keep a group of Discus.

You may want to hold off until you can get a larger tank.

Read through the stickied threads here in the beginner section for basic care instructions. Post as you have questions.

[csaxe21]

Thanks, yah that was what I was thinking. Not big enough for 2, 1 isn't sufficient, and I even heard that 2 isn't good unless it's a mated pair because there would be too much aggression...

So, now that I can safely say that I can cross out Discus, do you know any other ways I can stock it.

Before I came up with the discus idea, I was thinking of something like..

- 10 Neon Tetras
- 7 Harlequin Rasboras
- 2 German Blue Rams

- 4-6 Corydoras Catfish
- 1 Bristlenose Pleco

But, some people didn't think it was a good idea? Do you have any ideas along these lines? Keeping the fish that I said I already have in my first post. I really am just interested in some schools, and 1/2 centerpiece fish that are bigger I guess.. Kind of like the rams.

Thanks again

[ShinShin]

One mated pair of discus and a BN pleco.

In your first scenerio, I think you are overstocked. You're going to have about ~20 gallons of water in the 26 gallon tank. The rams, 4 smaller species of cories with 10 rasboras would be my suggestion. Or, 10 cardinal tetras instead of the rasboras, but not both. Cardinals would be a better choice over neons. Rams perfer water above 80F. Neons don't and cardinals do.

Mat

[zamboniMan]

I'd go with 2 disucs. General consensus seems to be 1 adult discus per 10 gallons.
You could then get 6 corrys to eat leftover food. (Rule seems to be 5-6 corrys per gallon).
I personally would go for the ottos (Rule seems to be 2 per gallon). They will be more effienct at removing algae and will also clean the leaves of ur plants. Then your 7 harlequin rasboras (Rule seems to be 1 gallon each). Just my thoughts. Have fun :)

[happygirl65]

Is this a heavily planted tank? This will make a difference.

Ottos are so small they don't have much of a bioload, whereas your pleco (even bn) will be a poop machine. :) They are great though, don't get me wrong just some infor to help you decide on your bioload.

In a tank that small if it was heavily planted I would get the ottos, corys, and a bunch of cardinal tetras.....then when you upgrade (as you most likely will one day if you love discus like the rest of us do) then you will already have safe dependable stock that you can trust to go into a discus community. :)

That's my two cents worth. :)

[csaxe21]

Thanks everyone. I was pretty sure the Discus wasn't a good idea, so at least I can get rid of that idea. And yes, I do plan it being pretty heavily planted. It's going to be a planted tank hopefully, not just a tank with some plants lol. But, also, I was just thinking now...

One of my ideas before this one, involved 5-7 harlequins, 4-6 cories, 10 neon tetras, 1 bristlenose pleco, and 1 angelfish.
I was told it wasn't the best idea since the angel will harass the neons, but what if neons are just out of the picture, and it would get along with everything else?

Would I be able to pull off:

- 5-7 Harlequin Rasboras
- 1-2 Angelfish
- 4-6 Corydoras Catfish
- 1 Bristlenose Pleco

Can this be done? Also, I was told that the BN pleco will eat some plants? Is this true? Because, I definitely don't want any plant eaters my planted tank, so would a couple of otos be a better idea?

Thanks again!

[Ed13]

If it was my tank, same restriccions, I would be choosing
-1 shoal of 10-15 tetras, Which one will be based on the setup. A bright display full of colors will prob be a good fit for the darker Harlequins, Cards on the other hand if there is a need to add color on a more uniform tank display. But ONLY ONE species;)

-1 BN pleco, I like Spotted Bushynose but, hey choose what you like:)

-3 to 6 cories, I'd prob go for a pattern type like trilineatus, sterbai or go for metae, panda or adolfoi

-a pair of dwarf cichlids, I would prob choose Blue Rams or an Apistogramma species like cacatuoides or agazisi

-No discus, no angels, for me in a small tank

How does this benefit you? I don't know as this would only be my way of doing things:D

[csaxe21]

Hey, thanks a lot for the suggestion. Funny enough, that was pretty much my exact first idea. Some people turned it down because of the german blue rams that I wanted, but I don't think they knew anything about them.

