# Fish suggestions?



## Conort2 (28 Apr 2019)

Hi

Thinking of doing a bit of a Reshuffle of my tank within the next few months. It's a bit of a mish mash of different species and doesn't make for a very natural display. Planning on keeping my two corydoras species, 8 x duplicareus and 6 x gold lasers. Apart from that I think I will move on every other species. However I'm struggling of thinking what I should put in with these corys. Ideally I'd want a small colourful shoaler to add some interest to the upper layers, something different to the bread and butter species would be nice. Also will have to be shrimp safe as planning on keeping my cherrys and tigers. Also wouldn't mind putting in a feature fish like a whiptail or something similar if space permits. Any suggestions guys?

Tank size is 70cm wide x 50cm deep x 45cm high, Heavily planted and filtered by two externals.

Cheers

Conor


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## Millns84 (28 Apr 2019)

Cherry barbs would fit the bill, very cool little fish and stunning colouration on the males.


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## Conort2 (2 May 2019)

Millns84 said:


> Cherry barbs would fit the bill, very cool little fish and stunning colouration on the males.


Thankyou for the suggestion, unfortunately that's one of the species in getting rid of lol.

Anyone else got any suggestions? Was thinking maybe hyphessobrycon heliacus, kitty tetra. Anyone kept these?

Cheers

Conor


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## jameson_uk (2 May 2019)

Neon dwarf rainbow fish are really nice once they settle in and colour up.  My initial thought was your tank might be a little small but Seriously Fish says they would be ok in 60x30.


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## PARAGUAY (2 May 2019)

Research a bit on Pencilfish  pretty sure they would be a good choice


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## Conort2 (2 May 2019)

PARAGUAY said:


> Research a bit on Pencilfish  pretty sure they would be a good choice


Was thinking about pencils, like the look of mortenhali but seems they're pretty aggressive towards each other?

Those with the heliacus would look nice and keep it to a Amazonian type tank. There seems to be a lot of new tetras coming on to the market. Peugeoti and wasabi look great. Prices are high currently but will hopefully drop if they start getting bred in numbers.

Cheers

Conor


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## Conort2 (2 May 2019)

Wadai not wasabi!!!!!!!


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## alto (3 May 2019)

Conort2 said:


> like the look of mortenhali



A rather nicely done Wet Spot article 

Unfortunately mass breeding of pencilfish has lead to incoming fish shipments that are oversize (guess how that’s done ) and/or poorly coloured even once established in planted tanks 
Actual species shipped may also be different than labelled

You can find good quality pencilfish, just look carefully at the fish before purchase


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## Simon Cole (4 May 2019)

I keep four female and two male golden pencilfish. They have the most vivid colours when breeding, which is triggered by clean fresh water changes. During these times they divide the tank up and spar-dance in a very unique and beautiful way. The males point their tails upwards and rub against each others flanks as they both ascend. It reminds me of the birds of paradise. When the water becomes more established and vegetated they prefer to shoal together. Mine are universally non-aggressive towards any other species now that they have settled in, and will only chase cherry shrimp in confusion with their own species, once in a blue moon. The females prefer surface feeding, and all prefer live foods:  springtails, Drosophila melanogaster (fruit flies), grindal worms, California blackworms, and occasionally brine shrimp. I note that many people have expressed concerns over aggressiveness and breeding issues. I actually keep a blind-born vegetarian miniature ram (species unknown) with my pencilfish and she is completely ignored as she randomly travels around the tank, occasionally running into them. They are a great choice. However, there is actually quite a lot of genetic uncertainty about these fish, and even N. beckfordi has a considerable number of subspecies. I suspect this has given rise to the uncertainty about behaviour and colouration. I actually agree with Alto, but I do not think you will be able to spot duff fish because they can look the same and be genetically totally dissimilar from one-another.   

A small schooling fish for upper water levels is the glowlight danio. They are incredibly energetic and this is why we cannot bring ourselves to buy them. Although they are beautiful, they never slow down enough to let you get a look.


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## alto (4 May 2019)

Simon Cole said:


> glowlight danio. They are incredibly energetic



Read through The Celestial Swamp first 


nicely summed up 



> Of course I will need to capture the few Glowlight Danio that terrorize the other fish and move them to the sump where they can spend the rest of there days patroling for planaria etc.... maybe then it will be a little calmer and happy up there...



