# Stocking Poll for 54 litre planted tank



## MMonis (13 Apr 2022)

After a long vacation where I had a disaster in my aquarium and had all my plants and fish die (harlequin rasboras and neon tetras), I have now rescaped and got it to the point that it was before.

Here is a pic of the tank in the current condition




Tank specifications are as follows:
Volume : 54 litres (60cm x 30 cm x 30cm)
Filter: OaseBiomaster 250 thermo with spray bar output. Medium to high flow
Light: Fluval Aquasky 2.0 LED
Background: Black

Water parameters: 
pH : 7.6 (start of co2) - 6.7 (end of co2)
Nitrates : 43 mg/l from tap water
Total Hardness : 14 °dH from tap water
Carbonate Hardness: 9.7 °dH from tap water

I am now looking to stock the tank with fish as my current inhabitants are only cherry shrimp (red and yellow) and so looking for suggestions.
I would prefer to keep two types of fish that hopefully can tick most of these  characteristics:

Schooling fish
Active swimmers
Hardy to water parameters above
Contrasting look to my scape
Won't eat my cherry shrimps (adults atleast)
Shouldn't jump out of the open tank
I have listed a few in the poll which I feel could be good candidates, but feel free to suggest some more in the comments

Regards,
Mel


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## mort (14 Apr 2022)

I'm a big fan of the espei rasbora which I think is the lambchop rasbora. I'd probably just have them and increase the numbers rather than having two smaller groups. It's a beautiful tank and I think picking one species (if it's not shy) and upping the numbers will look more harmonious.


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## Garuf (14 Apr 2022)

Nice tank and all but I’d discount lemon tetra, they get a bit big, and kubutai as they really like throwing themselves on the floor. My favourite fish is the neon tetra. As such that’d be my choice. 
That said I’d probably add wild type endlers myself, they are a fish that are so bold, busy and stupid they’re hard to not find very endearing.


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## Mike Parnaby (14 Apr 2022)

I am having a similar dilemma with a bigger tank I want to set up. Previously I had community tanks with loads of different fish types but this time want to keep it more simple. I was looking at Rosy Tetras as the tank is tall rather than long (more of a cube shape). Last week I talked myself into a tank full of male Endlers instead, and other days think "you cannot beat Neon Tetras". Harlequin Rasbora's are also in the running as they are quite active. Out of interest, mine will be nearer 75 litres, so how many tiddlers could I safely put in?


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## ScareCrow (14 Apr 2022)

As others have said lemon tetras are quite deep bodied and get quite large. Massively underrated fish in my opinion though.
Chilli rasboras are beautiful but I don't think it would be the best setup for them and they might hide a lot.
My vote would be for the lamb chop rasboras or if available (not on the list) red cherry barbs or the albino variant. Massively underrated fish. The male red cherry barbs have beautiful colours and the females are a bit more colourful in the albino variant.


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## MMonis (16 Apr 2022)

mort said:


> I'm a big fan of the espei rasbora which I think is the lambchop rasbora. I'd probably just have them and increase the numbers rather than having two smaller groups. It's a beautiful tank and I think picking one species (if it's not shy) and upping the numbers will look more harmonious.


Yep, espei rasbora is the lambchop rasbora. The reason for two groups was to have some sort of variety to look at yet keeping it simple and clean from a viewing perspective 😬. If I keep just one species I might get bored looking at them after a few weeks or months 😀.
I had harlequin rasboras and neon tetras earlier and it was a good combination considering their different behaviour where the harlequins would usually shoal and the neons would just swim randomly anywhere and explore among plants. Maybe I can start with espeis and then add another species later depending on how the espeis behave.


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## mort (16 Apr 2022)

If you want more action and think two species would suit then go for it. I'm happy with single species tanks but I know they aren't for everyone and the espei can be very shy to begin with (and sometimes for a long time), so something to bring them out isn't a bad idea. 
Perhaps something completely different like rosy loaches might be a nice fit with a shoal of neons (or something that's not the same amber colour for contrast).


