Today's a new day.

[elephantnose3334]

Today's Monday. Research is going good for me. Borneo and Bangka holds many treasures in terms of fish species. I'm going for 2-3 species (small 21 gallon continent-focused community tank) with similar pH requirements. The Canning Vale LFS has a Bioscape paludarium which contains albino neon tetras and cherry barbs. Is it okay to put more than 1 species of fish in a paludarium similar to them?

 

[elephantnose3334]

Did lots of research on the paludarium, but I'm not ready for it yet. Since the difficulty of paludarium care is a bit more than of an aquarium, I think it's time to put it in the backburner until I'm completely ready to do one in the future. I hope that's understandable. I wish I had one myself, but it may cost lots of money to do so. Sorry everyone, but I will hopefully ready up for a Bioscape paludarium in the near future if I have the resources to do so.

 

[elephantnose3334]

If I have a custom-made 65 x 47 x 42cm aquarium, I could do a community tank of nano fish. Here are the pH of the fish I picked for the setup according to Seriously Fish:

Ember tetra:

pH: 5.0 - 7.0

Dwarf rasbora:

pH: 4.0 - 6.5

Pygmy Corydoras:

pH: 6.4 -7.4

Is it appropriately stocked?

 

[JackGulley]

You could totally do that but unless I’m messing something up with the math this tank is ≈33 gallons? Seems like you have room for some bigger fish if you wanted.

 

[Colin_T]

The fish and water side of a paludarium is exactly the same as a normal aquarium. The only other thing you need to learn about is caring for the plants you want to keep there. Gardening isn't hard, some plants are hard to keep but most aren't.

If you want to practice, set up a plastic storage container and put a couple of pot plants in it so their roots are in the water and leaves are out of water. That's all a paludarium is. You can make them fancy with waterfalls and tree trunks covered in ferns and mosses, but it's just a garden around a pool of water.

 

[elephantnose3334]

It's Tuesday. I was originally against normal community tanks, but how times change? I now realise it's easier to look after than a biotope or similar. Okay, a custom made aquarium (65 x 47 x 42cm) with a volume of 128.3L would be sufficient for different types of nano fish (Africa, Asia and South America origin). I was thinking of a normal lush aquascape with nano fish swimming around.

Fish pH range:

Clown killifish:

pH: 4.0 - 7.0

Ember tetra:

pH: 5.0 - 7.0

Dwarf rasbora:

pH: 4.0 - 6.5

Pygmy Corydoras:

pH: 6.4 -7.4

I think all of the mentioned fish are tank bred? Better check with the LFS's and see if they are all tank bred. And with the addition of clown killifish, is it appropriately stocked?

 

[GaryE]

Your biotope idea is out the window. That's an African South American Asian tank.

 

[Beastije]

I would be wary mixing embers and super small rasboras. Embers are such gluttons, eating fast and anything. The pygmies will have a hard time finding food, with embers in there, and the much smaller much less boisterous rasboras will be hard pressed to fight the embers.
Wouldnt it look better to do a smidge more rasboras and pygmies instead of embers? Or add in a snail

I have the combo (least rasbora, pygmy corydoras) and tbh I am not too happy. I lost a lot of the pygmies, no clue why, no clue when they just stopped showing up, they are mostly static. the tank looks empty. It took the rasboras a month to settle in - so do NOT get discouraged, for four weeks you wont even know they are there but then boom, they are everywhere, not shy, not skittish at all. I love them, they are boisterous, they are not easily startled. But the pygmies were a let down. I have four now and they are more active than they ever been, but I was so disappointed....

