Stocking a 54 liter tank

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The easiest is to get fish that suit your water. Have a look at endlers. Males are tiny jewels of fish which come in different colours. But females are plain grey, and have fry every month so the tank would soon be over populated. A tank of male endlers would make a nice display.
 
Thanks that is good to know. I’m slightly confused though. Just wondering how ppm correlates to the ph of the water though. Sorry if this is a dumb question.
 
Was about to suggest endlers before I saw the post above. Definitely males only. All livebearers breed prolifically and if you buy even one female there is no guarantee that it is not already pregnant.
 
Also people have told me Cories will do fine with the guppies so?
 
I also thought tetras worked with guppies maybe I’m thinking of the wrong type correct me if I’m wrong which I probably am.
 
Personally I would go with endlers. All the ones in shops are actually guppy-endler hybrids, but they don't suffer from the same inbreeding issues that guppies do.

About 10 years ago, before I knew about hardness, I had endlers. Males will display to one another, and chase each other but mine never actually made contact. It was all show.



Cories and most tetras need soft water. While they would go with guppies temperament wise, they have different needs.








Hardness, GH, is a measure of the amount of calcium, some magnesium and trace amounts of other metals.
pH is the measure of hydrogen ions.
Although they are interconnected, GH (hardness) and pH measure different things. As a general rule, if the hardness is high, pH will also be high. Though the reverse is not necessarily true - I have soft water but my tap water pH is 7.6 after it's been allowed to stand overnight.

Something else I should mention - it is always a good idea to test tap water for everything so that we know whether something like nitrate is present in the tank because it is being made in the tank or because it's in the tap water we used to fill the tank. When testing tap water pH, we need to test both freshly run water and some that's been allowed to stand overnight. They'll probably be different.
 
How many endlers do u think could go in my tank and anything else or just endlers cause I was sorta hoping to have something else as well.
 
Before I forget, I need to mention cycling - the process of growing beneficial bacteria in the tank. If you haven't already done this, you need to cycle the tank before getting any fish. This method explains what I mean https://www.fishforums.net/threads/cycling-your-new-fresh-water-tank-read-this-first.421488/

An alternative is to use live plants - a lot of them, not just the odd one or two - and wait till you are sure they are growing before adding fish.
 
Also why does everyone say guppies work with Cories?
 
Would any species of tetra work cause someone mentioned that earlier
 
Our posts keep crossing!

In 54 litres, you could have at least a dozen male endlers.

How do you feel about shrimps? I know some people find them gross. Cherry shrimps are the easiest shrimp, and the come in several colours - red, orange, yellow, blue - but you can have only one colour as when the different colours interbreed you end up with all brown shrimps.





The reason people say guppies and cories go together is because they don't understand that fish have different hardness needs. Anyone can set up a website and give the most inaccurate information. And fish shop workers are among the worst for giving incorrect information. The first lesson in fishkeeping is - never believe anything a shop says till you have researched it for yourself.



There are very few tetras that can live in hard water. Something like X-ray tetras https://www.seriouslyfish.com/species/pristella-maxillaris/ might be OK - but only if the tank measures at least 60 x 30 cm. Most of the tetras that can live in hard water need biggert anks.
 
If I went for guppies or Cories how many could I keep in either case?
 

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