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## The Miniaturist (16 Apr 2022)

How about lamb chop rasboras with a group of pygmy corys?
Their bronzy marking with the silvery sides & black stripe could look nice with the more pink tones of the rasbora.
I can see the rather aloof rasbora shoal being sent into disarray by a group of giggling pygmys trying to join in & swim with them! 😄


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## kayjo (17 Apr 2022)

Any of the small danios (_Danio choprae_are, _Brachydanio tinwini etc.) _ are quite active.  When I look at your tank I deffinately see Lambchops or similar swimming around.  Have always loved they way they look in a planted tank.


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## PARAGUAY (17 Apr 2022)

Lovely tank btw. Black Neons against that greenery


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## Simon Cole (18 Apr 2022)

Clown killifish/banded panchax (Epiplatys annulatus) - ideal because you have a spray bar and low flow, not really shoaling
Chilli rasbora (Boraras brigittae) - might not shoal much but will bop around - this one got my vote
Cherry barb (Puntius titteya) - Agree with @ScareCrow - quite stunning, also will force others to shoal, a tad lively and not much of a shoal
Pygmy corydoras (Corydoras pygmaeus) - they really want from Grindal worms, they do shoal but are nervous and might not come out a lot
Norman's lampeye (Poropanchax normani) - Better in low light, not as good for baby cherry shrimp, relatively larger, good for low flow


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## MMonis (18 Apr 2022)

ScareCrow said:


> As others have said lemon tetras are quite deep bodied and get quite large. Massively underrated fish in my opinion though.
> Chilli rasboras are beautiful but I don't think it would be the best setup for them and they might hide a lot.
> My vote would be for the lamb chop rasboras or if available (not on the list) red cherry barbs or the albino variant. Massively underrated fish. The male red cherry barbs have beautiful colours and the females are a bit more colourful in the albino variant.


I think one option I am settling for is the lambchop rasbora. 
Now to accompany these I would need another fish group that would help shoal the lambchop rasbora (but not completely into hiding) and also contrast the colors of the lambchop rasbora.
I think cherry barbs might just give the same color look as lambchop rasboras. It's difficult to find the albino variant here in Denmark. So is there something that would have similar traits to the cherry barbs but have a contrasting color to the lambchop rasboras?


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## MMonis (18 Apr 2022)

PARAGUAY said:


> Lovely tank btw. Black Neons against that greenery


I was wondering the same that's why I had it on the list. Black neons and lambchop rasboras as a combination maybe 😬


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## mort (18 Apr 2022)

Black neons are an underused and underrated fish, which would go well I think.

I like Simon's clown Killi suggestion. It was one I was going to suggest at the start but I saw you had an open topped tank. A combination of those and rosy loaches would make a very different feel to two schooling species, if you wanted to go in a completely different direction.


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## MMonis (20 Apr 2022)

kayjo said:


> Any of the small danios (_Danio choprae_are, _Brachydanio tinwini etc.) _ are quite active.  When I look at your tank I deffinately see Lambchops or similar swimming around.  Have always loved they way they look in a planted tank.


Have been reading a bit on them and found that Lambchop rasboras tend to jump when excited or scared. I hope they dont land on the floor since I have an open tank


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## MMonis (20 Apr 2022)

The Miniaturist said:


> How about lamb chop rasboras with a group of pygmy corys?
> Their bronzy marking with the silvery sides & black stripe could look nice with the more pink tones of the rasbora.
> I can see the rather aloof rasbora shoal being sent into disarray by a group of giggling pygmys trying to join in & swim with them! 😄


A bit of reading says Corys need nitrates on the lower side (not sure how much it is true). My nitrates out of tap water itself stand at 40ppm


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## kayjo (20 Apr 2022)

MMonis said:


> Have been reading a bit on them and found that Lambchop rasboras tend to jump when excited or scared. I hope they dont land on the floor since I have an open tank


I think most fish will jump when scared.