So if I wanted to do you think I could:

- 10-12 Tetras (Probably Neons...)
- 2 German Blue Rams
- 5-7 Harlequin Rasboras (You didn't put them your idea, but you did mention them with the tetras, but I already have 5 so they have to be included...)
- 4-6 Corydoras (I can't do 3 because I already have 4. 2 of them are Sterbai)
- 1 Bristlenose Pleco (Depends what my LFS has)

This wouldn't be overstocked? Would there be any fighting, fin nipping, or aggression? Would any of these fish eat the plants?

Thanks

[Ed13]

Hey, thanks a lot for the suggestion. Funny enough, that was pretty much my exact first idea. Some people turned it down because of the german blue rams that I wanted, but I don't think they knew anything about them.

So if I wanted to do you think I could:

- 10-12 Tetras (Probably Neons...)
- 2 German Blue Rams
- 5-7 Harlequin Rasboras (You didn't put them your idea, but you did mention them with the tetras, but I already have 5 so they have to be included...)
- 4-6 Corydoras (I can't do 3 because I already have 4. 2 of them are Sterbai)
- 1 Bristlenose Pleco (Depends what my LFS has)

This wouldn't be overstocked? Would there be any fighting, fin nipping, or aggression? Would any of these fish eat the plants?

Thanks
Harlequins only then, 2 different shoals in such a small tank will look odd to me, just get more. Same with the cories, 1 shoal only so more sterbais, my fav anyway:). 1 BN. 1 pair rams, no Bolivians though:(. Again, I am only putting myself and my views onto your situation. So others will def do something else. I usually like few fish of a few species and create the biggest impact with that.

:)

[csaxe21]

Hey, thanks again. Yah, that was also a comment I got when I first suggested this a while ago. So now, even in my mind, this seems like it would work.

Maybe like (Correct me if I'm wrong please).

- 10 Harlequin Rasboras (Maybe a touch less like 8)
- 2 German Blue Rams (I'm going to try to make sure they aren't ballon, since those apparently live shorter lives)
- 4-6 Corydoras Catfish
- 1 BN Pleco

[Ed13]

I vote Yes:bandana:Wait for someone to second it if you like

[happygirl65]

Lots of great ideas there.....just to complicate things....lol.....my angels get along just fine with my neons....the trick is to get a really small angel and grow them out with the neons. :)

[csaxe21]

Okay, so now back to thinking of the angels (The other idea is still probably going to be the one I choose, unless I really like something better). Even if the Angel would get along with the neons, I can't really get rid of my harlequins since I already have more then half of them in another tank that will be moved to this one. I'm pretty sure the angel does get along with rasboras, so back to my question before, do you think this could be a working set up?

- 1-2 Angels (Preferably 2)
- 5-7 Harlequin Rasboras
- 4-6 Cories
- 1 BN Pleco

Just for another option.

Thanks

[Palue]

I have a 30 gal tank, so just a touch bigger than yours. I would love to give you my experiences with both Discus and Angels in this size of tank.

For the Angels, I use to breed Angels and used this tank for my pair. What a flipping nightmare, I had so much aggression, fighting all the time it drove me in sane. I find that Angels are way more aggressive towards each other than Discus in a huge way. Angels literally tear and rip fins, but I have not found this "yet" with my 2 Discus. So 2 Angels in a tank that size, nope I would not do it. One by itself with schooling fish I would do.

For the Discus, as I type this I am watching my 2 in this same 30 gal tank. I first bought just one cobalt blue discus, very hard to get here and have to be special ordered in too. So this one discus I think has done very well, measurig 8" in diameter it grew to a very large size, they are schooling but I did not fine it to be a real problem by itself.

Now I have added a young cobalt blue, this fish has been in the tank for the past 6 months. Latley during feeding time is when I see dominance, the big guy is just the king of the tank and that is it. But has never actually hurt this little one only chasing it away from the food in its corner but never tearing fins etc.

I am now at the point though that the aggression is getting alot more still not hurting this little one but with such a size difference I now have to make a decision on what to do.

Get rid of the little one and just keep the large one or get rid of the large one and get another one the same size as the small one.

Because Discus are not popular fish here it might be a struggle to do either of these things.

I love Discus but I also do think and some may agree or disagree with me that even if you have a school of say 5-8 there is always going to be one or two get picked on no matter what you do. They are cichlids and that is just their nature.

Many say get a large tank, but then we just add more because we can and then still face the same challenges with aggression.

I am not saying to go ahead and get Discus but just thought I would share my experiences with them so far.

:)