# 50 gallon stocking



## shane3fan (Sep 5, 2009)

Working on a 50 gallon tank--Ive discussed it before, still no real set plan as for stocking though.

Tank parameters ; planted tank ( crypts, blyxa, anubia, dwarf swords ), soft acidic water ( one drop in hardness tester kits, 6.5-6.8 pH--these readings are from my current tanks ) black gravel and black sand, Fluval 405 canister filter, 84w T5 plant lamps, 78-80* water temp.

Inhabitants ; the only thing I KNOW for sure will be in there is a Rainbow Shark ( adult male-not super agressive at this point ) some Nerite snails, _maybe_ some Otos and approx 10 Julii Corydoras. I was thinking of putting a school of assorted versions of Tiger Barbs ( 10-15 of them? ) but not sure I want to deal with their agression issues. I had also considered Odessa Barbs, but they require cooler water. What I am looking for is a hardy schooling fish that will be happy in my water, be pretty to look at and wont be intimidated by my Rainbow Shark. So far, the Tiger Barb seems to be the only fish that really fits that description. I had pictured several standard Tigers, a couple of Albino Tigers and a few Green Tigers. I thought that would make a cool mix and still have them school together ( as much as Tigers will school anyway. )

Good bad and ugly about Tigers ? I know they are known to be agressive in smaller groups--I would hope that 10 or more of them would reduce that. Any other facts I need to know about them that I may not know?

Any other suggestions for a fish school?

Thanks in advance.


----------



## Angel079 (Feb 14, 2007)

I know this is about stocking...but careful with these "plant lamps" actually plant florescent that are labeled as such at the pet store and not very ideal for plants; you'd want to have lights for them labeled as Daylight or Ultimate daylight, full spectrum, rated around 5-6500 kelvin. Pers on my 55g's I use 2x t8 usually 30 watts each; 84w may be a lil too high for plants (specially looking at your crypts there).

In my latest set up I added 9 Albino Tiger Barbs (pictures here http://www.tropicalfishkeeping.com/freshwater-fish-pictures-videos/new-gang-picture-heavy-35646/) alongside 2 Kissing Gourami and 6 Bronze Cory...no aggression issue there, thou the tank is heavy planted. 

Any other school fish I have considered here (same tank size, same water etc) were Kerri Tetra and/ or Emperor Tetra or Blue Rams.

Hope that helps ya.


----------