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## Simon Cole (20 Apr 2022)

I had a look into this for you and I could not find any bioassays specifically looking at nitrate impact upon Corydoras. The closest I came was this paper describing an experiment on the intensive cultivation of _Corydoras aeneus_ in which the authors suggest that the safe nitrate concentration for culture is below 50 ppm and that above 75 ppm this could affect the growth rate of juvenile fish. However, the authors did not cite the evidence and only the opinion passed down through a trail of earlier papers, one on nitrite and another that seems to have considered completely unrelated species, possibly even shrimp. In the same family is _Ictalurus punctatus_ the Channel catfish which is not an aquarium species but a paper a few years ago showed that it had a 96 hour LD-50 of 6299 ppm for 50-76 mm fingerlings. Most authors agree that there is nitrate tolerance difference between species and that results are very divergent and often contradictory. Yet, however many times I try to drag up evidence of nitrate toxicity below 400 ppm in adult freshwater species, there is always a notable absence of evidence. Other times, the studies focus on densely-stocked fish farming and rely upon conjecture as to what exactly is causing the problem. However, I do feel that for smaller fish species that it could be reasonable to presume that the toxicological affects observed in juveniles of other species might apply. What this means for _C. pygmaeus _ is anybody's guess. And guesswork seems to be the basis of all anecdotal evidence. If I was you, I would buy one and put it in your tank and see how it does. One of the first signs that there is nitrate toxicity is that it will begin swimming sideways, apparently. I could not find any studies on nitrates in the Nanary River or it's tributaries from where the fish comes from. They tend to suffer more from lack of appropriate food, which should ideally be Grindal worms fed several times per day. I do think that they may have been more sensitive to other toxicological factors and low oxygen levels but I rarely get any deaths.


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## MMonis (20 Apr 2022)

Simon Cole said:


> I had a look into this for you and I could not find any bioassays specifically looking at nitrate impact upon Corydoras. The closest I came was this paper describing an experiment on the intensive cultivation of _Corydoras aeneus_ in which the authors suggest that the safe nitrate concentration for culture is below 50 ppm and that above 75 ppm this could affect the growth rate of juvenile fish. However, the authors did not cite the evidence and only the opinion passed down through a trail of earlier papers, one on nitrite and another that seems to have considered completely unrelated species, possibly even shrimp. In the same family is _Ictalurus punctatus_ the Channel catfish which is not an aquarium species but a paper a few years ago showed that it had a 96 hour LD-50 of 6299 ppm for 50-76 mm fingerlings. Most authors agree that there is nitrate tolerance difference between species and that results are very divergent and often contradictory. Yet, however many times I try to drag up evidence of nitrate toxicity below 400 ppm in adult freshwater species, there is always a notable absence of evidence. Other times, the studies focus on densely-stocked fish farming and rely upon conjecture as to what exactly is causing the problem. However, I do feel that for smaller fish species that it could be reasonable to presume that the toxicological affects observed in juveniles of other species might apply. What this means for _C. pygmaeus _ is anybody's guess. And guesswork seems to be the basis of all anecdotal evidence. If I was you, I would buy one and put it in your tank and see how it does. One of the first signs that there is nitrate toxicity is that it will begin swimming sideways, apparently. I could not find any studies on nitrates in the Nanary River or it's tributaries from where the fish comes from. They tend to suffer more from lack of appropriate food, which should ideally be Grindal worms fed several times per day. I do think that they may have been more sensitive to other toxicological factors and low oxygen levels but I rarely get any deaths.


