Aquatopia - 6x2x2 Low-Med Light, High Tech Nature Aquarium

[GaryE]

Nanacara anomala, the golden eyed dwarf, has been reported to remove the eyeballs of offending corys... so not them.

You have come to a tank philosophy area - the centrepiece. If you love Cichlids, you simply can't believe a tank can work without them until you see it. I have several tanks of dwarf cichlids, but they are single pair, few other fish tanks. It took me a long time to be comfortable with no 'centre piece' fish.
Location
Northumberland, UK

Nov 16, 2025

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#44

I spent today gluing spider roots in the tank. Time consuming but worth it I think.

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That's it for the hardscape now.

I have a floating plant corral to make but the next major thing will be fitting the filters and CO2 stuff but that won't be until 3 weeks time.

I've also changed my fish list again. This time because I've found a breeder of some very nice Swordtails so I'll be getting those instead of the Platies.

Your Fish List now looks like this:

2 Apistogramma macmasteri (pair)
150 Cardinal Tetra.
6 Honeycomb Bristlenose Plecos.
10 Kuhli Loaches
20 Lemon Tetra.
20 Orange Venezuela Corys
10 Panda Garra
10 Roseline Sharks.
1 Royal Farlowella.
15 Kohaku Berlin Swordtails

I see your centrepience as the cardinals. They'll dominate the eye. I wouldn't go for 150, and I can get them wholesale. That's an expense, and maybe an overkill. 50 or 75 will do fine, unless the Roseline barbs eat too many. Have you looked at the full adult size of the denison's/roseline barbs? It's a large fish. They aren't especially predatory, but if they figure it out, you will lose cardinals. They, the lemons, the loracarids and Corys are all rainforest fish.

The misfits are the swordtails.

For comparison, in my 120 gallon, 6 foot tank, I have a group of 5 undescribed corys, and a lone incolicana (only one they had left). There are 30 cardinals, 15 black neons, 6 peugotti, and 15 other assorted less common tetras. I'm going to add some young cardinals that hatched out a couple of weeks ago, some H melanostichos (9) and H margitae (6). Maybe. I'm finding it heavily stocked without the additions.

If I liked roseline barbs, they would be the main fish.

Too many fish look like a subway platform at rush hour...

Again, not a rule, just an approach to consider.

 

[anewbie]

A relatively docile dwarf cichild would be a member of genus such as laetacara araguaiae. While they will breed and guard their frys if possible they will lay the eggs a bit higher than some of the other dwarf cichild - i've kept both wc and tank raised l. araguaiae and l. dorsigera; avoid l. thayeri this fish is in the same genus but are quite a bit larger and more aggressive.

You could also go with one of the smaller mesonauta such as m. egregius. Sadly info on 'official' sites are a bit off on the size of some of these fishes - these are a 'tame' alternative to angelfishes and will exist in a nice size group - i've kept several species in groups of 6 to 8 and major aggression never develop with them but the larger species will definitely eat cardinals and can easily get to 7+ inches (for males); the females are quite a bit smaller.