Fish to go with Guppies?

[guppymonkey]

Since I just figured out that my tank is larger than I thought it was (30 instead of 20 gallons) I was thinking about getting some new fish. I am not sure what to get though. I want something to go with the fish I have that isn't territorial or large or a bottom feeder. Are there any gourami that can handle hard water? Maybe some schooling fish?

 

[AndrewRenard]

add just about any other livebearer, maybe some head n' tail light tetras, they are more tolerant than most tetras, try maybe some pearl gouramis in a pair, (1 male, one female) or opaline gourami in the samoe...other htan thats, just about any live bearing fish..or meybe some harlequin rasboras..like me

 

[Alien Anna]

Black neon tetras cope with hard water well - in fact, I suspect one of mine is actually a piranha in disguise because its so enormous for a black neon! It's thriving in pH 8.2.

Danios are great in a 30 gal tank and can cope with anything you throw at them.

Siamese Algae Eaters are great in hard water but do make sure you actually get SAEs and not another species - some species don't eat algae but more importantly, aren't shoaling community fish like SAEs. A single Flying Fox would be a similar alternative (but territorial so you need to be careful what you have with it).

Gold or cherry barbs cope well and can be kept in a small group (male plus a harem of females).

Platties and swordtails can cope well. Mollies are great with guppies but might reduce your choices of other fish, due to their territorial nature.

Pearl and dwarf gouramis are both pretty tolerant of water conditions.

White cloud mountain minnows are fine with anything, but do take up the same upper swimming level as guppies.

In fact, its probably easier to tell you what isn't compatible - I know people around here who even succeed with breeding angelfish and corys in our high pH! The important thing is to get locally raised fish who are used to the conditions.

I would strongly recommend some bogwood for hard, alkaline water because it will gradually soften your water and slowly drop your pH a few points (my "Amazon" tank is at pH 6.8, from our tap water at pH 8.2-8.8, thanks largely to bogwood). You could also consider pre-filtering through peat, which is a simple technique that can have tremendous positive effects.

 

[colin5861]

Fish to go with guppies ? get more guppies. Any other fish will either be in competition or you will get in trouble ( from this forum LOL ) for maximising conditions for the guppies at the cost of the other fish. e.g salt in the water.

There is no finer companion for a guppy than another guppy - excepting maybe me .

 

[Alien Anna]

Fish to go with guppies ? get more guppies. Any other fish will either be in competition or you will get in trouble ( from this forum LOL ) for maximising conditions for the guppies at the cost of the other fish. e.g salt in the water.

There is no finer companion for a guppy than another guppy - excepting maybe me .

My experience is that guppies aren't so great with guppies - I have a bachelor group and at first I had a lot of problems. Mine live with mollies and an SAE, which is a good combination.

 

[colin5861]

Why a batchelor group Anna ?


Colin

 

[Alien Anna]

Why a batchelor group Anna ?


Colin

I wasn't interested in breeding them, just wanted some dither fish to go with my mollies and I was mislead by the LFS that they'd be OK. As it is, they are fine now but it was a bit hairy for the first few weeks. I think the fact that I've got quite a reasonable sized tank plus some aggressive mollies keeps them in check.

 

[KimmyFishy89]

Platys are great with guppies! I had two platies (A male, and a female) and one female guppie and they always swam around together

 

[guppymonkey]

Any other fish will either be in competition or you will get in trouble ( from this forum LOL ) for maximising conditions for the guppies at the cost of the other fish. e.g salt in the water.

Salt added to the water is out of the question because I have corys in the tank and salt is very bad for them. At least thats what I am told.

I would strongly recommend some bogwood for hard, alkaline water because it will gradually soften your water and slowly drop your pH a few points (my "Amazon" tank is at pH 6.8, from our tap water at pH 8.2-8.8, thanks largely to bogwood).

The strange thing is that while my water is very hard and very alkaline the pH hasn't changed much since I set up the tank. I check my water a couple times a week and the pH has stayed at around 7. Where would I get bogwood?

 

[Alien Anna]

I would strongly recommend some bogwood for hard, alkaline water because it will gradually soften your water and slowly drop your pH a few points (my "Amazon" tank is at pH 6.8, from our tap water at pH 8.2-8.8, thanks largely to bogwood).

The strange thing is that while my water is very hard and very alkaline the pH hasn't changed much since I set up the tank. I check my water a couple times a week and the pH has stayed at around 7. Where would I get bogwood?

Actually that's not strange at all - the harder your water, the more stable your pH. GH, permenant hardness doesn't affect pH very much but KH does (that's temporary, or "carbonate" hardness). Usually if you have a high GH you have a high KH, since both are the result of water running through limestone, but not always.

pH 7 is great - a little high technically for many fish, but as we've said, fish can be acclimatised. The only exceptions are things like discus.

Bogwood may lower your pH a little, and soften your water a little, but don't expect miracles. It is basically wood that's dug up with peat from a peat bog. Driftwood is an alternative but I don't think its as acid as bogwood. Mopani root and mangrove are two other alternatives. I know mopani is acidifying like bogwood, but I've no idea about mangrove root.

 

[Aqua_Princess64]

platies, mollies, corys

 

[platypus]

I have a pair of neon blue dwarf gouramis, one male, one female, in my tank and they are a really lovely addition - they look beautiful and if you have lots of trailing plants in the water and the surface is quite still the male may build a bubble nest and you'll could get babies! Here's a pic of a male and here's a female. I've seen pics of powder blue dwarf gouramis on this site too which I think are stunning.