Thanks for the detailed response 🙂. It is truly difficult to find scientific evidence, yet there are some websites which just throw random pH, nitrate numbers, etc. adding to more confusion.
I think one option I can try is to check the nitrate values of my LFS and also have a word with them if they found any issues regarding Corys with higher nitrates. 
With regards to feeding them, grindal worms are a bit difficult to get at my LFS. Maybe the Corys should be fine with occasional frozen brine shrimp and algae pellets.


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## Lemonhands (20 Apr 2022)

That's a beautiful tank, almost hard to believe it is only 54l! Getting a load of Chili Rasbora would look excellent in that


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## NatalieHurrell (21 Apr 2022)

My nitrates are 40ppm out of the tap and I've kept all sorts of Corys over the years with no problems.  Never the dwarf/pygmy variety mind you.  I think a group of those and some Endlers would look great.


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## LondonAquascaper (28 Apr 2022)

I've had Rasbora Espei and love them! 
They only jumped when I first put them in and were nervous, after that, it happened but very rarely (like once, every 3 -6months I might lose one).


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## fredi (28 Apr 2022)

Rummy nose tetras for me, nice shoaling fish


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## MMonis (28 Apr 2022)

fredi said:


> Rummy nose tetras for me, nice shoaling fish


I had them as an option but they grow a bit bigger I guess compared to the others on the list so opted out


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## fredi (28 Apr 2022)

MMonis said:


> I had them as an option but they grow a bit bigger I guess compared to the others on the list so opted out


Fair enough, i would choose embers then👍


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## MMonis (27 Jul 2022)

So I introduced 10 lambchop rasboras 3 months ago and they seem to be doing great. No casualties yet 🤞. They have also developed a good coloration.

I am thinking to introduce just one other fish species and am thinking of any of the following:

Chili Rasbora : I have a moderate to strong surface flow due to a spray bar at the back so I am wondering if they would end up going into hiding also because of their shy behaviour.
Ember Tetra : Seems like they may have a similar color to lambchop rasboras, so maybe I should look at something contrasting
Black Neon Tetra : Would they be a good contrast to the black and green backdrop of plants and backgroud.
Looking for a fish species that will look great with lambchop rasboras as well as contrasting the black background and the greens from the plants 😀


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## AlecF (27 Jul 2022)

My Embers are very shy. They are in a 106L community. They don't move around that much. In my view every tank should have cories, they are the most delightful and peaceable fish, and I find False Julii a very good variety. They also breed quite easily. You have lots of shelter for them. I would also add shrimps as you don't seem to have anything that would eat them? Also sparkling gourmai. They are sometimes shy, but also interesting in the way them loom and court, and they breed easily. The clown killis seems a good suggestion. Them and cories would give you upper and lower levels.


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## Wookii (27 Jul 2022)

MMonis said:


> So I introduced 10 lambchop rasboras 3 months ago and they seem to be doing great. No casualties yet 🤞. They have also developed a good coloration.
> 
> I am thinking to introduce just one other fish species and am thinking of any of the following:
> 
> ...



Chilli Rasbora are great little fish, but their colouration is similar to the Espei and might not give you the differentiation you want. Embers and Black Neons are nice fish, but a bit sedentary for my liking. For a bit more activity, and a nice contrast to your Lambchops, check out Green Neon Rasbora (Microdevario kubotai), or for something with a more subtle colouration take a look at some Reed/Sedge/Veilfin Tetra (Hyphessobrycon elachys).


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## MMonis (27 Jul 2022)

AlecF said:


> My Embers are very shy. They are in a 106L community. They don't move around that much. In my view every tank should have cories, they are the most delightful and peaceable fish, and I find False Julii a very good variety. They also breed quite easily. You have lots of shelter for them. I would also add shrimps as you don't seem to have anything that would eat them? Also sparkling gourmai. They are sometimes shy, but also interesting in the way them loom and court, and they breed easily. The clown killis seems a good suggestion. Them and cories would give you upper and lower levels.


