Suggestions re compatible new additions

[Fox46]

Gradually working my way through the solutions to some poorly researched/misinformed fish choices made during the first six months of fish-keeping. I’d hoped to have a clean slate with our new 180l tank, but in the end it’s become an asylum for our mistakes. End result is that we now have two 180l tanks:

Tank 1 has 3 Pearl Gourami (one male, 2 female), 6 cory’s, and 8 male multi-coloured guppies (who get on well).

Tank 2 has 3 Pearl Gourami (one male, 2 female) and 2 male black guppies who get on well with each other but wreaked tail-nipping havoc on the guppies in the first tank.

I’d like to add something to both tanks, particularly since Tank 2, with its black background is pretty colourless.

Can anyone help with suggestions for compatible, peaceful tank mates, both in gender distribution (my biggest mistake so far) and species. I’m not up for any more aggression and have no spare tanks now, since the 60l and a hospital tank are housing other (Gold Gourami and Black Widow Tetra) problems. Thanks for any advice.

 

[Naughts]

Sorry you have had problems, the fish you have are sold as beginner fish so easily done.
The silver lining is you now have another tank!
Can you tell us the waters GH and pH, and the temperatures in the tanks please? Your water providers website may state the GH.

 

[Fox46]

Temp in both tanks is generally kept between 26.2 to 27.5 depending on ambient temps. The GH in tapwater is 17 (on a reference scale between 8-25), KH is 14 (on a scale between 5-16). The pH I recorded some while back was 7.4 on the (6-7.6) JBL test, just checked now and it's closer to 7.2. Does this make sense, I'm not particularly chemically-savvy, my OH does that and he's not here right now.

 

[Wills]

So that means that you have quite hard water and an above neutral ph - very similar to mine

Rummy Nose Rasboras could be a good candidate for either tank and there are a couple of loach species like Rosy Loach or Inle Loach that could work in there if you can find them as they are a bit rare.

Also Rainbow Fish would work nicely - Dwarf Neon Blues or Dwarf Sunsets stay quite small but still very impressive fish. There are a couple of different smaller species too like Yellow Forktails that would work too.

Wills

 

[ClownLurch]

Welcome.
They’re great here. Most knowledgeable, helpful, educated, witty, physically and mentally attractive fishologist types on the Internet and don’t even get me started on the parties. I’m amazed they let me hang around with them actually.
Your water hardness of dh17 (304ppm) is going to be your main problem.
I know as mines dh19. I’m a newbie myself but have spent lockdown scouring the internet for 19dh compatible fish that’ll fit my tank. Your fish will be most comfortable with dh17/304ppm near the middle of their comfort zones rather than at the extremity.

I’ve a list of 30 or so that fit my 19dh water and 760mm long tank which I’ll post for you. If your tanks are longer then mine there are other fish I’ve dismissed for my purposes which would suit.

seriouslyfish.com is the best place available to find out about fish.
Rainbowfish/ pseudomugils/ ricefish/ limia/ killifish/Apistogramm/cichlids have a lot of varieties and some are hard water fish so enter all separately into its search engine.
List (suited to my 19dh and 760mm tank):
Celebes rainbowfish
Forktail blue eye
neon blue eye
medaka
celebes ricefish
indian ricefish
javanese ricefish
white cloud mountain minnow
paradise fish
spiketail paradise fish
emerald dwarf rasbora
bloodfin tetra
endlers
guppy
glass bloodfin tetra
platy
dwarf gourami
wrestling halfbeak
xray tetra
florida flagfish
odessa barb
cherry barb
wolasi ricefish
delicate blue eye
least killifish
tiger teddy
silver tip tetra

If anyone’s got others I’ve missed out on please please please throw em in the mix.

Some are too small/timid to live with big fish, some known fin nippers, some just plain old fashioned psychotic thugs and some simply misunderstood. They’ll advise you. you’re in good fins here.
Have fun.

 

[Wills]

Welcome.
They’re great here. Most knowledgeable, helpful, educated, witty, physically and mentally attractive fishologist types on the Internet and don’t even get me started on the parties. I’m amazed they let me hang around with them actually.
Your water hardness of dh17 (304ppm) is going to be your main problem.
I know as mines dh19. I’m a newbie myself but have spent lockdown scouring the internet for 19dh compatible fish that’ll fit my tank. Your fish will be most comfortable with dh17/304ppm near the middle of their comfort zones rather than at the extremity.

