Looking for suggestions for nanofish

FishForums.net Pet of the Month
🐶 POTM Poll is Open! 🦎 Click here to Vote! 🐰

Zante

Fish Herder
Joined
Feb 21, 2012
Messages
1,301
Reaction score
77
Location
Italy
I have a 50 litre planted tank that is set up and running. CO2 is set up, but not currently being used. Used to have shrimps in there, but the room will have a large discus tank in the near future, so shrimps (crs at least) are no longer reasonable due to the room's temperature.

So, I'm planning ahead and thinking I would like to have a large school of nanofish, 2cm max. I'm not familiar with fish this small, so I'm looking for suggestions. These are my requirements:
  • They have to be schooling. It is not a strict requirement, but I very much prefer a school to a shoal.
  • They have to be active. The tank is right next to my work desk, and I would appreciate when I glance over to it not to have specks hovering in the water not doing much.
  • I would prefer them to be adaptable. I can deal with changing water parameters, ultrasoft water and so on, but I'd appreciate being able to avoid it and just use tap water.
  • Easy to breed would be an appreciated bonus. By this I mean that I would like to see an new fish appear in the tank every now and then. The tank is well planted and well mature, so there is a rich microfauna and there are plenty of hiding spots for fry. This being a species tank should help in this sense.
  • Don't require live food. This is a firm requirement. Unfortunately live food here is available only if you culture it yourself, and I'm not ready for this yet. Even frozen food isn't popular here (go figure...), so they must be fine to eat prepared food.
  • Non-jumpers, or at least low risk of jumping. The tank is open and cannot be closed due to plants growing in there which have grown well past the tank edge. Also I intend to add emersed plants and make it into a small riparium. No floating plants for the moment, but they can be an option.
So... any suggestions (apart from ember tetras which I already have with my blue rams)?

If you think any of these requirements are unreasonable please speak up and we can have a chat about it. I could convince you it is actually reasonable, or you might convince me to change my mind about it.
 
Some class N ( Documented pure strain )Endlers? one male 2 females. The males are absolute show offs constantly doing something of flaring at something or trying to get one of the girls attention, the girls can be quite plain and are quiet just happy to do their own thing looking for food ignoring the male that sort of thing but the males well theres a reason I call mine zippy.
 
I had thought of endlers, but they're not exactly schooling, are they? Hardly shoaling even...
Also are they that small? Never actually seen any, or maybe I did see them and ignored them completely as I might have been looking for something else, but I'm under the impression they're well over the 2cm mark...
 
males grow to about 1 inch in length, while females grow to about 1.8 inches in length
 
males grow to about 1 inch in length, while females grow to about 1.8 inches in length

Yeah, so respectively 2.6 and about 4.5 cm.
males might be close enough, but females are way bigger than I'm looking for, and my understanding is that there should many more females than males, no?
 
How hard is your water supply and what is the pH?

What are the tank dimensions (length x width x height)?

Killifish, not schooling but you could keep a group and they would breed.
Iriatherina werneri schooling and the males look great when showing off.
Pseudogumil gertrudae, signifier (small varieties), cyanodorsalis.
There's more info on rainbows at the following link.
http://rainbowfish.angfaqld.org.au/Melano.htm

Why don't you grow your own live food? It's real easy and that will definitely encourage the fish to breed. You might even be able to sell the live foods to the local pet shop.
There is some info on live foods at the following link.
http://www.fishforums.net/threads/back-to-basics-when-breeding-fish.448304/

You can also culture micro worms, grindal worms and white worms in plastic containers. And if you have a couple of containers of water sitting outside under a tree and they have a few leaves fall in them, you could get mozzie larvae and bloodworms in them. You would have to scoop the mozzie larvae out with a fine mesh net and destroy them for health reasons but they make great fish food.
 
How hard is your water supply and what is the pH?

Ph 7.5
Gh 18
Kh 7

It's not a big issue though. I have plenty of experience changing water parameters, and a 200gpd RO filter.
With a planned 800 litre reef and 800 litre discus tank, you have to be ready with plenty of RO, so of course the smaller tanks will benefit too. (and I have a 120 litre blue ram tank with ember tetras that runs on remineralised RO water).

A hard water fish has been put as a preference, to have an "easy tank", but I'd rather have something that I like, rather than a compromise, even if it means a bit more work.

What are the tank dimensions (length x width x height)?

60x30cm base, 38cm tall
water column is ~30cm

Killifish, not schooling but you could keep a group and they would breed.
Iriatherina werneri schooling and the males look great when showing off.
Pseudogumil gertrudae, signifier (small varieties), cyanodorsalis.
There's more info on rainbows at the following link.
http://rainbowfish.angfaqld.org.au/Melano.htm

I have taken killies into consideration, but it's not something I'm attracted to.

Iriatherina werneri: isn't my tank kinda the minimum size for it?
I'd rather have room to spare, also a bit bigger than I was looking for.

Pseudogumil gertrudae, I like them, even if they're almost twice the size I'm looking for, but because of that I have but them on standby. They're not out of the game though.

Pseudogumil cyanodorsalis, I like them very much, and didn't know about them until now. Had a quick read and I'd be uncomfortable not giving them at least a little bit of salt in the water, which would be a problem for the plants. Have you kept them in fully freshwater? Were they fine and breeding?

Why don't you grow your own live food? It's real easy and that will definitely encourage the fish to breed. You might even be able to sell the live foods to the local pet shop.
There is some info on live foods at the following link.
http://www.fishforums.net/threads/back-to-basics-when-breeding-fish.448304/

You can also culture micro worms, grindal worms and white worms in plastic containers. And if you have a couple of containers of water sitting outside under a tree and they have a few leaves fall in them, you could get mozzie larvae and bloodworms in them. You would have to scoop the mozzie larvae out with a fine mesh net and destroy them for health reasons but they make great fish food.

I used to, and I will, as I have a few breeding projects up my sleeve (including marine ones), but it's not something I want to be forced into right now, as I have other priorities.
 
Lots of people keep groups of Iriatherina werneri in 2ft tanks. You could have 8-10 fish in there.

Pseudomugil cyanodorsalis are found in fresh, brackish and sea water, but usually brackish. If you get some that have been bred in freshwater they do well without any salt, especially if the water is hard and alkaline (like yours). Most plants can tolerate some salt. 1 or 2 heaped tablespoons of rock salt or sea salt per 20 litres (5 gallons) or water.

If Pseudomugil gertrudae are too big then you are going to really struggle to find fish that are smaller. Ember tetras and clown killis are some of the smallest fish out there, but you don't want killis and ember tetras are unlikely to breed. They might but it wouldn't happen without live foods.
 
You'd be surprised. Recently I found an extra tiny ember tetra in the tank with the rams that I definitely did not buy.

What about boraras, pearl danios or emerald rasboras?

Consider I'm not looking for a breeding project, just enough to keep the population self-sustaining, at least partially (and even then it's more of a bonus, a "would be nice" so to speak), and I'm looking for tiny fish, because I'd like to have many in there, and by "many" I mean at least 18
 

Most reactions

trending

Staff online

Back
Top