# Small/Nano shoaling fish



## DanMac (13 May 2013)

I currently have a 54 litre coldwater tank with 9 gold cloud mountain minnows, I am a beginner and have recently found out by a member here that i can turn my tank to tropical simply by adding a heater and thermometer (I thought there would be more to it than that )

My heater is delivered and on the way so I am looking to replace 4 of my minnows soon for a shoaling group of 5-7 that are roughly the same size or even smaller than them to give my tank a greater scale.

I would like a more solid colored fish (although i'm open to options), red,blue,green ect but I had a quick look and there doesn't seem to be any, A lot of them are mostly white/transparent with some color,

I am not interested in neon tetras or striped/heavily spotted fish, I hope this helps.

Appreciate it, cheers.


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## zico_aqua (13 May 2013)

I guess then cardinals are too out of question here..hmm..you can try out Trigonostigma heteromorpha, Trigonostigma hengeli, Boraras maculatus, Boraras briggitae, Danio margaritatus, Hemigrammus rhodostomus these might be commonly available at LFS near you. If you want to try something different I can suggest you a few natives from my country India - Horadandia Atukorali, Laubuca dadiburjori, Oryzias Dancena, Brachygobius, Dario Dario, badis badis (and there are several sub species to badis badis)


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## zico_aqua (13 May 2013)

ohh..I almost forgot to add - you can check out any pencil fish variety if they are available nearby or not..they are very hardy and good fish to own too.


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## t.doyle (13 May 2013)

zico_aqua said:


> ohh..I almost forgot to add - you can check out any pencil fish variety if they are available nearby or not..they are very hardy and good fish to own too.


What this guy said! the softer your water though, the better the pencil fish get...


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## DanMac (13 May 2013)

Thanks for the suggestions, I have already seen most of these whilst searching online,and I'm not keen on the look of pencil fish.

Please post more, Nothing has really grabbed my attention yet,are there any green or blue nano sized fish?


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## Andy D (13 May 2013)

Chilli Rasbora are a really nice colour and quite small indeed.


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## t.doyle (13 May 2013)

DanMac said:


> Thanks for the suggestions, I have already seen most of these whilst searching online,and I'm not keen on the look of pencil fish.
> 
> Please post more, Nothing has really grabbed my attention yet,are there any green or blue nano sized fish?


Green neon tetra? Slightly smaller than standard neon tetra..


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## DanMac (14 May 2013)

Funnily enough chilli rasbora's are the only species so far that have made me think (i'll buy them if they look good in the shop). green neon tetras look too similar to neon tetras for me which is a no no.

Any more suggestions guys?, species that are slightly smaller than cloud mountain minnows sound tempting right now to give my setup a greater scale, however fish the same size or slightly bigger will do as long as they look nice.


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## frothhelmet (14 May 2013)

DanMac said:


> are there any green or blue nano sized fish?


 
This is the fish you want. Sundadanio axelrodi.


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## DanMac (14 May 2013)

frothhelmet said:


> This is the fish you want. Sundadanio axelrodi.


They do look nice, is there a common name for them?, ill look out for them at my local shop.


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## DanMac (16 May 2013)

Any more suggestions guys?


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## Kurono (27 May 2013)

I'd go with Espei Rasbora, they are quite tiny and are very beautiful to watch in numbers.


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## Henry (28 May 2013)

Forget how fish look in the shop, they always look washed out intil they've been in your tank for a few days.

Pethia gelius are nice.


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## DanMac (28 May 2013)

i'll keep that in mnd, is it down to stress or do they have a certain lighting in the shops?


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## Henry (28 May 2013)

Tends to be down to stress, low quality food, and less than ideal water conditions. I'm only speaking from personal experience, however, and your local shops may be much better.

I always look at the shape and behaviour of the fish first, then google it while in the shop to see if it'll colour up to my liking. I'm rarely disappointed. 'Seriouslyfish.com' tends to give good information.


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## DanMac (28 May 2013)

Good idea, ill google them in the shop, however when searching fish on google images most of the time they look outstanding on some of them but pale on the others so i cant really tell what they will look like. is it safe to say that any of the fish i like in the shop will look somewhat better in my tank?


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## Henry (28 May 2013)

I'd say so, yeah. With live, frozen, and decent quality flake food, you'll see far better colouration than they display in the shop.


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