Microrasboras

spectrum · Mar 15, 2010

Sorry for another ignorant topic by me

I have tried to research these but its all very confusing

.
I'm restocking my 10g moderately planted tank (Could be heavily planted if need be)
,and i'm not quite sure what i'm going to have in it yet, but one possibility was Microrasboras and I don't really know anything about them, How many could I have in a 10g? There also seem to be several million species (Exaggeration :lol:

) Which are best/smallest/whatever

Any general info would be great

grumpysteve · Mar 15, 2010

most rasbora's in general prefer soft acidic water, with little to no flow. as you say there's a lot of different species so narrowing it down any more than that is pretty difficult. it depends if you're planning on keeping anything else in the tank too, or if it's going to be a species tank.
if you use the 1" per gallon rule you could keep 10" (aim a bit lower though, your tank wont have 10 gallons of water in it after water displacement. sorry, i'm really over cautious!). a lot of rasbora's get to about 1", which means you could have a shoal of about 10.
if you're open to suggestions on what to go for there's a huge choice. i've got some rasbora rubrodorsalis and i think they're stunning little fish, they grow to about 3cm. boraras micros get to a little over 1cm so you could keep more of them. one thing to keep in mind is that some of them look a bit plain when they're on their own, but a shoal of them looks beautiful.

if you want more suggestions check this link out:
http

/www.seriouslyfish.com/kb.php?t=ps&s=microrasbora

don't just go for whatever your LFS stocks though, ask around and see if anyone can order them in, or check out www.tropicalfishfinder.co.uk
if you find something you like you'd be much happier if you wait til you find it rather than settling for something else

kelly528 · Mar 15, 2010

I would like to recommend the book 'Nano-Aquariums: Setup and Maintenance' by David E. Boruchowitz.

Aside from having a fantastic catalogue of nano fish and some valuable advice and ideas on nano-aquariums, it also has a really good pictoral guide of microrasboras among other nano fish. It only has their picture, name and size, and a short blurb on microrasboras in general but still very handy because you can compare the rasboras visually to pick your favorite.

Also you should consider some pygmy cories for the bottom... I would love to see a 'micro-community' play out in your tank.

spectrum · Mar 16, 2010

I think a species tank with lots of really small fish, like the boraras micros that you suggested, would be awesome. Conveniently enough my water soft and acidic

, The filter is very flexible, 200-400lph and I could buy the spray bar to reduce current if necessary. I have only ever seen one species of fish around 1cm in my LFS, It was labeled I think 'Glow tetra' although that was ages ago and It could be something completely different, they were a blueish green all over and about a centimetre each. My LFS probably would order in any fish I asked them to. How many Pygmy Cories would be ideal with a shoal of the very small species (I will probably go with a 2cm downward fish), what would be a good balance?
Thanks for the replies :good:

kelly528 · Mar 16, 2010

Maybe they were glowlight tetras? Not too familiar with them but I would be careful as I have seen fish stores selling misleadingly small baby neons. Make sure to researhc the adult size so you can confirm they're what you want.

Pygmy cories need a shoal of at least 6 (unlike regular cories which can get along okay in a group of 3) but preferably 10. Which you should be able to pull off without breaking a sweat alongside a shoal of 10-15 boraras micros, espescially if the tank is planted. Both fish are very small, low bioload and this allows you to really ben the inch per gallon rule.

spectrum · Mar 16, 2010

This sounds good, now I need to hunt down some boraras micros :good:

Can't wait now

Thanks for the helps guys.

spectrum · Mar 16, 2010

I went on tropical fish finder to see where I could get Boraras Micros and it says they need a dark substrate, is this correct? I have a light(ish) natural sand at the moment.

grumpysteve · Mar 16, 2010

most fish do better with a dark substrate, especially timid fish like rasboras. light reflects off of light substrate and makes fish a bit uneasy. chances are these aren't wild caught though, so they'll be used to a huge variation of different tank set-ups i would've thought. they like a lot of plant cover and dense vegetation too, so if you get some floating plants, or the vegetation is thick enough the light wont reflect off the sand as much. i think you'll be fine with your sand, but personally i'd try and get it more like what they'd have in nature..... i'm a sucker for biotopes and nature tanks though