# Fish choice



## Seanogleby (2 Oct 2018)

Evening all,

I have a low tech 80l cube tank that will hopefully be ready for fish in a few weeks.

I will be keeping shrimp too. My water is really hard so will be investing in a RO filter. 

The fish I've narrowed it down to are as follows :

Galaxy rasboras ( celestial pearl danios)
Chilli rasboras 
Endler guppies
Green neons
Pygmaeus corydorus 

I would like to have 3 of the fish types including the corydorus, I'm leaning towards galaxy rasboras and endler guppies.


I'm hoping I could also go for a pair of feature fish that work well with the other species but also stand out.

Do my plans seem ok? Do you have any suggestions of feature fish? 

Thanks, any feedback will be gratefully received. 


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## Lee iley (2 Oct 2018)

I would go green neons imo. Endlers are live bearers and your tank will soon be full of them. But it's your tank.

Cheers lee


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## Seanogleby (2 Oct 2018)

To be honest if I did go endlers, I would probably only have the males. I've been told that's possible 


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## Lee iley (2 Oct 2018)

Yes that is a option the males are more colourful aswel I think. 

Cheers Lee.


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## tam (2 Oct 2018)

Male endlers plus one of the others would be a good option - endler tend to be more top dwelling that your other picks. They do prefer slightly harder water - so worth considering that issue if you have very soft water. I'd second just going for males.


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## Seanogleby (2 Oct 2018)

tam said:


> Male endlers plus one of the others would be a good option - endler tend to be more top dwelling that your other picks. They do prefer slightly harder water - so worth considering that issue if you have very soft water. I'd second just going for males.



I have really hard water at the moment, but I was looking to use ro water and get it suitable for both fish and shrimp. 

I've not used one before though 


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## Seanogleby (2 Oct 2018)

Lee iley said:


> Yes that is a option the males are more colourful aswel I think.
> 
> Cheers Lee.



Cheers mate


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## Lesgrandepotato (2 Oct 2018)

Don’t get female endlers. They breed at an unholy rate. Males are lovely. For a while I was taking maybe 60-100 to the LFS each month. That was in a tank with three hungry angels.


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## Matt @ ScapeEasy (4 Oct 2018)

Have you compared the suggested hardness ranges for these fish on seriouslyfish?


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## Seanogleby (4 Oct 2018)

Matt @ ScapeEasy said:


> Have you compared the suggested hardness ranges for these fish on seriouslyfish?



 Kind of, some are down as ppm and some as h. Slightly confused


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## Matt @ ScapeEasy (4 Oct 2018)

An online hardness converter will help cover the units. Compare these to your tap water hardness which can be found on your water suppliers website.


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## Seanogleby (5 Oct 2018)

Matt @ ScapeEasy said:


> An online hardness converter will help cover the units. Compare these to your tap water hardness which can be found on your water suppliers website.



My water is really hard which is why I was looking at using RO water


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## Matt @ ScapeEasy (5 Oct 2018)

Ok cool, you need a good crossover between the suitable hardness ranges of the fish and once you find the sweet spot suitable to all fish you can calculate the %ro you need to achieve that level of hardness.


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## Seanogleby (5 Oct 2018)

Matt @ ScapeEasy said:


> Ok cool, you need a good crossover between the suitable hardness ranges of the fish and once you find the sweet spot suitable to all fish you can calculate the %ro you need to achieve that level of hardness.



Thank you.

In your opinion what do you think would be the best to go for? I definitely want to keep a small group of the corys.


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## alto (5 Oct 2018)

Exactly how hard is your water?

It’s so much simpler/easier/more enjoyable using Just Tap 

( if you’ve seen George Farmer home scapes, he uses straight tap)


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## Seanogleby (5 Oct 2018)

alto said:


> Exactly how hard is your water?
> 
> It’s so much simpler/easier/more enjoyable using Just Tap
> 
> ( if you’ve seen George Farmer home scapes, he uses straight tap)



I know, but I also want to keep some shrimp my water is as follows 

Gh 20.6
Kh 21.7


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## alto (5 Oct 2018)

For guppy/Endler guppy I’d look at a specialist shop - loads of amazing strains and the males are always so stunning (though guppy breeders are producing some extraordinary color females these days) 

Ju Joon Yong Thailand (FB link) - includes loads of shipping confirmation photos, but these guppies are amazing 

Any tank pics?
I think you mentioned this is a 45cm cube style tank


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## Seanogleby (5 Oct 2018)

Here's one I can find. Not the best photo 


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## Matt @ ScapeEasy (5 Oct 2018)

Looks like you would need to do a minimum of a third RO for the corys.


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## Seanogleby (6 Oct 2018)

Matt @ ScapeEasy said:


> Looks like you would need to do a minimum of a third RO for the corys.



Happy to use ro water, just need to get a RO unit and get it plumbed in 


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## Iain Sutherland (7 Oct 2018)

Id suggest avoiding using RO, it really isn't necessary for a large majority of hobby fish including cories and neocaridina shrimp.
RO just makes life harder.

