Stocking Ideas

Question
        Hey,
I have a 37 gallon tank with 5 bloodfin tetras, 2 threadfin rainbows, and 1
pictus
catfish and I'm wondering what kind of fish i can add to my tank. The water is
slightly soft and the temp. hangs around 78˚. I'm looking for a fish that
will give
my aquarium some more color and liven things up.

Answer
Hi Michael,

Are you planning on upgrading?  Pictus cats (I love them!) get up to 8-10 inches and really need to be in at least a 50+ gallon tank.  I would not recommend keeping that 37 gallon for an extended time, especially if you want to add fish.

It depends on what kind of fish you like.  If you want highly active, colorful fish try some platies.  You could add about 6 platies.  They come in a variety of colors and they are very active, always swimming on all levels and are very bright and colorful.  If you want to avoid an explosion of fry I would suggest keeping all females.  Just ask the pet store for females when they are catching them.  Same for swordtails.  The females just look like larger platies but they come in different colors.

You could try a pair of dwarf gouramis.  I like the flame dwarfs and the powder blue dwarfs myself.  They are slower moving than platies but still fairly active and bright.

You could also try another shoal of smaller tetras.  Skip neons, they seem to always be so problematic.  I would try cardinals, they are a little more expensive but super hardy.  You could get a nice shoal of 6-8.

Or you could try a combination of all of the above and go with a pair of powder blue dwarf gouramis, a trio of orange wag platies and a shoal of 5 cardinal tetras.  I would not add all of these fish at once, add them one species at a time at week intervals so that you don't upset the bioload on your tank.

Good luck : ) April M.