Well, i finally got my first tank going.

I have Flourite red for a substrate and three plants and two zebra danios.

I put the fish and plants in the tank today after a couple of weeks, with just water and Flourite..

I think I'm going to add a few more zebra danios, and then I want to add color.

What do you think?

I lean towards some fan tail guppies, or swords, or platys.

Are all three of these fairly hardy?

Thanks

The zebra danios may be a problem. In my first aquarium, the two zebras killed almost everything in the tank-they are pretty aggressive. So, if you were to get danios, get other aggressive fish. My personal recommendation is GloFish, glow in the dark danios, that are in vibrant colors. They get that way because of special liquid DNA on the zebra danio eggs, and they turned glow in the dark. Guppies and platys will not work, because of them being too peaceful to deal with zebra danios aggression. Swordtails will work, but you have to have a tight cover, because they like to jump out of the tank. Yes the three are hardy, but some don't fit what's already in the aquarium.

Thanks, SR....

I chose the zebra danios, because I read somewhere (here, I think) that they are hardy and good for a first fish to "test" the environment.

And that seems to be true... but now I have other concerns.

Last night I bought a few more fish and added them to the tank.

I also bought some more plants and added them.

I bought two more zebra danios. And they seem to be doing great. Its obvious that one is a male, and he seems intent on one thing only... chasing the females relentlessly.

But I'm now concerned with the other fish.

I bought three female red tailed guppies, and three platys.

When I first introduced them to the tank, they seemed fine. They ate and acted fine. But now, 12 hours later, both the guppies and platys seem listless and uninterested in food.

Right now the guppies are all together, down near the bottom, just hovering in place... the platys, seem to stay up near the top.... also not moving around much.

I tested the water with my test strips ( I know, I just haven't got the fancy liquid test kit yet) and that reports everything normal except nitrates which shows at 40 - 80 ppm and the same hardness it had when I started.

The zebra danios all seem to be fine, swimming around, eating and exhibit no aggressiveness towards the others.

Any suggestions?

How many fish and what size tank? I think you should hold off until the tank has gone through the nitrogen cycle. If you haven't read about that, I would suggest it. Also, hope you bought a test kit. The only thing I would add is more plants for now.

I have a 15 gal tank and now with 11 fish... I have 5 -6 plants.

The guppies are bit more active now, but the platys are still quite sluggish.

I'm gonna leave it alone for a week or so, now, no added fish or plants and see what happens.

Sorry, but that many fish in a tank that has not gone through the nitrogen cycle is just a time bomb. 2-3 fish from the start would have been the better choice and then add more once the tank has cycled. If you don't have a test kit you will not know what is affecting your fish and if you don't get on a pretty good schedule of water changes in the next few days, until the cycle has past, you will loose some of those fish. Probably many of them. It also sounds like you've overstocked the tank.

Hmmm, not good news...

I stopped by the LFS and he said add some salt... and something called Nutrafin Cycle.

What do you think?

I'll replace some water today..