Stocking An 8 Gallon Pentagon Aquarium

[LoachLover!]

I have an old pentagon aquarium just sitting doing nothing, so I may set it up. I will only set it up if some kind of stocking idea catches my eye

It's around 8 gallons, maybe a tad smaller, but pretty much 8 US gallons anyway

It was used as a fry tank, but now I have no fry, I would like to set it up for something else.

I will also need plants, but the Issue is, the lighting is very old (It's an old tank) and it's one of these old fashioned, dull halogen bulbs which is kinda outdated. It's 10w. I guess that kinda limits me and chances are tbh I will go with silk plants, cos I am not gonna trust this lighting! It didn't work all too well the first time as far as plants.

Stocking wise, I like all sorts and I am quite open to stocking ideas, but one request.....no shrimp! I don't want shrimp, I want this to be a fish tank

Fish I like:

Sparkling gouramis
Chilli Rasboras
Celestial Pearl Danios
Neon green rasboras
Endlers
Betta
Pygmy cories (too active?)

Would this be overdoing it?

1 x Sparkling gourami
6-8 microrasboras
3 x Ottos

It is an average filter and I would be doing 30-50% PWCs each week

Does that sound an ok kinda idea?

Thanks

Abbey

 

[Chad]

I have 8 chili rasbora and I just love them. I'm a huge fan of micro fish anyway and these guys just have a great color to them and they seem to be ready to eat whatever I feed them. They even go after the flake I put in for the cherry shrimp. However, they do need a balanced diet so I also feed them baby brine, daphnia, and small blood worms on a rotating basis.

I also have 2 scarlet badis. These are great fish as well but not for every tank. They require a bit more care as sometimes they don't eat well. They are hunters and do best in a planted or more mature tank so that they have plenty of micro-crustaceans to munch on. Mine do take to the daphnia and micro blood worms well too and of course in my tank they get their fill of baby cherry shrimp.

 

[LoachLover!]

Thank you Do scarlet badis need to live in species tanks? I guess not if they like baby shrimp Could they for example live with chilli rasboras?

 

[Chad]

I have the scarlet badis and chili rasbora in the same tank. They don't bother each other in the slightest. If you have a small tank and keep the badis and you have more than one male the tank needs to have something in it (plants or driftwood) that divides the tank in a way that each male gets his own territory where he doesn't have to look at the other one. A male and a few females can fit into a small tank.

 

[Ruskull]

I think you can still do plants in that tank if you really wanted to. They make florescent replacement bulbs for that fixture that provide many more lumens than stock would.........

 

[LoachLover!]

The tank is quite tall, so would that mean that 2 males would be a lot harder to keep peacefully? How easy are scarlet badis to find? Are they common in most LFS?

Thanks