Generic stocking/livebearer question

[GaryE]

You seem engaged in your tank, so why not build a biotope? You have a Thai snail, and there are a lot of great Thai fish you could put with them.
Go to Fishbase.org, and look to information by country. Choose Thailand and freshwater and you'll see every fish identified from that country. Then start comparing what you can get with what's there.
A tank that's a little slice of Thai nature would be nice to look at.

 

[kiko]

If you read the whole thread, the OP wants fish that don't upset a hoped for breeding of his snails. Puffers? Yikes.

yeah sorry...guess I didn't pay attention to that..was thinking he wanted a species only with snails in the tank

 

[Beastije]

You seem engaged in your tank, so why not build a biotope? You have a Thai snail, and there are a lot of great Thai fish you could put with them.
Go to Fishbase.org, and look to information by country. Choose Thailand and freshwater and you'll see every fish identified from that country. Then start comparing what you can get with what's there.
A tank that's a little slice of Thai nature would be nice to look at.

That sounds nice, but I can never complete a biotope with plants.
I have the same in my large tank, theoretically, except the snails, it could be a south america biotope, but with plants? no way. I already know the snails in this tank eat plants in the substrate, so I am reduced to floating and surface plants, at this moment I have anubias, I have java moss and Najas guadalupensis

I did consider the minnows and stones and leaves as a sort of biotope w floating plants, but the temp threw a wrench in that. I would be excited to hear if someone has personal experiences with the CPD behavior in solitary tank or the emerald dwarf rasbora

 

[Beastije]

Oh or how about some type of Oryzias? I need to read about the water specifics, since my water is soft and high ph, but behavior wise it might be better than the CPD, though still keep waiting for someone who had them solitaire in a smaller tank.
I will be remaking the tank today, right now it is mostly empty plank wise with java moss that has started growing algae. I will move the java moss to my shrimp tank, which should be appreciated, and will move the 20cm anubias from there here. It won't get eaten by the snail, will provide more plant matter and might create nice decor. I am also growing some java fern and would love some wood to tie it down to, but didn't find any. Should I remove the najas, that will be the question...will post pictures later on.

 

[emeraldking]

Oh or how about some type of Oryzias?

They are quite hardy and you don't need too high temperatures for them. You can keep them even outdoors during the better months of the year. At least, that's what I've done for a number of years.

 

[Beastije]

So, because I was mulling this over and getting frustrated with limited choices or option to have small shoaling fish and bottom dwelling corydoras or snails, which is basically the same setup I have in the big tank, I have decided to upgrade this tank from 60x30x30 to like 75x40x40 or even 75x45x40.
I will keep the filter and the 60 cm light, will just increase intensity, move the sand and do something in there, because that volume allows me to play a bit more.
I will either remove the snail and do the initially planned trio of apistogramma and some dither fish, (thinking actually about moving the 5 remaining hatchetfish to this tank from the large tank, since they didnt appreciate it)
or will do like Pacific setup, Pacific blue-eye and Spotted blue-eye or some rainbowfish,
or will do an Asia biotop, danios maybe some loach, or the originally planned CPD and the brotia snails, or even the medaka and the snails
So many more choices

Will revisit this in autumn, when I will have time to order and do the switch