# Little fish - really teeny tiny, iclke munchkin fellas



## James O (2 Sep 2014)

Am looking for small fish for a 40cm cube

I already have:

Celestial pearl danios - 20mm 
Ember tetras - 15-20mm
Pseudomugil gertrudae (rainbowfish) - 30mm
Normans lampeye - 30mm
Scarlet Badis - 13-20mm

So what other fabulous munchkins are there out there?  Sticking closer to 20mm ideally


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## tim (2 Sep 2014)

Love these little fellas
http://www.seriouslyfish.com/species/boraras-urophthalmoides/


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## James O (2 Sep 2014)

Oof!  That's small


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## dw1305 (2 Sep 2014)

Hi all, _
Corydoras hastatus _or_ C. pygmaeus_. _Corydoras hastatus_ are really cute, but hard to find (both at the LFS and in the tank).

Another favourite of mine is _Trichopsis pumila_, although the  males are quite agressive to one another, and they aren't easy to sex.

A left-field suggestion would be some of the smaller Killi's. I'm very tempted by _Diapteron fulgens_.

cheers Darrel


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## bajiaz (2 Sep 2014)

Yellow neon microrasbora (microdevario kubotai)

http://www.seriouslyfish.com/species/microdevario-kubotai/

they are around 15-20mm


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## parotet (2 Sep 2014)

James O said:


> Scarlet Badis - 13-20mm


I would like to try them, but they will eat all the shrimp they find, isn't it?



tim said:


> Love these little fellas
> http://www.seriouslyfish.com/species/boraras-urophthalmoides/


I've got these ones, absolutely beautiful fish. Quite interactive between them (much more than some very popular and boring tetra) with dominant males in deep orange. Very shy with other fish in the tank if not kept in large groups. 



dw1305 said:


> Another favourite of mine is Trichopsis pumila


That's also another one I'd really like but again, they will eat all the shrimplets for sure

My suggestion are: a quite common but beautiful one (Paracheirodon simulans) and another little fish I love, Danio erythromicron.  

Jordi


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## James O (2 Sep 2014)

Haha I forgot I have some of the pygmaeus!!!  They were out in force a few minuets ago but before that I was wondering if they were still alive!

I had to take _Trichopsis pumila _back as they harassed everything else and demolished my amazon frogbit.

I like the tiny killi _Diapteron fulgens_

microdevario kubotai look great but I've read they are little terrorists 

My Badis and sparkling gourami never had access to anything smaller than Amano's so can't help in the prawn snacking issue


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## Crossocheilus (2 Sep 2014)

I'm considering boraras brigittae for my new tank, should look great in a shoal of 20 or so, I've also seen microdevario kubotai, are they really aggressive? And how shrimp safe are either of these guys? Sorry if this is a bit of a hijack, but perhaps the answers to these questions will help you James. I hope you don't mind.


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## mr. luke (2 Sep 2014)

Danionella Sp. Would be the ultimate nano fish if you find it!
I had them previously but cannot find the, anywhere after years of searching.
If anyone can find these for sale i will be eternally greatfull.


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## dw1305 (2 Sep 2014)

Hi all, 





James O said:


> Scarlet Badis


 Have you got females as well as males?

cheers Darrel


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## tam (2 Sep 2014)

The little guy in my avatar: http://www.seriouslyfish.com/species/sundadanio-axelrodi/

Their mouths are pretty tiny, can't manage full grown daphnia, and I've not seen them pecking at shrimps at all.

They are a little smaller that the CPD, about ember size but not so deep bodied.


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## stu_ (2 Sep 2014)

Crossocheilus said:


> I'm considering boraras brigittae for my new tank, should look great in a shoal of 20 or so, I've also seen microdevario kubotai, are they really aggressive? And how shrimp safe are either of these guys? Sorry if this is a bit of a hijack, but perhaps the answers to these questions will help you James. I hope you don't mind.



Hi.I found the _Kubotai _to be serial jumpers.Kept them in school of 20, in a 60cm tank.Constant squabbles as the weaker ones were slowly picked off one by one.


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## Crossocheilus (2 Sep 2014)

Oh  I really like them but I feel very strongly about having a 100% peaceful tank, not even chasing. I want my tank to be a calm and tranquil place not a battle ground.


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## James O (2 Sep 2014)

dw1305 said:


> Hi all,  Have you got females as well as males?
> 
> cheers Darrel



I believe so.  Whys that mate?


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## EnderUK (3 Sep 2014)

Oryzias woworae, Ricefish, or if you want some colour then you really can't beat Endlers.


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## BigTom (3 Sep 2014)

James O said:


> I believe so.  Whys that mate?