I like the idea of corys (will look for the smaller ones). I already have a variety of shrimp (yellow, red and the mix after breeding 😄) and usually notice their numbers only when I place some cucumber slices which they love.
I looked at clown killis but read on a few forums that they could jump out of an open tank, so I won't take the risk for now.


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## MMonis (27 Jul 2022)

Wookii said:


> Chilli Rasbora are great little fish, but their colouration is similar to the Espei and might not give you the differentiation you want. Embers and Black Neons are nice fish, but a bit sedentary for my liking. For a bit more activity, and a nice contrast to your Lambchops, check out Green Neon Rasbora (Microdevario kubotai), or for something with a more subtle colouration take a look at some Reed/Sedge/Veilfin Tetra (Hyphessobrycon elachys).


I did have the kubotai rasbora on my poll list but it seems not many are a fan of it 😃. I do like their coloration though and will keep a look out for them. Couldn't find any veilfin tetras at my LFS or anywhere nearby in Denmark so will opt out of them.


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## MMonis (17 Aug 2022)

I purchased 8 kubotai rasboras  from my LFS about two weeks ago to accompany my existing 10 lambchop rasboras in the tank. They did look healthy. I acclimatised them using the drip method for a couple of hours before adding them to the tank.
However every couple of days since then one has been dying. Now I am left with only 2 of them.
The lambchop rasboras on the other hand which have been  in tank since a few months now have no issues at all.

There doesn't seem to be any sickness or anything that I could find on the dead kubotais. Could any of the following be a cause :

I have a strong flow and maybe they are too small in size to cope up with the flow.
Unable to adjust to the water parameters
Just dying by stress since their numbers are reducing and they feel threatened by the lambchop rasboras.


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## mort (18 Aug 2022)

Do you know if these were recent imports or if the lfs has had any trouble? I don't think the flow would be an issue as there will be calmer areas in any tank and these have been fine in higher flow tanks I've seen. I also don't think the lambchops would make them feel threatened (if anything the opposite) but can't rule out other stresses like water parameters, although again they seem adaptable unless you have extremes.


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## Hufsa (18 Aug 2022)

I think there was another forum member who had issues with the kubotai, cant remember who at the moment though, i bet a search would unearth the thread


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## MMonis (19 Aug 2022)

mort said:


> Do you know if these were recent imports or if the lfs has had any trouble? I don't think the flow would be an issue as there will be calmer areas in any tank and these have been fine in higher flow tanks I've seen. I also don't think the lambchops would make them feel threatened (if anything the opposite) but can't rule out other stresses like water parameters, although again they seem adaptable unless you have extremes.


They may have been recent imports as the LFS had quite a big stock of them. These were also relatively small in size so I am guessing they weren't adults yet.
I don't think my water parameters are extreme as there doesnt seem to be any cause of concern for the lambchop rasboras.


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## mort (19 Aug 2022)

Can you judge the body shape at that size? I've seen very skinny ones offered for sale and like other small species they can lose condition quite quickly. I would really only buy them if they have visible plump bellies.
If they do look skinny then trying to get small food in them several times a day is the best way to go.


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## Conort2 (19 Aug 2022)

They’re from fast flowing waters so too much flow wouldn’t be an issue. Can you take some photos of the survivors?


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## MMonis (22 Aug 2022)

Conort2 said:


> They’re from fast flowing waters so too much flow wouldn’t be an issue. Can you take some photos of the survivors?


Attached are some pics. They swim so fast that it was difficult to capture, also it's just 2 of them left 😔


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## Conort2 (22 Aug 2022)

MMonis said:


> Attached are some pics. They swim so fast that it was difficult to capture, also it's just 2 of them left 😔


They appear to be on the thin side although that’s not uncommon with new imports. Could be internal parasites.


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## MMonis (23 Aug 2022)

Should I buy a few more at some point later to accompany the 2 remaining kubotais or should I go with buying another species itself (thinking of Chili rasboras now).
The kubotais are pretty pricey here 😐


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