Looking for easy fish

[Gruntle]

Okay, the story so far, after around 5 years of fish keeping:
Started with comets, after getting bad advice. Those that didn't die, I traded in.
Bought a larger tank and had Crimsonspot Rainbowfish, Pacific Blue Eyes, Cherry Barbs, and a few other varieties.
Bought some Endlers, Harlequin Rasboras, Neon Tetras and Celestial Pearl Danios.

The results are in. Endlers, Cherry Barbs and Harlequins appear to like my water parameters, everything else has had issues.

I got into fish keeping so I would have something relaxing to look at. I do not have a great deal of spare time to make a real go of ensuring the water, temperature and feeding regimes are optimal for all the varieties of fish I have attempted to keep.

My current feeling is that if I stick with what has worked to date, I can enjoy the hobby rather than purchase more expensive varieties and stress out when they don't survive as long as expected. It's nice to buy extremely attractive fish at up to $15 each, it's not so nice to watch them suffer and die long before I expected them to. I guess if they were easier to look after, they wouldn't be as expensive.

So I guess I'm down to inexpensive fish that don't need a huge amount of care (those that seem to thrive in the environment I have available). I will attempt to get a reading on water parameters (especially gH and kH), but are there inexpensive fish that would get along with Endlers, Harlequin Rasboras or Cherry Barbs (at the moment the three varieties are in my three different tanks)? I just want relaxation, not stress.

As always, thanks for reading.

 

[fluttermoth]

Post your water hardness and the dimensions of your tanks and we'll be able to come up with some suggestions between us, I'm sure

 

[Gruntle]

According to my local water website, TDS is 270mg/l and total hardness is 96mg/l. Please let me know if this is what I need to report (I've forgotten, blame the baby in the house, I forget most things these days). I dose with Prime during water changes, and do a 50-60% water change about weekly.

Tank 1 is a 20l tank where I keep my six female Endlers and introduce males now and then to ensure a steady supply of offspring, I think this tank is doing what I want it to.
Tank 2 is a 130l tall (AquaOne AR620T) that has about a dozen male Endlers, a BN Pleco and 7 Harlequin Rasboras (and the two remaining CPD's that seem to be happy and healthy).
Tank 3 is a 48x14x18 (about 180l) which has two BN Plecos (male and female), 7Cherry Barbs and the one remaining Neon Tetra.

I'll do pH and nitrate readings on them (ammonia and nitrite have been zero consistently for a couple of years), and let you know.

 

[Baccus]

G'day Gruntle
Its a shame you haven't been having much luck with the fish, I am really surprised that the Pacific Blue Eyes and Crimson Spot Rainbows didn't do well in your water, because I believe that 96mg/L should put you in moderately hard so perhaps its the pH that is if slightly off for these species.
Perhaps one of the other Blue eye species would be better suited to your tanks although the Pacific Blue Eye is by far the most common, AQUAGREEN has some beautiful natives and very helpfully posts his cultivation notes as well as collection notes regarding the water parameters for each of his species.
Endlers I believe could survive almost any water, in fact my local pet shop swears that my water is soft but the endlers breed at such a rate I had to introduce large local rainbow fish (Dawson River variety) to control populations. The reason I bring up my endlers and rainbows is that both species are thriving and I do nothing special with regards to trying to change my water gH or pH. But all my tanks do have natural timbers and live plants which I know can change the pH over time.
The other thing that makes it so hard for us fish keepers now days is that almost all the information on any particular species regarding their water parameters was written years ago for the fishes original habitat. However most species of fish we get now are farmed in parts of Asia in very different water parameters to their original requirements. So if as a fish keeper you try to replicate the species original water you may do more harm than good because the species has been bred away from those parameters for so long that surivial of the fittest or natural selection has dictated that only the fish that can survive the non native water live to breed and pass on their "new" water tolerances. I hope that makes sense.
Maybe the best bet would be with your local fish shop try to find out where they are getting their supplies of fish, wild caught in Australia (for non native species) is rare and very expensive so more than likely the fish have been imported from fish farms in Asia.

 

[NickAu]

So if as a fish keeper you try to replicate the species original water you may do more harm than good because the species has been bred away from those parameters for so long that surivial of the fittest or natural selection has dictated that only the fish that can survive the non native water live to breed and pass on their "new" water tolerances. I hope that makes sense.

This is why when I buy a fish I do so from a local breeder I know, Hes been doing it for 10 years now and his fish are used to the local water, Of course this cuts down the options.

 

[Fish-mates]

I love rummynose tetras as they all enjoy swimming together and you can easily see they're happy by their lovely glowing red noses. I also have black phantom tetras, a great shape and seem to be happy with my rummynose tetras and gold barbs. (Get female black phantoms as they're more colourful). I've another tank with guppies, honey gouramis and CPD's and I've only found the CPD's to be particularly sensitive - though one lives on! Also have you thought about otocinclus? They're fun to watch and although they can be super sensitive in the first few weeks, according to reports, if they survive beyond the first month they should last for ages - as long as there's a ready supply of the food they like.