Pondering The Future

[Honeythorn]

Having lost another Leopard Danio the other week, I have been looking at my tank and am now wondering as to future stocking of it.

I currently have in my 30 gal ( run with an Eheim 2215 with 50% water changes once a week ) :

1 Opaline gourami
4 weatherloaches ( 1 a very small baby )
4 peppered cories
3 Leopard danios
2 white clouds
3 silvertip tetras
4 male guppies
5 amano shrimp.

I'm not going to be adding to any of the groups of small fish, as they all school together , are all quite old with the exception of the guppies and are basically living out their lives until old age claims them. The silvertips and white clouds are also rescues from my brother who was going to flush them alive !!! So giving them to him is not really a wise idea.


The White clouds and Danios in particular are around 6 years old but in otherwise pretty good health. But they won't last forever and I have been wondering what to put in the tank when they are gone.

I can't have another Gourami as mine is EXTREMELY intolerant of other gouramis ( I did try once with no luck )

I also do not fancy any cichlids .

Basically I'm thinking of some sort of mid to top dewller, but am unsure wether to go for something quite small such as some sort of small tetra, or bigger, like barbs. I just want something...colourful and different.

Does anyone have any sugestions?

This is a current pic of the tank also-

 

[Truck]

how can you not have cichlids! hatchet fish?

 

[stang1]

Beautiful tank Honey!

You could try any of the following:

Dwarf Neon Rainbow
Rummy Nose Tetra
Glowlight Tetra
Threadfin Rainbows
Pentazona Barbs
Forktail Rainbow

They are all good community fish and should mix well with your current stocking.

 

[Nick16]

some harleqins and a few gold barbs. cant beat that.

 

[Honeythorn]

how can you not have cichlids! hatchet fish?

I'm just not keen on them at all. Not even angelfish.

Stang - The dwarf Neon rainbows sound nice. I'm going by memory but are they a couple of inches long and sort of blue-ish in colour? Or am I getting confused with Praecox rainbows?

I did see a small species of tetras in my LFS. In there they are labelled as Lampeye tetras ( not sure if that's their correct name or a mis-label ) They are very small, silvery all over and with a bright silver blue flash in the top of the eye.

Gold barbs also sound rather nice I shall have to find a picture.

Ideally a couple of groups of fish would be good if I can manage it but if not then fair enough ....

 

[stang1]

The Dwarf Rainbow is the Praecox and they are pretty much as you described:

Dwarf Neon Rainbow

Stunning little fish and very peaceful.
The Lampeye Tetra (Norman's Lampeye) is a Killifish although it's often labelled as a Tetra. Another great community fish and very under-rated in my opinion. I think they make a great contrast in the tank and their little blue eyes really stand out.

Norman's Lampeye

 

[Honeythorn]

Ahaaaa... Could I keep both groups of these fish then? 4-6 rainbows and 8-10 Lampeyes ? Or do you think I should stick with one group? I don't want to overstock if I can help it ( although it wouldn't be too much of a problem given my filtration and water changes )

 

[stang1]

It might be best adding one group of fish first and seeing how they look before deciding on getting the others.
I can't see any problems with keeping both sets of fish.

 

[Honeythorn]

Splendid, thankyou.