Finding females is really hard. My LFS just had 100 delivered - all male. Had a chat with Colin Dunlop about this a while ago and he's had batches of very young fish that are pretty much unsexable as far as he's concerned and they've still turned out to be 99% male. So either the collectors are minutely examining every fish to stop females getting into the trade (which seems odd for a relatively inexpensive fish), or there's something really out of whack with the sex ratio determination in the collection populations.

Sent from my LT30p using Tapatalk


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## dw1305 (5 Sep 2014)

Hi all,





BigTom said:


> Finding females is really hard. My LFS just had 100 delivered - all male. Had a chat with Colin Dunlop about this a while ago and he's had batches of very young fish that are pretty much unsexable as far as he's concerned and they've still turned out to be 99% male.


 That is interesting, I wonder if this is a temperature issue, rather like with some cichlids and reptiles (Crocodilians) etc. 

I'm not sure about *Badidae*, but they are also perciforme fish (looking at some aquaculture papers it looks like Sea Bass show this effect, and that is another perciforme fish like _Dario_ and_ Apistogramma_) so it may be a possibility. 

In _Apistogramma_ you can manipulate the sex ratio with temperature, about 27oC usually gets both sexes. I've never bothered (there isn't much of a market for them locally and I don't have enough spare tanks) but if you keep the fry at higher temperatures  (~30oC) you get nearly all males, and at ~23oC nearly all females. If you want pairs just split the fry 50:50 at either temperature.

cheers Darrel


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## BigTom (5 Sep 2014)

Yeah it's a possibility. Haven't read enough Badis/Dario breeding reports to see if anyone has noticed a temperature effect on sex determination. I wonder if they're still definitely all wild caught or if someone is breeding them out east.

A more worrying alternative would be pollution induced sex bias (I think paper mill runoff and a few other things have now been shown to potentially induce skewed ratios) but that's all getting a bit speculative. 

Sent from my LT30p using Tapatalk


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## damrabbit (10 Sep 2014)

Slight twist on the CPD how about the danio erythromicron,


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## James O (10 Sep 2014)

Mmmmm stripy little beggars


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## Tim Harrison (10 Sep 2014)

James O said:


> I believe so.  Whys that mate?



What I wouldn't give for a pair of Dario dario...
My local Maidenhead Aquatics has a tank full of Badis badis...all males. The guy that runs the joint reckons breeders keep the females back, which I suppose makes sense...but it still would suggest there aren't that many in the first place.

How about Pethia gelius - Dwarf Golden Barb. Seriously Fish has them down as growing to 35-40mm but IME they don't get much beyond 20-25mm.


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## James O (13 Sep 2014)

Yeah the Dwarf Golden Barb have the ever elusive green colour that I like.

How green are the green neon tetra? http://www.seriouslyfish.com/species/paracheirodon-simulans/


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## MirandaB (13 Sep 2014)

What about rosy loaches? Fantastic little fish imo,always on the go and very entertaining


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## Tim Harrison (13 Sep 2014)

Second that...mine are mad.


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## MirandaB (13 Sep 2014)

I liken them to a bunch of kids who've had too many fizzy drinks


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## BigTom (13 Sep 2014)

I wouldn't keep rosies in less than a 2 footer to be honest - really active when they get going.


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## James O (13 Sep 2014)

Good call on the rosy loaches MirandaB.

BigTom would a 60x45x45 TMC Signature be okay?


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## BigTom (13 Sep 2014)

Just about I reckon James. They're a bit funny in that they spend a lot of time loafing about not doing much, but when they get moving they'll cover 2 or 3 feet in about a second. Give them plenty of plants to rootle about in and they should keep themselves occupied though. The other reason I recommend a largish tank is that they're pretty sociable fish and seem much more confident and engaged in numbers of 10+.


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## James O (13 Sep 2014)

Cool tnx mate


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## MirandaB (13 Sep 2014)

I have about 15 of them in my roma 90 (along with about 16 cpds) and they do all get along great even though I'm a little unbalanced on the m/f ratio with too many males but there's never any aggression with these.


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## Tim Harrison (14 Sep 2014)

I have 6 in a similar sized tank (60cm) and they're thriving.


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## darren636 (26 Dec 2014)

Troi said:


> What I wouldn't give for a pair of Dario dario...
> My local Maidenhead Aquatics has a tank full of Badis badis...all males. The guy that runs the joint reckons breeders keep the females back, which I suppose makes sense...but it still would suggest there aren't that many in the first place.
> 
> How about Pethia gelius - Dwarf Golden Barb. Seriously Fish has them down as growing to 35-40mm but IME they don't get much beyond 20-25mm.


Kesgrave tropicals have females. I got 2 pairs from them


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