Note this is not a unique observation ... perhaps one just needs to keep them with bigger badder fish


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## Simon Cole (4 May 2019)

Page 11 of The Celestial Swamp (above) and it's interesting to read that many people felt this way about the glowlight danio. The journal was a classic, and a very enjoyable read. I feel a little bit more inspired, but wow did that tank throw up some huge challenges.


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## Conort2 (4 May 2019)

alto said:


> A rather nicely done Wet Spot article
> 
> Unfortunately mass breeding of pencilfish has lead to incoming fish shipments that are oversize (guess how that’s done ) and/or poorly coloured even once established in planted tanks
> Actual species shipped may also be different than labelled
> ...


This seems to be happening with so many species. I recently purchased some luminatus rainbow fish, a fish which hasn't been in the hobby long. The quality of them is crap. For a fish that hasn't been around long it appears poor breeding has already affected them. Seems similar to the celestial pearl Danio situation.

I'd rather buy wild caught species If available. I thought for the price the coral red pencil fish were coming in at they'd be wild however will probably swerve them if they're inbred hormoned up fish. My experience is fish like that don't last very long.

Cheers 
Conor


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## alto (4 May 2019)

Your fish hunt inspired me to wonder through Aquarium Glaser FB (& website fish postings) - one species (sorry don’t recall name) hasn't been in the hobby long, breeding attempts worked very well for F1, not so nice in F2 and mostly culls in F3, inbreeding was not an issue, nor any other obvious parameters 

oops: just meandering)


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## dean (5 May 2019)

The key to finding  quality fish is to choose the shop very carefully 
Lots of shops buy from uk wholesalers most of which bring in the cheapest possible fish of any species which are obviously masses produced farmed fish 
The few great wholesalers have wild caught fish and the shops state they are wild caught 

The other options are to buy from a breeder or import depending on species import some yourself 

There are lots of stunning rasboras species if you don’t mind mixing up your continents 


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## Conort2 (7 May 2019)

dean said:


> There are lots of stunning rasboras species if you don’t mind mixing
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk



Was definitely something I was considering, espei look like they'd fit the bill. 

Any others you would recommend? 

Cheers

Conor


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## Chuck Turtleman (7 May 2019)

I don't know how available they are over there, but I really enjoy chili rasboras,  Boraras brigittae. They are tiny, bright, and no threat to shrimp fry that can make it past a week or so.


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## dean (7 May 2019)

Conort2 said:


> Was definitely something I was considering, espei look like they'd fit the bill.
> 
> Any others you would recommend?
> 
> ...



Espie are just as easy to find as the standard Harlequin

Boras Brigittae are very small and can be tricky to feed as you need really small foods 

One of my favourite at the moment are 
Rasboroides vaterifloris Fire Rasbora






And if you want a nice tetra look out for these Green Fire tetra aphyocharax rathbuni






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## Chuck Turtleman (7 May 2019)

dean said:


> Boras Brigittae are very small and can be tricky to feed as you need really small foods



FWIW, mine are fed flake and occasionally spawn in my tanks. Granted, they are likely getting more than a few live shrimp fry (as well as their own, possibly). I used to fuss with thawing Cyclopeeze and baby brine and at some point just stopped offering anything but flake and they took to it well. Now if I had started them on flake foods, who knows if I'd even have any now. Perhaps the frozen foods helped them acclimate, but I pretty much treat them like guppies at this point.


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## dean (7 May 2019)

Chuck Turtleman said:


> FWIW, mine are fed flake and occasionally spawn in my tanks. Granted, they are likely getting more than a few live shrimp fry (as well as their own, possibly). I used to fuss with thawing Cyclopeeze and baby brine and at some point just stopped offering anything but flake and they took to it well. Now if I had started them on flake foods, who knows if I'd even have any now. Perhaps the frozen foods helped them acclimate, but I pretty much treat them like guppies at this point.



I agree that if you only gave them flake from day one I don’t believe you would of had the success you have 


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## Conort2 (8 May 2019)

dean said:


> Espie are just as easy to find as the standard Harlequin
> 
> Boras Brigittae are very small and can be tricky to feed as you need really small foods
> 
> ...


Both great suggestions. Think I kept vaterfloris many years ago. 

The rathbuni look great, are they as nippy as other aphyocharax species?

Cheers

Conor


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## dean (8 May 2019)

I have them with some guppies with no problems 


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