New stock recommendations?

[KRL]

Hi everyone!

I have a ~70L (20g) freshwater tank, heavily planted. Stocked with red cherry shrimp, kuhli loaches, pygmy cories, and male guppies. The guppies dont seem to be doing well in the tank. Everyone else seems happy enough, but the guppies only seem to live a few weeks to months. I'm thinking I might not get anymore guppies (as much as I love them), but keep the rest of the stock. I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions on what a good tank mate for the rest of the stock would be? Preferably something that is a bit more free-swimming like the guppies, as the loaches and cories are quite shy (unless food is involved)

Open to any suggestions!

Thanks

K

P.S. currently considering dwarf rasbora or harlequin rasbora. Thoughts on either?

 

[Essjay]

Before recommending any fish we need to know the hardness of your water. The fact that guppies have not been doing well but the loaches and cories have suggests you have soft water but this needs to be confirmed. A lot of guppies are weak fish nowadays that do badly even in hard water.

You should be able to find your tap water hardness somewhere on your water supplier's website. Post the number and the unit (they could use any one of half a dozen units so we need to know which) and then we can help with fish suggestions.

 

[KRL]

Before recommending any fish we need to know the hardness of your water. The fact that guppies have not been doing well but the loaches and cories have suggests you have soft water but this needs to be confirmed. A lot of guppies are weak fish nowadays that do badly even in hard water.

You should be able to find your tap water hardness somewhere on your water supplier's website. Post the number and the unit (they could use any one of half a dozen units so we need to know which) and then we can help with fish suggestions.

Thanks! From my googling the hardness is about 120mg/L as CaCO3. But I do have a lot of driftwood and plants for the size of the tank, so I guess that would make it softer?

 

[Essjay]

Wood doesn't make water softer, but it does lower the pH unless carbonate hardness (KH) is high.

120 mg/l is the same as 120 ppm, and it also converts to 6.7 degrees (also called German degrees and dH). That is on the low side for guppies which together with the weakness of guppies nowadays is probably the cause of their problems. But it is perfect for kuhli loaches and cories, and is high enough for red cherry shrimps.

The harelquin rasboras you suggested would be fine at this hardness, as would their slightly smaller look-alikes Trigonostigma espei and T. hengeli. You'll find all three species here http://www.seriouslyfish.com/species/search/trigonostigma.
By dwarf rasboras, do you mean fish like chili rasboras? These might be OK depending on your pH as they like acidic water - pH below 7.

 

[KRL]

Wood doesn't make water softer, but it does lower the pH unless carbonate hardness (KH) is high.

120 mg/l is the same as 120 ppm, and it also converts to 6.7 degrees (also called German degrees and dH). That is on the low side for guppies which together with the weakness of guppies nowadays is probably the cause of their problems. But it is perfect for kuhli loaches and cories, and is high enough for red cherry shrimps.

The harelquin rasboras you suggested would be fine at this hardness, as would their slightly smaller look-alikes Trigonostigma espei and T. hengeli. You'll find all three species here http://www.seriouslyfish.com/species/search/trigonostigma.
By dwarf rasboras, do you mean fish like chili rasboras? These might be OK depending on your pH as they like acidic water - pH below 7.

That's interesting, thanks! And I'll look into the other types too!

The dwarf rasboras (Boraras maculata) I was looking at seemed to be distinct from the chili rasboras. The dwarfs have spots instead of a stripe.

Also, would it be possible to get two types of rasbora or do they tend to just prefer a bigger group of one type?

 

[Essjay]

All the Boraras like soft acidic water. Maculatus' range is 18 to 90 ppm hardness and 4.0 to 6.5 pH, so your hardness is a bit too high for them, I'm afraid.

These fish (harlequins and Boraras) need to be in a group of their own species, and the smaller the fish the bigger the group needs to be. The minimum for harlies is 6 and Boraras it's 10. I have 15 of what I think are espe's rasboras (Trigonostigma espei) - they were bought as T. hengeli but they look more like espei.
One thing these fish do like is cover. I have water sprite in my tank, and hornwort which is long enough to lie on the surface. The rasboras tend to stay under the plants when the lights are on. If you don't already have floating plants I recommend you get some if you decide on these fish.

 

[KRL]

All the Boraras like soft acidic water. Maculatus' range is 18 to 90 ppm hardness and 4.0 to 6.5 pH, so your hardness is a bit too high for them, I'm afraid.

These fish (harlequins and Boraras) need to be in a group of their own species, and the smaller the fish the bigger the group needs to be. The minimum for harlies is 6 and Boraras it's 10. I have 15 of what I think are espe's rasboras (Trigonostigma espei) - they were bought as T. hengeli but they look more like espei.
One thing these fish do like is cover. I have water sprite in my tank, and hornwort which is long enough to lie on the surface. The rasboras tend to stay under the plants when the lights are on. If you don't already have floating plants I recommend you get some if you decide on these fish.

Is there any way to soften the water?

 

[Essjay]

The only way to soften water is by mixing it with pure water. This dilutes the minerals making the water softer. For pure water, you need reverse osmosis (RO) water - this is sold by a lot of fish shops or you can buy equipment for making your own. If you can be sure it is clean you can also use rainwater. But there must be no air pollution or crop spraying nearby; your roof should not be made of anything that could dissolve slightly in the rain or be covered in bird droppings. And rainwater must be available all year round.

If you go down this route, all water changes must be done with exactly the same proportions of tap and RO (or rainwater) and it would be advisable to always have some ready in case an emergency water change is needed.


Personally i would stick with pure tap water and avoid the few species that must have very soft water.