# Stocking a 40 Gallon



## abananamanfish (Apr 7, 2014)

Hey guys,

I am currently cycling a 40 gallon aquarium and was hoping for some suggestions about the stocking. The tank is heavily planted with a penguin 200 biowheel filter. I would love to have a very active tank as many of my tanks in the past have been a bit calmer. Thanks for any suggestions!


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## pennyls9332 (Aug 24, 2013)

barbs are the first thing that comes to mind. super active but still a good community fish. lots of variety to choose from


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## Cichlidsrule102 (Mar 29, 2014)

Yes barbs are good, esp tiger barbs, but they will nip long fins. Tetras as well. Dwarf cichlids, Australian Dwarf Rainbow fish, lots to choose from!


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## henningc (May 20, 2013)

Barbs and tetras are a good start. I'm going to guess this is a 40gal brooder tank and if I am right there is not a ton of depth to it. Based on that here are my ideas.

Barbs, I'd go with some nice rosy barbs, long fin if you can find them. Gold barbs are a bit smaller and look nice in planted tanks if rosys aren't your thing. Either way these two are different and not overly nippy like tigers. I'd toss in some tertas maybe a school of 6-8 glowlites or head and tail lights and another school of Black Neons or 10 harliquin rasboras. You could also skip the second tetra and opt for come celestral danios, say 6-8. 

Now for the bottom, nothing says movement like kuhli loaches and a nice group of 6-8 would be in order. Depending on just how planted the tank is you could throw in a handful of ghost shrimp or a good number of adult cherry shrimp. The shrimp will help keep the plants and substrate clean and if you opt for cherrys provide a natural food source. The cherrys will reproduce and although most fry will get picked off by fish they should maintain the population. If you're not to concerned with shrimp coloration, people sell less colored culled cherry shrimp for a song. Depending on substrate, a group of small corys such as pandas or skunks -go with the skunks-would look nice. Nothing would prevent you from doing all three bottom dwellers and their bio-load is very small.

Now to the top. Dwarf Gouramis are nice, but everyone has one and that is why you don't want one. You could look at multiple pairs say 3F-2M pigmy gouramias like croaking or sparkling. These tend to be mush less aggressive than the other gouramis and thrive in planted tanks. You may also want to include 4-5 female bettas of different colors. I've mixed them and the pigmy gouramis and they don't bother each other. Just to make everything interesting and moving, add 8-10 male Endlers. Depending on your set up, you could add a few female Endlers say2-3 to produce live food for the barbs, tetras, and bettas / gouramis. In a well planted tank the male Endlers should not chase the females too death. If you like the live food idea but not using Endlers, 6-8 female Laest Killies will do the same thing just much slower in a more controled fashion. 

If you need information on where to get any of this stuff, P.M. me. I know a lot of folks who breed.


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## jaysee (Dec 9, 2009)

I think it would be a good idea to add to your filtration if you want active fish. Active fish like current, and that penguin 200 is honestly half of what I would run on the tank.

40 gallon is good for the small species of rainbows, but the full size ones really need a larger tank. I would say the same about tiger barbs. Not that their size requires more space, but rather the school size needed and their behavior. I guess a 40 would be the absolute minimum I would try to keep tiger barbs in, but a 55 would be what I would advise people to get.

Cherry and/or gold barbs would be good. Most tetras. Dwarf cichlids. Agreed, all good candidates.

Regarding rosy barbs in planted tanks - my buddy does nothing but complain about the rosy barbs I gave him when I gave him my 45 gallon. He planted the tank and the boisterous activity of the barbs tears up his tank. Not a problem I ever had since I don't keep live plants ;-)


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## abananamanfish (Apr 7, 2014)

Hey Guys,

Thanks for the suggestions so far. After looking at some species of barbs I stumbled upon the Odessa Barb. Does anyone have any experience with these? Also, I am hoping to get a canister filter fairly soon so hopefully that will be enough.

Thanks


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## jaysee (Dec 9, 2009)

Hey welcome to the forum, BTW. Post counts don't show up on the phone app

For canisters, I'm a big fan of the sunsun filters on ebay. I would get either the 302 (265 gph), or the 303 (370 gph). VERY cost effective solutions.

I've kept sever barb species, but not odessas. In my experience an even M:F split is best with barbs, though the ratio is really only important when keeping them in minimum school sizes. I wouldn't keep them in a tank smaller than 40 gallons based on their size.


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## abananamanfish (Apr 7, 2014)

Ok great thanks for the link to the filter. So do you think if I kept an even M:F ration I could have some luck with odessa barbs?


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## jaysee (Dec 9, 2009)

Barbs are pretty easy fish to keep.

In my experience, if you have too few males then the dominant male harasses the other. Rather than wooing the females, he can intimidate the other male and get the females by default. Too many males and the females will be under constant pressures. Ideally, you would have enough males that the dominant male isn't always picking on the same fish. You want the males attention equally divided between the females and the other males. That's where peace lies with barbs, in my experience.

The other thing you can try to do is keep all males, since they are the more colorful ones if I am not mistaken. I did that with my rosy barbs. They will fight from time to time if you do this, but they fight in a normal school as well.


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## tankman12 (Nov 13, 2012)

I personally have had Odessa barbs. The best way 2 keep them is 2/3F to 1M. So in ur tank u could do maybe 3-4M and 6-8F. But what i noticed is they tend to stay in the middle in my tank. So if u want a top swimmer u should do some danios (long finned zebras) look cool personally. Or if u keep ur temp at the lower end than u could do white cloud minnows. Which stay at the top almost all the time.
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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