I'd only recommend it for specialist fish or specific breeding etc such as wild fish, caradina shrimp, discus etc...  so many run of the mill fish are tank bred and adaptable  to most waters.

You could look at apistogammas for a feature fish/pair.  Again if tank need they  will be happy and even breed in hard water but you will lose some shrimp as snacks so establish  a population first...

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## Tim Harrison (7 Oct 2018)

What Iain said. I've lived in very hard water areas and it doesn't matter one iota. Using RO water just makes life unnecessarily complicated.
Regular maintenance, including water changes, is far more important, and the easier it is to do the more likely you are to carry it out, especially once the honeymoon period has worn off...

P.S. with regards fish choice I'd stick with one or two shoaling or free swimming species at the most, they are much happier kept in larger numbers than 3; you need at least 8-10, but the more the better.
Check out the behaviour and compatibility of the fish you'd like to keep here https://www.seriouslyfish.com/


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## Seanogleby (7 Oct 2018)

Thanks for the replies. So red cherry shrimp, Pygmy corys, and fish like cpd's will be ok in my water?? 


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## Tim Harrison (7 Oct 2018)

Yes


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## Seanogleby (8 Oct 2018)

Tim Harrison said:


> Yes



The person I'm getting the shrimp off gave me parameters and my water seems way too hard. When looking online as well the hardness range for things like the corys is a Lower then my water 


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## dw1305 (8 Oct 2018)

Hi all,





Seanogleby said:


> I'm getting the shrimp off gave me parameters and my water seems way too hard


Red Cherry shrimps like hard water. 





Seanogleby said:


> When looking online as well the hardness range for things like the corys is a Lower then my water


See if you can find fish from somewhere like  <"Strood Aquarists">  factsheets, they will have experience from members with hard water. If you don't mind a bigger _Corydoras_ sp. (but still not out of scale in 80 litres), then _Corydoras panda_ is good in hard water, and will spawn successfully.

cheers Darrel


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## Seanogleby (8 Oct 2018)

dw1305 said:


> Hi all,Red Cherry shrimps like hard water. See if you can find fish from somewhere like  <"Strood Aquarists">  factsheets, they will have experience from members with hard water. If you don't mind a bigger _Corydoras_ sp. (but still not out of scale in 80 litres), then _Corydoras panda_ is good in hard water, and will spawn successfully.
> 
> cheers Darrel



Hi Darrel,

Thanks for your reply.

Do you think cherry shrimp would be ok in my water hardness though?

I will have a look at the panda cory. 


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## dw1305 (8 Oct 2018)

Hi all,





Seanogleby said:


> Do you think cherry shrimp would be ok in my water hardness though?


Yes definitely, it is soft water that they have problems with.

cheers Darrel


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## tam (8 Oct 2018)

With shrimp, what I'd do is buy from your local fish shop - they'll be using the same tap water you are so if the shrimp are happy and settled there then they'll be fine in your tank too.


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## Seanogleby (8 Oct 2018)

tam said:


> With shrimp, what I'd do is buy from your local fish shop - they'll be using the same tap water you are so if the shrimp are happy and settled there then they'll be fine in your tank too.



I've looked at local shops and the shrimp are crap! Tiny little things for £4 each! 


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## tam (8 Oct 2018)

They sell babies because they cope better than the adults with changes in water conditions. They grow up though and you only need one of each to make a lot. Either way expensive is good news if you want to trade some back later


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## Seanogleby (8 Oct 2018)

tam said:


> They sell babies because they cope better than the adults with changes in water conditions. They grow up though and you only need one of each to make a lot. Either way expensive is good news if you want to trade some back later



Thank you

Do you think the best method to acclimatise them is the drip method?


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## goldscapes (9 Oct 2018)

I introduced my first shrimp and fish to a tank recently. Using the rolled down bag and adding a bit of water method for the Amanos didn’t go so well, I added them a bit too quickly which may have been why I lost one. With the fish, Neons and Otos, I used the drip method into a bucket over a period of about an hour (some recommend two hours but I was using tap water of a similar chemistry to the local fish shop) no losses or immediate issues. Some trouble with getting the Otos to settle but this is unrelated to the method of introduction.
Hope this helps.


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## Seanogleby (9 Oct 2018)

Thanks.

I'll have a look into this a bit further. Is it basically a length of tubing and a valve?


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## tam (9 Oct 2018)

Seanogleby said:


> Thanks.
> 
> I'll have a look into this a bit further. Is it basically a length of tubing and a valve?
> 
> ...


Yep, it's just a very small syphon with a valve to control speed. You can replace the valve with a peg/clip/knot but it's slightly harder to get the speed right.


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## Aqua360 (10 Oct 2018)

cherry shrimp will be fine in hardwater, especially yours. 

Regarding the RO water debate, I tend to half-agree, you can get away with using tapwater for a lot of fish, but if I have a fish that comes from parameters far outside my tapwater, that's when I'm more likely to utilise water buffers etc, as I feel they are healthier in water closer to their natural habitat.


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