# Celestial danio stocking advice



## Crawdaddy (13 Sep 2012)

Hi all, 

I have a quick couple of questions regarding stocking my 67 litre planted tank. I have an idea to stock it with 15 Celestial Pearl Danios and then 10 cherry shrimp for the clean up crew.

The tank is a 24lx15hx12w. It will be heavily planted, though the majority will be dwarf hairgrass so there will be plenty of swimming room. I'll be using an over powered filter (fluval 305) so filtration will be up 8 or 9 times tank volume per hour. I'll be dosing co2 rather than injecting which should help keep algae at bay as well as promote plant growth. 

My questions are:
1) Is this bioload okay for the size/filtration/planting levels of the tank?
2) Do shrimp require the same tank volume allowance as fish?
3) Is that enough shrimp for keeping the tank spic and span (alongside regular maintenace of course)?

Thanks in advance
CD


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## KittyKat (22 Sep 2012)

I stocked a similar tank with 15 _D. margaritatus_ successfully, and I think that that is a pretty good number of them to have. I started with 10 and added 5 later on because 10 felt like too few. If it is the only species, I would even have considered up to 20 individuals. I did start off by fish-less cycling the tank before stocking in this case, although normally I just seed and stock slowly.

In terms of bioload, 15 small fish and 10 shrimp is fine (I had 25 small fish in mine, the _D. margaritatus_ and 10 _Yunnanilus_ sp. 'rosy').

In terms of shirmp keeping the tank clean… well, I've found that elbow grease is the best thing for that, as fish and critters do better off with proper feeding, but someone else should be able to give you better advice on this.


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## Crawdaddy (23 Sep 2012)

Thanks for the info Kat.

Apart from the shrimp I'm just going for 1 fish species I think. I'll start on 15 and maybe add another 5 if it "feels right". At the moment I'm torn between the mosquito rasboras and the CPDs. Do I go for the shoaling, upper level swimming of the MR, or the low level darting about and frankly beautiful colours of the CPD? Descisions desciosns! Luckily i've just started cycling so i've got a while to think about it.

How did you find the D. margaritatus? Would you recommend?

CD


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## KittyKat (23 Sep 2012)

To me, both species are equally beautiful and it is a tough decision. I wanted one of the Asian biotope stockings, so I chose _D. margaritatus_ over _Boraras_ spp. and other dwarf Danio because I wanted biotope stocking (minus the predators), so went for what was available.

I bought the _D. margaritatus_ from a breeder who had his "for sale" tank in the living room. When I viewed them in the display tank before buying, they were active and around. Once I brought them home, it took a while for them to become used to us as we apparently they were not as used to people as I would expect fish to be. I had mostly males and a few females, and this seemed to work quite well as the males spent a lot of their time showing off to each other or trying to impress the females.


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## darren636 (23 Sep 2012)

you might find the boraras to be as shy as the cpd. i have 40 chili 's and hardly see them in my 260. they spend most time in and around the plants and wood. darting in and out.


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## nry (23 Sep 2012)

I had some boraras maculatus and they were just like mini zebra danio in temperament - they were not shy and were mostly out in the open.

I'd think a larger group would be fine in that size of aquarium, I'm debating 12-15 cardinal tetra in a similar sized aquarium, and I already have 4 cory, 3 oto's and a handful of shrimp.


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## KittyKat (23 Sep 2012)

nry said:
			
		

> I'd think a larger group would be fine in that size of aquarium, I'm debating 12-15 cardinal tetra in a similar sized aquarium, and I already have 4 cory, 3 oto's and a handful of shrimp.


I recommend neons over cardinals: at 50 mm SL they will barely have enough space to turn around… but also I have never seen them reach their full adult size in a tank that small.

Why not add a few more Corys and Otos and go for 12-15 smaller tetras? Then all three species would be better off all round.


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## hotweldfire (23 Sep 2012)

I have kept chilis and don't find them shy whereas CPDs can be very elusive. However I'd go for the latter as I've found chilis struggle with fast flow whereas CPDs seem to quite like it. 

Sent from my MB860 using Tapatalk 2


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## nry (23 Sep 2012)

I don't think there's an issue with cardinals in a 60cm tank, a cube perhaps, but not a 60cm/24" one.


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## Crawdaddy (24 Sep 2012)

hotweldfire said:
			
		

> However I'd go for the latter as I've found chilis struggle with fast flow whereas CPDs seem to quite like it.



Yeah that was a thought that crossed my mind. Also the heavily panted set-up with (hopefully) crystal clear water sounds like it's more suited to the CPDs natural environment. Plus if they're anything like the zebra danios that i've kept in the past, as another poster suggests, then they should be entertaining at least. 

Right thanks guys, I think you've helped me decide (until tomorrow anyways) - 20 CPDs, 10 Sherry Shrimp

CD


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