My wife and I went out last night and bought the tank. A 36 gallon bowfront. The tank is very deceptive in size. Here is what we got.

Tank

We are going to plant the tank - yet to be determined as to what plants.

Fish we are looking into are - fancy guppies, marbled hatchetfish, neon tetras, cleaner shrimp (ghost or cherry), and of course the bristlenose. I would like for the pleco to be no bigger than 6 inches.

Could you all give me some recommendations on what types of bristlenose I can choose from?

Are the fish above compatable with the bristlenose?

What types of live plants would you recommend?

Thanks in advance!!

Sounds like youve got yourself a stunning setup,

I would put a nice selection of common's in there as they shouldnt take up to much space and only grow to 4 inch 5 at max......

Plus they would stay away from the tank mate's you suggested....

try and get yourself a nice trio maybe 1 male and two female's or go for a nice trio of L144's...

There is plenty of info on here about the black eyed yellow bristlenose...
slighty more expensive than the regular common BN....

The other tank mate's will be just fine although id watch your marble hatche's as they love diving out the tank so never leave the lid open..
plus they like to shoal so get yourself a nice selection as they are easily scared but will feel happier in a shoal...

as for the shrimp i cant comment as ive never kept them...

Hope this help's......

Thanks a bunch Curby!

I had planned on getting 5 or 6 hatchets and some type of floating plant for them to hide under, about the same number neons, and about a dozen or so fancy guppies.

The L144's would look fantastic with the dark substrate and wood.

I'll post some pics as soon as we get it up and running. Thanks again!!

We don't want to breed any so could we put 1 male L144 and two different females say like a L180 and a L100. Basically what I'm asking, will a pleco breed with another pleco the same size or do they have to be the same "L" designation?

High Bwompus, you almost sound like a kid at X-mas getting your new tank.
Plants for your tank :I really like "Anubias" , they come in a few varieties-some dwarf and some with bigger leaves
so a combo looks great together, they look awesome growing on driftwood and are pretty resilliant to plec attacks.
As for inter species breeding - highly unlikely, but then you read some story of someone trying to X black Ancistrus with common brown longfins to get longfin pepps- still I've yet to see this mythical beast.
J

Yup!! I'm a 39 year old kid thats pretty excited about our new tank. Lts see if I can post some of my pics with just the substrate and driftwood. Tank is cycling now.

Went with a lighter substrate than I originally planned. Going to add a couple of caves and plan on putting some plants attached to the driftwood and a few around the tank. Going to have one decent piece of floating flora. I'm sure I'll think of something else.

If you have some ideas..please..by all means share them with me.




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Looking good.....

Loving the drift wood...........

Thank you!! My wife found that at the very back of the bottom shelf at Petsmart behind a bunch of crap pieces. I'm lazy..I never would have looked there.

Nifty looking little tank you have yourself Bwompus, personally I would have had look at a black back ground ( that's only because I'm black obssesed), will be be nice when you have it finished and stocked, a few blue rams or bolivian butterflies would look great in there.

J

Thank you Kurosaki. The other side of the blue is black..so I can change it if I want to. As of today the tank is still cycling. The driftwood has made the tank a nice amber color. It suggested I boil it for 15 minutes or just let it cycle itself. I don't have a pot that big to put it in or I would have.

A pet store about 1/2 mile form my house called Animal House have male and female juvies L-144A and a beautiful L-144 adult male for sale. I hope no one gets the adult male or the juvie albino female before my tank is ready.

There is a product in OZ called "BIO CHEM-ZORB" that is great for removing the tannined colour from your water, thats if you don't want the tea brown colour .Bio chem-zorb is a high carbon based product with additional "stuff" that promotes
good growth of good bacterias while the carbon content works on dis-colouration of the water.
J

Found some!! Thanks a bunch!!

nice looking tank i have a mini version of that tank,.. love the driftwood its a beautifull big piece, i need a bigger more interesting piece for mine too.
good luck look forward to seing it stocked