Trying A Planted Nano!

[Covert]

Hey everyone,

After a few years of being too busy to keep fish, I've decided to return! I have a 30 litre/ 7 gallon tank that I have set up and has been cycling a few weeks. It's pretty densely planted and the plants are taking off nicely with liquid ferts, root tabs and DIY CO2.

Anyway, I am posting about possible stocking ideas, I am more used to medium sized tanks, but love the idea of smaller fish! At first I was thinking about a small group of Celestial Pearl Danios and some Cherry Shrimp, but then started realising there are many possibilities, such as Pygmy Corydoras (which seem so cool!) or Dwarf Rasbora. My question is... what fish would you stock that would look great against the black gravel, mopani wood and greens and reds of the plants?

Cheers!

 

[minnnt]

Welcome back!!

I would say that some Pygmy Corydoras and Micro Rasboras along with some Crystal Red Shrimp would look extremely effective, especially with a planted tank.

Also, if you look in the classifieds section, elisew is selling a very similar setup to yours, maybe you could take a ook and get a few idea.

 

[Covert]

Thanks for the reply!

Sounds great in theory, I'd love a small school of Boraras Brigittae, however, I'm not sure how well they would do in my hard, alkaline water (pH 7.7, GH 14). Does anyone have experience keeping them in a similar set up?

 

[minnnt]

Sorry Covert, i have no idea about the fish you mentioned. Maybe do a search on google for some info?

 

[StandbySetting]

Your water chemistry should be fine, I've kept a few Boraras spp. in hard water with a PH of around 7.6, they do best in black water set ups however, so adding some wood would be beneficial, it will also reduce the PH.

 

[Covert]

Thanks for the info everyone, thankfully over the years I have learnt to take my time setting up tanks so I still have plenty of time to think! Being such a small easily managed (in terms of changing the water) tank I may look into just buying distilled water from a supermarket and mixing a percentage with tap. Even if the fish can adapt, I guess it's always nicer to see them thrive

 

[StandbySetting]

Distilled water contains no minerals or nutrients so is unsuitable unless you add re-mineralisation powder to it.

 

[Covert]

Mixing it 50:50 with my tap water would work though, wouldn't it?

 

[StandbySetting]

Possibly, depends on your tap water composition, I'd still add the minerals anyway, but with all of the tank bred stock on the market these days there's no need to adapt your water chemistry for this species, they'll do fine with your current parameters.

 

[Covert]

Ah, OK, I'll stick to tap and see what happens, thanks a lot though!

 

[SchottayB]

Welcome back mate! I ended up coming back a month or two ago... just can't give it up can we

 

[demented pea]

I have 12 of the rasboras you mention and they are fabulous and really starting to colour up. They are a blackwater fish really but they are doing ok with celestial pearl danios, cherry shrimp and a couple of pygmy cory. I have black gravel and a black background in a 25ltr tank and they really show up well. My blackwater tank has cardinals and dwarf cichlids in so the tinies would not last long in there!

Lovely little fish and they are just getting to the stage when someone by the tank makes them all rush forward in case there is food! Quite fearless too unlike the cpd's which I barely see as they love the planting and don't come out much...they live in flooded grassland I believe and they like to keep hidden in the plants. Wouldn't have bought them if I'd known that as they are very pretty but hidey. The brigittae are much better, known as chilli rasboras or mosquito rasbora too around where I live