I’ve a list of 30 or so that fit my 19dh water and 760mm long tank which I’ll post for you. If your tanks are longer then mine there are other fish I’ve dismissed for my purposes which would suit.

seriouslyfish.com is the best place available to find out about fish.
Rainbowfish/ pseudomugils/ ricefish/ limia/ killifish/Apistogramm/cichlids have a lot of varieties and some are hard water fish so enter all separately into its search engine.
List (suited to my 19dh and 760mm tank):
Celebes rainbowfish
Forktail blue eye
neon blue eye
medaka
celebes ricefish
indian ricefish
javanese ricefish
white cloud mountain minnow
paradise fish
spiketail paradise fish
emerald dwarf rasbora
bloodfin tetra
endlers
guppy
glass bloodfin tetra
platy
dwarf gourami
wrestling halfbeak
xray tetra
florida flagfish
odessa barb
cherry barb
wolasi ricefish
delicate blue eye
least killifish
tiger teddy
silver tip tetra

Some are too small/timid to live with big fish, some known fin nippers, some just plain old fashioned psychotic thugs and some simply misunderstood. They’ll advise you. you’re in good fins here.
Have fun.

This list is great

This thread has given me a fire in a belly to work out what to do with hard water tanks as it often feels like a dead end. So many regions of the UK have such hard water finding the right fish is quite hard. After a bit of searching a few more common fish to add to the list that I think are worth looking at that I hadnt considered before.

- Odessa Barbs
- Congo Tetras
- Synodontis Petricola - infact most Synos are good candidates here just need to stick to the smaller sizes

Wills

 

[ClownLurch]

This list is great

This thread has given me a fire in a belly to work out what to do with hard water tanks as it often feels like a dead end. So many regions of the UK have such hard water finding the right fish is quite hard. After a bit of searching a few more common fish to add to the list that I think are worth looking at that I hadnt considered before.

- Odessa Barbs
- Congo Tetras
- Synodontis Petricola - infact most Synos are good candidates here just need to stick to the smaller sizes

Wills

Are there any small catfish apart from the Asian Stone Catfish? Which is slightly over an inch or so long but unfortunately isn’t suited to my liquid rock. Though once I’m more experienced I’m gonna start a smaller RO watered tank and these are certainly contenders.
Shame there’s no 2-3 inch catfish.....or are there?

 

[Fox46]

So that means that you have quite hard water and an above neutral ph - very similar to mine

Rummy Nose Rasboras could be a good candidate for either tank and there are a couple of loach species like Rosy Loach or Inle Loach that could work in there if you can find them as they are a bit rare.

Also Rainbow Fish would work nicely - Dwarf Neon Blues or Dwarf Sunsets stay quite small but still very impressive fish. There are a couple of different smaller species too like Yellow Forktails that would work too.

Wills

Thanks for those. I couldn't find the exact species of rasboras and loaches you mention, but the ones I did find seem to specify a well-established tank. I guess at six months Tank 1 qualifies but Tank 2 is only about a month out of cycling. I've admired Rainbow Fish before and I saw some Sunsets at the lfs so that's a possibility.

 

[Fox46]

Welcome.
They’re great here. Most knowledgeable, helpful, educated, witty, physically and mentally attractive fishologist types on the Internet and don’t even get me started on the parties. I’m amazed they let me hang around with them actually.
Your water hardness of dh17 (304ppm) is going to be your main problem.
I know as mines dh19. I’m a newbie myself but have spent lockdown scouring the internet for 19dh compatible fish that’ll fit my tank. Your fish will be most comfortable with dh17/304ppm near the middle of their comfort zones rather than at the extremity.

I’ve a list of 30 or so that fit my 19dh water and 760mm long tank which I’ll post for you. If your tanks are longer then mine there are other fish I’ve dismissed for my purposes which would suit.

seriouslyfish.com is the best place available to find out about fish.
Rainbowfish/ pseudomugils/ ricefish/ limia/ killifish/Apistogramm/cichlids have a lot of varieties and some are hard water fish so enter all separately into its search engine.
List (suited to my 19dh and 760mm tank):
Celebes rainbowfish
Forktail blue eye
neon blue eye
medaka
celebes ricefish
indian ricefish
javanese ricefish
white cloud mountain minnow
paradise fish
spiketail paradise fish
emerald dwarf rasbora
bloodfin tetra
endlers
guppy
glass bloodfin tetra
platy
dwarf gourami
wrestling halfbeak
xray tetra
florida flagfish
odessa barb
cherry barb
wolasi ricefish
delicate blue eye
least killifish
tiger teddy
silver tip tetra

If anyone’s got others I’ve missed out on please please please throw em in the mix.

