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Setting up 29 gallon tank

651 views 5 replies 4 participants last post by  ChiWing 
#1 ·
My tank is in my multi hobby room. I'm trying to figure out what kind of fish I should pick. What do you think? Swordtails and platties fresh water fish or African Cichlids?
 
#4 ·
From personal experience, I would avoid the Swordtails/Platys in a 29 gallon tank unless you have an LFS that will let you choose your swordtails and stick to it. The males have the extended sword (hence the name). The female has the sword but it is not near as pronounced on the female. The extended sword is generally the easiest way to distinguish the males and females. The problem is they breed faster than guppies and bunny rabbits. I bought 10 swordtails for a 55 gallon FW tank. I chose 7 females and 3 males. Within 3 months I had 300 swordtails and began feeding them to my ex'es goldfish as food. I moved them to a 90 gallon tank and put 10 goldfish in with them. The swordtails bred faster than the goldfish could eat them.

If you decide to go with swordtails and mix them, make sure the males outnumber the females at least 3-1, preferably 5-1 and even 10-1. Very simply put, if you don't outnumber the males so highly they will breed the females to death(harassment sex).

Go with all males or all females with Swordtails/Platys.

Cichlids can be more appealing with a lot more colors available (its the most colorful freshwater fish) but you have to be careful with mixing them from different areas, make sure they have lots of hiding spaces, and they can become territorial/aggressive if they become over crowded.

For a 29 gallon tank, have you considered a planted tank with 1-2 Cichlids along with some smaller/colorful fish?
 
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