Tropical Aquarium HELP

emoore1223

Hi everyone, I have had a 150L tropical aquarium for the past 6 years and it has now gotten to a point where I want to change it up, currently I have 5 Mollys and 2 neon tetras and one 11" pleco (I haven't had the money to restock the tank lately). All the remaining fish are going to a friend except the 11" pleco(as I've become quite attached to him or her I'm not quite sure about its sex). I need help, well redesigning the tank. I would love to have a natural tank with driftwood and real plants not the crap looking plastic ones you get in the fish store. Here was what I came up with after researching online.

Harlequin Rasbora
Guppies
Silver/Black lyre Molly
Danios
Cherry barb
Shrimp

I'm not sure whether these are compatible and I would like you opinion as I have never done this before because I got the tank as a starter kit complete with everything so have never had a tank with one fish and asked to start from there.

I'm asking here as every fish shop I go to treats me like a five year old because I don't know all the detailed info when they start using the latin names for the fish instead of the common names. Then they just suggest putting 10 goldfish into the tank like I dont deserve to have a nice aquarium because i dont know all the latin names for fish. I find this very offensive ( I'm 17 by the way and can't ask parents for help as they have only ever had goldfish) I would really love a planted aquarium with driftwood but I'm not sure with the pleco, I think the tank is too small for it even when it's empty as the pleco is 11" long and the tank is only 13" wide.

Tank measurements: 48" x 13" x 14.5"

Hope you's can help me, thanks in advance for any responses.

Tropheus

TBH, if you're attached to the pleco, that's all you can keep in a tank that small and you're really pushing it at that. What type of filtration do you have?

CruelCoin

emoore1223 wrote: »

Harlequin Rasbora
Guppies
Silver/Black lyre Molly
Danios
Cherry barb
Shrimp

The rasbora are great fish, easy to keep, hardy.
Guppies prefer harder water,
ollies prefer hard water.
Danios are active fish, can be a little off-putting as they swim very quickly.
Cherry barb, prefer soft water, can be nippy towards long tailed tankmates (guppies, etc). Barbs can also be a little odd with shrimp. Will try eat them as they grow larger.
Shrimp i love.

plants wise, you can't go wrong with java fern, anubias, vallisneria and cryptosporum. This are all hardy plants that thrive is poor conditions, so are simple to keep.
To keep them, you want to have a proper planting substrate (not just gravel).

Overall, you have a good mix there, but most if not all fish do better in larger groups. So instead of 5 small shoals of fish, maybe go for 3 larger ones. I would ditch the danio or the barbs, one or the other.

Here is a website that does stocking level and compatability calculations:
http://www.aqadvisor.com/

Here is a quick look at what fish are compatible with each other:
http://www.aqadvisor.com/

Hope this all helps.

CC.