Some are too small/timid to live with big fish, some known fin nippers, some just plain old fashioned psychotic thugs and some simply misunderstood. They’ll advise you. you’re in good fins here.
Have fun.

Wow, there's some research fodder there! Many thanks. I'll probably be back with some questions once I've fully researched them and come up with some favourites.

 

[Fox46]

This list is great

This thread has given me a fire in a belly to work out what to do with hard water tanks as it often feels like a dead end. So many regions of the UK have such hard water finding the right fish is quite hard. After a bit of searching a few more common fish to add to the list that I think are worth looking at that I hadnt considered before.

- Odessa Barbs
- Congo Tetras
- Synodontis Petricola - infact most Synos are good candidates here just need to stick to the smaller sizes

Wills

I'm a bit tetra-phobic right now. We started off with 10 cardinals in a newly cycled tank which was a fairly short-lived disaster. My other tetra are Black Widow (or Black Skirt) which I now know to be semi-aggressive. But I'll research the others, many thanks.

 

[WhistlingBadger]

Hey, Fox! If you go with rainbows, be sure and stick to the smaller types. But there are several kinds that are stunningly beautiful and should do fine in a 180 l. They are schooling fish, so make sure you get at least five or six of a given kind, and a mix of males and females for the most interesting behavior.

Look into panda garra for a bottom feeder. They don't mind hard water and they're really fun.

You could also have a good school of amano shrimp. They're a lot of fun to watch too, and have quite a lot of personality, considering they're basically big water bugs.

Thomas

 

[Wills]

I'm a bit tetra-phobic right now. We started off with 10 cardinals in a newly cycled tank which was a fairly short-lived disaster. My other tetra are Black Widow (or Black Skirt) which I now know to be semi-aggressive. But I'll research the others, many thanks.

Congo Tetras are a bit different as they are a much bigger fish - similar size to some rainbows. When you get nippy problems with any Tetra speceis the best thing to do is up their numbers, in bigger shoals their hierachy becomes more complicated and they bother other species less.

 

[Wills]

Thanks for those. I couldn't find the exact species of rasboras and loaches you mention, but the ones I did find seem to specify a well-established tank. I guess at six months Tank 1 qualifies but Tank 2 is only about a month out of cycling. I've admired Rainbow Fish before and I saw some Sunsets at the lfs so that's a possibility.

Here are some good profiles
https://www.seriouslyfish.com/species/sawbwa-resplendens/
https://www.seriouslyfish.com/species/petruichthys-brevis/

Petruichthys sp. ‘rosy’ – Rosy Loach (Yunnanilus sp. rosy, Tuberoschistura arakanensis) — Seriously Fish

www.seriouslyfish.com

 

[Fox46]

Hey, Fox! If you go with rainbows, be sure and stick to the smaller types. But there are several kinds that are stunningly beautiful and should do fine in a 180 l. They are schooling fish, so make sure you get at least five or six of a given kind, and a mix of males and females for the most interesting behavior.

Look into panda garra for a bottom feeder. They don't mind hard water and they're really fun.

You could also have a good school of amano shrimp. They're a lot of fun to watch too, and have quite a lot of personality, considering they're basically big water bugs.

Thomas

Thanks for those tips. The panda garra looks interesting. Shrimp I might have to think about. I imagine that opens up a whole new area of cautions for treatments that they're not compatible with? I seem to recall seeing that on some of the preparations - not to be used with shrimps etc.

 

[Fox46]

Congo Tetras are a bit different as they are a much bigger fish - similar size to some rainbows. When you get nippy problems with any Tetra speceis the best thing to do is up their numbers, in bigger shoals their hierachy becomes more complicated and they bother other species less.

Thanks. I'll check out Congo Tetras. At the moment I've got 6 Black Widows in a 60l, I know it's too small for them but that's one of the problems I'm still working through.