New 40-55 Gallon Inhabitants/tank Mates

[beast1605]

Hello all and thanks for looking into my topic. 
I am relatively new to having my own aquariums but have grown up with them my whole life. I started young with large predatory fish and now at nearly 30 im looking into this new world of "Nano Fish" for freshwater. Thus far ive found Celestial Pearl Danios and have been captivated by their beauty, size, and behavior. For this reason i am setting up a 40-55 gallon aquarium with the CPDs as the main attraction and would love input on tank mates for them. So far ive found a few types of small cory cats and even the moth or stoner cat to be great candidates for bottom feeder tank mates. Im also looking into Danio Erythomicron as a smaller schooling group. My main concern is just a show fish like some sparkling gourami or liquorice gourami or possibly a ram. Again im looking for any input from anyone thats dealt with these small fish. My tank will be running 2 Aquaclear 30 powerfilters with Fluval edge pre filter sponges to help keep these little delicate fish from becoming filter food. My tank will also be heavily planted with java moss, dwarf water lettuce, planted hornswort, and some dwarf hair grass with the rest of my taller plants being artificial for simplicities sake. Again any input on the species or filtration is welcome but please try to be nice in your comments to myself and others heated debates are welcome but no opinion bashing please. Thanks again for reading! 
 
P.S. tank size will be confirmed once i get the tank measure and pics will be posted once i get the gravel in. I will be posting pics of my current aquariums and the complete build of my Nano Tank from gravel and aquascaping layout to planting and the completion with the full bioload of what i hope will be 40 or so fish all under 1.5 inches.

 

[wrightt3]

So are you looking for a nano tank on a large scale?
I'm not sure if all of these are compatible or not but endlers, ember tetras, pygmy cories and sparkling gouramis all stay very small and would make a very colourful tank.
Personally, I would go back to large predatory fish as I find them far more interesting.
Welcome to the forum by the way!

 

[biggerfish]

sparkling gouramis have a habit of murdering small fish with showy fins like guppies and your pearl danios, I would recommend honey gouramis they're a bit less aggressive and should do fine.

 

[wrightt3]

Really, I never knew that?
Are we thinking about the same fish? sparkling/croaking gouramis are tiny, smaller than the honey anyway. I just assumed that because they are so small they wouldn't be that aggressive but I guess that's not always the case.

 

[biggerfish]

small doesn't mean not aggressive, pea puffers are tiny (1") and they are extremely aggressive. Back to the point sparkling gouramis can get iffy with SIMILAR LOOKING fish, which pearl danios are kinda similar with them both being small with fancy bright fins. Its actually pretty rare for it to go beyond a bit if chasing for the first couple of days but its better safe then sorry.
if you really want the sparklings you can try and it might go just perfectly fine but with the honeys its almost guaranteed to go fine.

 

[beast1605]

Thanks for all the input thus far. I am going Nano Tank on a larger scale. Again the main fish is the Celestial Pearl Danio which is way different from a pearl danio, much smaller in fact. So small i can see the sparkling gourami being a potential bully so Im now leaning towards the liquorice gourami which tops out at an inch. Im also thinking about a small ram or two but i know they have aggressive tendencies as well. Im still searching for a simple "show fish" thats not timid not big and just hangs out like gourami.

 

[ncguppy830]

Really, I never knew that?
Are we thinking about the same fish? sparkling/croaking gouramis are tiny, smaller than the honey anyway. I just assumed that because they are so small they wouldn't be that aggressive but I guess that's not always the case.

 

small doesn't mean not aggressive, pea puffers are tiny (1") and they are extremely aggressive. Back to the point sparkling gouramis can get iffy with SIMILAR LOOKING fish, which pearl danios are kinda similar with them both being small with fancy bright fins. Its actually pretty rare for it to go beyond a bit if chasing for the first couple of days but its better safe then sorry.
if you really want the sparklings you can try and it might go just perfectly fine but with the honeys its almost guaranteed to go fine.

sparkling gouramis arent agressuve there great community fish i think it might be better than the honeys in one instance

 

[biggerfish]

gouramis are labyrinth fish which are aggressive towards same species or similar looking species of the same sex, i meant to say celestial pearls not reg pearls which I know are bigger. My point is still valid that sparkling gouramis and  celestial pearl danios are similar sized, and similar looking fish fish, wich could trigger that same species aggressiveness that gouramis and all other labrynth fish have.

licorice gourami should do fine though.

rams are cichlids, and can be aggresive to similar/smaller fish you probably won't have any luck with them. I would keep on doing research for finding small timid fish.

rams are also one of the least hardy fish you can buy anything less then absolute pristine water and their health will suffer, so if you don't want to have to deal with keeping the water EXACTLY how the love it don't get em. That's more of an issue then their aggression, as long as you don't have a breeding pair and plenty of caves aggression actually isn't all that bad, its just the water quality they require is a pain.

 

[beast1605]

Thanks for the input Fanatic, Ive looked into the smaller gourami and the liquorice does seem to be the best choice. Im still trying to figure my numbers on bottom dwellers/cleanup crew. Im thinkin Pygmy Cory, shrimp, and otocinclus will put in the most work and add a decent ammount of movement along the bottom. Im thinking around 6 cories, 3-4 otos, and 6-10 ghost shrimp in addition to my schooling fish of around 20 strong split between Celestial Pearl Danios and Danio Erythromicron. The gourami being just a pair or trio at most for around 34-40 fish total. If this is too much of a bio load please let me know. Ill be running 2 Aquaclear 20 powerfilters for the mess.

 

[beast1605]

Thanks Biggerfish, still gettin to know the forum layout lol

 

[Lillefishy]

Cpd's can be shy when kept with larger fish, Oto's & pygmy corys will be ok & possibly the croaking gourami.
If you heavily plant the tank the Cpd will feel safer
It's not recommended to keep erythromicrons with them as they're closely related & could interbreed

 

[beast1605]

So through measurements ive found im only working with a 30 gallon aquarium which means less fish but ive found a few types of the liquorice gourami that i think will compliment the tank nicely. As for the hybridization im well aware of the possibility but i will not be breeding to get hybrids so any that make it in the main tank will become welcome residents.

 

[beast1605]

The picks on gourami thus far are three types of liquorice gourami, the giant red, the filament, and the blue line. Let me know what your thoughts are.

 

[biggerfish]

I would go with the blue line, stunning fish that would make a perfect centerpiece for your tank

 

[beast1605]

I agree and again thanks for all the input BiggerFish I greatly appreciate.