 

[elephantnose3334]

I would be wary mixing embers and super small rasboras. Embers are such gluttons, eating fast and anything. The pygmies will have a hard time finding food, with embers in there, and the much smaller much less boisterous rasboras will be hard pressed to fight the embers.
Wouldnt it look better to do a smidge more rasboras and pygmies instead of embers? Or add in a snail

I have the combo (least rasbora, pygmy corydoras) and tbh I am not too happy. I lost a lot of the pygmies, no clue why, no clue when they just stopped showing up, they are mostly static. the tank looks empty. It took the rasboras a month to settle in - so do NOT get discouraged, for four weeks you wont even know they are there but then boom, they are everywhere, not shy, not skittish at all. I love them, they are boisterous, they are not easily startled. But the pygmies were a let down. I have four now and they are more active than they ever been, but I was so disappointed....

Maybe. Guess I'll remove the ember tetras then, but I understand that they're not a good mix (Boraras and ember tetras). I'm going to change the stocking a bit.

 

[elephantnose3334]

@Colin_T @GaryE

I think a normal aquarium should do for now. However, I went against my original opinion on community tanks (being overrated etc.) and want to do a normal community. The 60 x 45 x 45cm low iron glass aquarium holding 121.5L of water (32 US gallons) would do for a community of nano fish. I was originally going to add Boraras in the tank, but they live in slightly lower pH ranges compared to the fish I will put in.

Okay, I revised the stocking list.

I know the stocking capacity's 84% but it's below 100%. I have completely changed the stocking list to species that will thrive in my water hardness. I think my suburb has hard water, but it would be time to test it to see.

I have never kept clown killifish before, so I might be a first time owner, once I'm ready to do so. @GaryE I know you're an expert of killifish and I know that you may have kept clown killies before. What are some advice on keeping these fish in a community tank setting?

 

[GaryE]

They are small, delicate and to be treasured - this is a fish for a single species tank where they can breed and carry on. They go though periods when you have a hard time finding any, where I am. They'll be in stores for a year, and then vanish. I don't consider them a community fish because of that, and because they are slower to their food than the others.

 

[elephantnose3334]

They are small, delicate and to be treasured - this is a fish for a single species tank where they can breed and carry on. They go though periods when you have a hard time finding any, where I am. They'll be in stores for a year, and then vanish. I don't consider them a community fish because of that, and because they are slower to their food than the others.

Oh, I thought online sources see them as community fish but maybe I'm wrong. I was doing some checking of tankmate compatibility and it seems that clown killies are not on the list. I tried opening the Seriously Fish profile, but it ended up with the 'try deleting your cookies' page. Like Nano Tanks Australia and Aquarium Co-op make these killies a 'community fish'.

One out, lots to go.

I have been planning for a long time and will do a sandy substrate instead of gravel because of the pygmy cories' lifestyle. Pygmy cories need sand, and that has been stated by some users from one of my old threads.

 

[JackGulley]

I would be wary mixing embers and super small rasboras. Embers are such gluttons, eating fast and anything. The pygmies will have a hard time finding food, with embers in there, and the much smaller much less boisterous rasboras will be hard pressed to fight the embers.
Wouldnt it look better to do a smidge more rasboras and pygmies instead of embers? Or add in a snail

I have the combo (least rasbora, pygmy corydoras) and tbh I am not too happy. I lost a lot of the pygmies, no clue why, no clue when they just stopped showing up, they are mostly static. the tank looks empty. It took the rasboras a month to settle in - so do NOT get discouraged, for four weeks you wont even know they are there but then boom, they are everywhere, not shy, not skittish at all. I love them, they are boisterous, they are not easily startled. But the pygmies were a let down. I have four now and they are more active than they ever been, but I was so disappointed....

I had the same thing happen with my pygmy cories. Bought ten, had all but 3 die in the first few days, and the other two unrelatedly in the next few weeks (one had a deformity, the other just disappeared), but the remaining one is healthy as can be! I think that they were unhealthy at the store, since these are wild-caught fish. They were all very pale when I bought them. I would love to go get more but I will definitely be cherry-picking the healthiest ones next time.

 

[GaryE]

Another thread was merged into this one, if posters are confused, because the question had previously been asked here.

 

[elephantnose3334]

Another thread was merged into this one, if posters are confused, because the question had previously been asked here.

Oh, my apologies.