New user, main fish for 15 gallon tank.

[Chubba75]

Hey guys, I found this site through google and have been reading through the cycling process and disease prevention mainly, I live in Australia and this is my first time fish keeping.

I recently set up my first tropical tank 4 weeks ago. It has several live plants in it and has cycled nicely and currently contains 10 Rummy nose tetra's (they seem quite happy in a school that size, I didn't want any less).

When I first looked into getting a tank, the decision to first add tetra's was an easy one... now I'm quite confused with what fish to add to complete this tank.

I got a really limited knowledge of fish species and I've been to multiple pet stores/aquarium stores around my area... but besides tetra's, loaches (too big?) and barb's (too nippy?) they stock fish that are too large for my tank (cichlids... even dwarf cichlids might be too big, I want a happy tank, lots of space to move).

So far I've been looking at Dwarf Gourami's, possibly 2 and a Bristlenose to complete this tank... hoping they have plenty of room to muck about.

I don't know anyone that has tanks that can give me advice and the majority of fish stores around here don't know anything either... this seems to easily be the best (or at least most active) fish forum on the net, so I thought I would introduce myself and post.

Thanks in advance!!

[Zerileous]

Chubba, first ill point out the obvious no go. The bristlenose pleco, while is a decent size for your tank now, can easily grow over a foot long. If you buy a baby at the LFS you will have to get rid of it down the line. You would be better off going with a group of otocinclus catfish or amano shrimp to cut down on algae. Corydras cats also like to school and stick around the bottom of the tank. They are more scavengers than algae eaters though, but they are still nice to have.

As for a centerpiece fish, you have a few options. I might recomend going with a second school of something though. Dwarf gouramis can be succeptible to disease, but otherwise wouldn't make a bad choice. If you get two however, you need to be aware that the males can be very aggressive towards eachother. You would need to ensure that you got a male-female pair (though those can be hard to come by as the females are less colorful). You could possibly fit a full size gourami in the tank, but don't quote me on that one. As for Chichlids, there are some dwarf varieties such as Rams that might work, but they would need excelent water quality, especially in a 15 gallon tank.

Hope this helps! and WELCOME!

[Chubba75]

Thanks Zerileous! I was skeptical about the Bristlenose when I read it could reach 15cm... but a foot long, definetely wouldn't want him crowded and unhappy.

Thanks a lot for the information on the cats and shrimps. To be entirely honest, I haven't seen ANY freshwater shrimp in the stores... I was dying to have something other then fish in my tanks, but people have been saying they would either eat my fish or be eaten... if I could find these little buggers, I would love to add them. The little catfish would be ideal too! I will definetely search around for the smaller breeds next time I'm in the store.

I will keep looking at the Dwarf Gourami's, but thanks for the male/female tip. I have a lot of free time on my hands (student) to monitor and adjust the tank, so I would try my best in terms of disease prevention.

I will have to search some more stores for Dwarf Cichlids, they have been hard to come by... most customers seem to have 4 foot+ tanks and the variety of Cichlids is amazing, but it's very hard to find Dwarf varieties.

Thanks a lot.

[Zerileous]

Well Chubba, I must stand corrected. The birstlenose will not get over a foot as they are one of the smaller species of Pleco. 15 centimeters is probably a more accurate figure. However, I still would say that one would still be too big for your 15 gallon tank. Stick to the smaller cats and you will be happy. Plus they are tons of fun to watch in groups!

[Nick_Pavlovski]

I don't think shrimp feature very much up here in Australia.
I've only ever seen one in a LFS in my 20 years of off-again, on-again fishkeeping, and that was 2 weeks ago!

I reckon you have a good tank setup.
I would get 2 or 3 corys or kuhli loaches to help clean up food scraps, but then leave it at that.

If you must have a centrepiece fish, perhaps a Betta if your tank doesn't have powerful filtration or fast-moving currents.