I haven't been to any aquariums round there, because it is just to far for my mum or dad to drive! just to go to an aquarium. I've got 2 bristle nose and if I was gonna get another one for my 40 litre I would be getting a peppermint. 2 peppermint bristle noses would be pushing it with tetras and otos do you think?

i think you would be pushing it to add another bristle nose to this tank sorry

No that's ok, I was just replying to Kana's offer for bristle noses! I haven't quite decided on what tetra yet, but I think i'm going to go with for stocking:

1 peppermint bristle nose (moved the bogwood, so now it is visible, will try to get some pics when my camera comes back from being fixed )
2 otos
8 tetras? (how many do you think would be ok)

For tetras, what type would you suggest, I was thinking maybe rummy nose or black neons?
-already have cardinals and pristellas
-neons are too common and boring for me
-i want something colourful that schools nicely

Any ideas?

i tend to go by the inch per gallon rule for a newish tank, if it is an established tank and has been running for 6 months or more u can increase this to 2 inches per gallon.

so u have a 9g tank, roughly. 2 otos at 1.5 inches adds up to 3 inches plus a peppermint plec that should grow to 3 inches, so u already have about 6 inches of fish. if the tank is new u should only add 3-4 inches of fish at max but if it is 'established' then u can add about 12 inches of fish.

it depends on what tetra u go for as to how many u add, as some tetras grow bigger than others. when doing ur inch or 2 inch per gallon rule u need to add up the adult fish length of course.

if u stick to small tetras like blue or black neons and the tank is matture/established i'd go for 8-10 max. if u go for rummy-nose tetras which are a little bit bigger i'd stick to about 8 max.

purely as a suggestion, have u considered

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i think they are lovely looking fish, almost bright copper in colour when they are healthy and they spend a lot of time in a shoal or having little harmless pecking order fights.

from my experience i have noticed that tetras dont always shoal most of the time. i find when they are confortable they spend a lot of the daytime wandering or sitting by themselves in the tank. they tend to shoal 1st thing in the morning or last thing at night or when they are feeling stressed or threatened. so shoaling all the time isnt necessarily a good thing. some people buy tetras expecting them to shoal all the time and are dissapointed when they dont.

lol, lets not fight now children

u know what it's like for conflicting info on all things including keeping fish.

i've heard that plecs (including BN's i assumed) rasped at wood as a suppliment to their diet. not so much that they get nutrition from it but more that it helps with their digestion.

if you (funky) know this not to be true then i stand corrected. at the end of the day tho i will always provide wood for plecs as i know they like it, even if they do or dont eat it.

It's not the wood they eat. Its the film on the wood they eat. Anything submerged in water for a while will get a film (I can't remember the name of it right now) on it and this is what most plecs eat. The panaque species actually eats the wood and thats why the panaque species is the messiest.

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Ahhh. Thank you fishy. I was wrong.

Ok, the wood thing is settled.

-The tank has been running for 2 years so it is very established.
-I don't go by the 1" per gallon rule because it is very inaccurate because 1" of tetra is different to 1" of oscar, according to that rule I could fit an oscar in a 13 gallon tan.? It's very incorrect, so I go more by the surface area rule, but that is also not very accurate.
-I've thought about harlequins, but the colours don't really appeal to me, what about pencil fish?
-I won't be disappointed if they don't school, I really don't know why I wrote that stupid me

I'm think i'll go with rummy nose, unless I see some unusual tetras or pencil fish at the aquarium!

Final stocking:

1 peppermint bristle noses
2 otos
8 rummy-nose tetras or pencil fish

Any comment?

had to look up pencilfish but now i have either choice sounds ok to me.

i would recommend that when u buy the fish u float the bag of fish in the tank for 15-20 mins and every 2 mins or so, take out a small cup of bag water and replace it slowly with a small cup of tank water, pouring it down the inside of the bag.

u may do this already but i thought it worth mentioning just in case as it is a decent way of acclimatizing the new fish to not only the temperature of their new surroundings but gives them a chance to get used to the water a little bit before u gently tip the bag of fish into ur tank. plus by replacing the water in the bag u stand less chance of transferring any infection or disease that may have been in ur LFS's tank water.

good luck.

Thanks, I always float for atleast 20-30 minutes depending on how delicate the fish is, but adding water every 2 minutes doesn't actually help the fish acclimatize, because it takes hour for them to adjust to different ph and hardness.

I sometimes use the drip method where you drip small amounts of water through a tube out of the tank into a bucket with the fish in it and it takes around 2 hours, so the fish is a little more adjusted to the water, but not completely.

I never add the aquarium water to the tank, becuase if there was parasites or disease in the water, the fish could be sick and I wouldn't be buying it! But I don't add the water even if the fish is healthy.

I'll probably get rummy nose, as the aquariums hardly ever have a good stock of pencil fish.