# Recommended fish?



## Gary Nelson (28 Aug 2016)

Hi guys, hope you are all doing well and it's good to be back after a few years break.  I am after some advice and recommendations for some fish to go in a 50L - ideally something small that I can have 10 or 12 of... Nothing that likes to jump as the tank is open top... Any recommendations would be great


----------



## •Cai• (28 Aug 2016)

Celestial danios aka galaxy rasboras. Gorgeous little fish. I had 15 or so in my old 60ltr tank.


----------



## •Cai• (28 Aug 2016)




----------



## stu_ (28 Aug 2016)

The water hardness would be ?
Embers or Green Neon tetra to start you off (hardness permitting)


----------



## Derek113 (29 Aug 2016)

My choice would be 

Cardinal tetra
White cloud mountain minnows
Harliquin.


----------



## •Cai• (29 Aug 2016)

White cloud minnows are also a good shout. I always feel they look quite ordinary in pet shop tanks but against your own tanks backing of greens etc they stand out lovely. Id still go for galaxies though but thats just personal preference. Like most danios they are always super busy around tank whi h makes for entertaining viewing.


----------



## tim (29 Aug 2016)

Good to see you back on the forum Gary, 
Depending on water parameters, these are a couple of my favourite small fish
http://www.seriouslyfish.com/species/celestichthys-erythromicron/
http://www.seriouslyfish.com/species/boraras-urophthalmoides/


----------



## zozo (29 Aug 2016)

A few rules of thumb, regarding jumpers.. 

The fish with the least chances of jumping are the mid and bottom dwellers.. Look at their mouths for that 




Superior mouth fish, (see the Celestial Danio above for a perfect example) focus at the surface for food, that's how they evolved and where they are likely to stay most of the time, close to the surface.. If there is a reason for them given to flee from something comming from bellow. There is no other way for them to go than up and jump out off the way. And food agression/competition can also be a reason for them to jump. For example if a very small fluffy mosquito or spec of dust lands on the surface and several fish notice this at the same time, you might witness a race where all of them want to be the first to get it, resulting in a jump. Mating behaivor can trigger a jump while males are competing eachother or chasing females. Having a school of them with more males then females you might experience freqeunt jumpers.

Anyway, if you see a nice fish in the lfs the mouth will tell you where it swims the most time of the day.

Inferior is obviously not looking at the surface for food.

Terminal mouth looks everywhere but mainly mid level.. Also seen them jump in a rage of food competition..

So feeding with sinking pellets or froozen food (nothing that floats) prevents jumping and also prevents conditioning the fish to focus on the surface for food.

Be carefull with combining small superior mouth species with bullying and bold terminal/inferior mouth spieces, cichlids or any other teritorial spieces. A typical bullying terminal mouths are some cyprinids spieces like some barbs..

One of the best databases on the net is seriously fish, where you find the most complete description of behaivor and compatibility. Especialy read the foot notes from the sites members.


----------



## Jamesfish (29 Aug 2016)

2nd the harlequin they are great happy little fish.
Glowlight danio ?
Pygmy corys


----------



## alto (29 Aug 2016)

I think that tank dimensions have considerable impact on fish choice - this is obviously not your TMC 60 x 45 tank (I loved the scapes you did in that tank!  & hope it's still around  )
50l tank possibility 
45 x 31 x 36 (height) cm
*tim* gave some examples of the micro "rasboras" - most of these fish will do better in shoals of 15-20 fish & won't overstock your tank given their slim profiles - they'll be more confident & visibly active & less prone to startle (jump) when kept in the larger group

I've recently gotten some M nanus (they look like the lower pictured fish, so not much color except for the black "flag" ... I'm a bit sceptical about the top photo identification)
Another favorite M kubotai
- both of these are active swimmers that quickly become confident 

I suspect most of the above fish are more "secure" in heavily planted tanks, though a tank done up with roots & leaf & dim lighting would also likely work.
Note the differences in habitat information in the fish profiles 

Many of these fish seem to still be predominantly wild caught so traffic past the tank is another consideration 
I feel that intermittent activity is more likely to cause jump (flight) reflex than fish that become accustomed to general activity around the tank  ... of course, if you suddenly switch on lights in a dark room etc, most fish will display a startle reflex
(I try to keep some "night" lights on around the fish tanks so no _night walkers_  feel the need to turn on lights )

If you want to track down something less common (I'd check with Colin Dunlop of the Fish Hut for anything "Labyrinth" )
"Burmese chocolate gourami" parasphaerichthys ocellatus
I'm keen on "Choco's" of any sort as I find their behaviour/swimming style intriguing, I've not kept this species (lack of availability)    

The smaller size of T espei & T hengeli might suit better than T heteromorpha


----------



## Gary Nelson (29 Aug 2016)

Thank you for all your suggestions guys and it's been a great help and given me some good ideas, I like the 'Galaxy Rasboras' and also the 'Celestichthys erythromicrons' Not where I could locate the second option from though as I have not seen those in any stores I've been in.

I decided to start back up on a small planted tank to begin with, so opted for the 50L Dennerle scrapers tanks, which seems a great bit of kit!


----------



## alto (29 Aug 2016)

Note that both of these (fish) would very much prefer that you have the tank well grown in
They won't really pick up food from substrate so definitely include shrimp, (dwarf) Cories etc


----------



## Derek113 (30 Aug 2016)

I made a fish suggestion and forgot to add peacock gobys. They look like jewels in a planted tank. 

Galaxy rasboras always look dull to me.


----------



## dan4x4 (16 Sep 2016)

I really like the galaxy rasbora, as with them being so small they don't look cramped in the tank. 

I know you want a number of fish, however in my experience a betta would be very happy in that size aquarium. Definitely a favourite fish of mine. The one I had was really greedy so always used to come to front of the tank when i got in from work for food and stuff then he would just potter about and he was great to watch. Almost like he had a personality!

If your anywhere near me in washington in the north east you can have my tetra for free, They are a nice fish however they swim around really fast and i feel like they need more room than they have in the cube they're currently living in.


----------

