Help Me Stock My Tank With Nice Looking Fish!

[am3ience]

Hi, i'm new to fishkeeping and have a 36 gallon bowfront tank using an aqeuon quietflow 55 filter, and the tank is in the process of being heavily planted. Currently I have: 

6 zebra danios 
3 honey gourami 
3 oto catfish
1 siamese algae eater. 

I'm thinking of bringing my zebra danios back to petsmart and getting some more colourful fish for my tank. I was thinking of a couple dwarf flame gourami, and a school of cardinal or neon tetras or maybe even rainbowfish? Any recommendations would be awesome! Would like the fish be as nice looking or colorful as possible!

 

[catfish4ever]

Rainbowfish fish hands down, Boesmani's or Red Iranians

 

[am3ience]

Rainbowfish fish hands down, Boesmani's or Red Iranians

how many rainbowfish do you think i can fit in there?

 

[Wills]

Boesmani and Iranians get too big for a 36 gallon tank but a group of Dwarf Neon Rainbows would work nice. A group of 8 would fit nicely.
 
If your set on keeping the Zebra Danios, fair enough but ideally you want Danios in long tanks over 4 foot long and with a strong current, they are a common fish that are sold to small tanks regularly but actually they are an incredibly active fish and need more room than you would expect. Just a thought.
 
Wills

 

[fluttermoth]

am3ience; is your water hard or soft?

 

[am3ience]

am3ience; is your water hard or soft?

 
my KH is a little below 40

Boesmani and Iranians get too big for a 36 gallon tank but a group of Dwarf Neon Rainbows would work nice. A group of 8 would fit nicely.
 
If your set on keeping the Zebra Danios, fair enough but ideally you want Danios in long tanks over 4 foot long and with a strong current, they are a common fish that are sold to small tanks regularly but actually they are an incredibly active fish and need more room than you would expect. Just a thought.
 
Wills

 
I think i'm set on returning my danios, they're also causing feeding problems, they eat literally everything I put in the tank, taking food from my gouramis, even eating algae wafers! 

 

[Wills]

Cool I think it could be for the best your Gourami will be really nice calm fish and those Danios darting around could cause some issues.
 
How about some Dwarf Cichlids for the bottom a trio of Apistogramma Panduro would be nice with their electric blue males and their bumble bee yellow and black females they make a nice impact to a tank this size, especially planted tanks
 
A group of Dwarf Chain Loaches or Panda Cories could look good on the bottom as well!
 
Wills

 

[attibones]

Since no one else has said this, you may want to remove the SAE as they do not eat algae forever and may begin to show aggressive behavior as they age. Your otos would also appreciate a few more conspecifics. 

 

[am3ience]

Since no one else has said this, you may want to remove the SAE as they do not eat algae forever and may begin to show aggressive behavior as they age. Your otos would also appreciate a few more conspecifics. 

 
what do you mean by conspecifics? Like get more of them? or fish like them, such as cory cats?
 

Cool

I think it could be for the best your Gourami will be really nice calm fish and those Danios darting around could cause some issues.
 
How about some Dwarf Cichlids for the bottom a trio of Apistogramma Panduro would be nice with their electric blue males and their bumble bee yellow and black females they make a nice impact to a tank this size, especially planted tanks

 
A group of Dwarf Chain Loaches or Panda Cories could look good on the bottom as well!
 
Wills

 
oh dwarf cichlids sound really nice, i heard they could get pretty aggressive though? Think they'd be fine with my current stock minus the zebra danios?

 

[attibones]

Conspecifics is just a shorter way of saying fish of the same species.

 

[Alasse]

lol now me i woulda just said "Your otos would also appreciate a few more otos" 

 

[Wills]

The word aggressive is a bit vague really, none of them will go out an outwardly eat other fish or take bits at them for no reason. They generally will stake a territory of sorts in the tank and may chase fish away from their area but often it wont matter. Your current stock would be absolutely fine with them
 
Wills

 

[the_lock_man]

Conspecifics is just a shorter way of saying fish of the same species.

 
I've always used "Conspecifics" a little wider than that, to mean species which are fairly similar, have similar traits. For instance, bettas and gourami are, to me, conspecific. These two are not the same species but will fight as they are very close to each other, want the same area of the tank, etc.

 

[attibones]

Yes that is a looser definition, but I'm fond of the simple dictionary definition brought to us by Merriam Webster: "of the same species"
 
However, your looser definition still works well.

 

[am3ience]

Yes that is a looser definition, but I'm fond of the simple dictionary definition brought to us by Merriam Webster: "of the same species"
 
However, your looser definition still works well.

 
how many more otos do you think I should get?