Fish for Planted Nano?

[sonicninja]

Hi Everyone,
I have a heavily planted 16 litre nano which is injected with CO2 and currently has some cherry shrimp in it. It’s been running for about a year now and I’m starting to wonder if I could have a few suitable fish in or if it’s just too small.

Any suggestions? I’d love to keep some Pygmy Corys in here! What does everyone think?

Many thanks

Keith

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[alto]

Is this your only tank?
(do trio you have another tank to move fish over to should they not thrive in the smaller tank?)

Pygmy cories are certainly small enough for this size of tank, you'll want a shoal of 6-10,
though they really prefer 10-20 (which I'd consider too many for tank area & volume)

You might also consider guppies - fancy males stay quite small & are gorgeous (a local shop has show/breeding quality trios )
Endlers would be fine as well (& can be quite iridescent/brilliant) but again stay with males only - you don't want the millions fish consequence of adding in females
Both of these are quite gregarious fish so would be visible much of the time, even when just done an 3-5 fish

Clown killifish are one of my favourites, they seem to do fine in smaller aquaria, again you want a group of 8-10 fish though I had a "leftover" trio seem happy enough in a densely planted Spec 19 (along with a recovered electric blue ram girl & assorted shrimp, snails)

 

[Furgan]

Guppies won’t do well from what I’m aware, what about a group of cpd, chill rasborras or green resborras

 

[Nigel95]

Yes boraras brigittae or microrasbora kubotai can work

 

[sciencefiction]

The tank is really small and its a risky business when it comes to fish. Its not impossible, but risky, as you have to keep on top of water quality all the time.

If I am to go with something, it would be a pair of some really small fish that perhaps can claim the lot as territory.

 

[alto]

Guppies won’t do well from what I’m aware, what about a group of cpd, chill rasborras or green resborras

I'm curious why you feel guppies wouldn't fare well?

CPD - I'd not place more than a single male in this size tank & as they often aren't easy to sex (reliably) in the shops
(or perhaps I'm just particularly inept at sexing juvenile CPD ) & often there are few females in the shipment & they can be quite reclusive ...

Microrasbora kubotai - same issue with aggression between males in this size tank

Seriously Fish species profiles are well worth checking for minimum tank size as fish behaviour/activity is taken into account

 

[sciencefiction]

I'm curious why you feel guppies wouldn't fare well?

Yes, me too. I think 3-4 male guppies will do a very good display for this tank. I know people aren't keen on guppies anymore but they remain visually wise and behaviour wise one of my favourite fish. I few years back I kept my last ones, which was a group of males, and they literally made me laugh all the time with their funny behaviour towards each other. They also used to show off to the forktail rainbows I had at the time..for the lack of females, lol. They also stick together in a group and follow each other arround, despite the constant sparring and show off amongst them. They also stay way smaller than female guppies so generally should be fine in this sort of tank...You can get a guppy/endler variety as well.

 

[alto]

You can get a guppy/endler variety as well.

Yes loads of these available if you've a local shop that orders them in - they are usually considerable more $ at the wholesale level though & some shops don't have the customer base that wants to pay 2-3x the going guppy rate for an Endler/Guppy hybrid
Some lines are more "Endler", some more "Guppy" - they tend to be larger & more colourful than "pure" Endlers

 

[sonicninja]

Thanks everyone. After looking into chilli rasboras it sounds like they might make a snack of my rcs shrimplets which actually might be helpful in controlling the population. I’m not keen on guppies, my grandad used to have a 4 foot tank and it was absolutely riddled with them which ever since has put me off.
Maybe endlers would be nice too. I’m going to a nearby aquatics shop to see what they have today, maybe I’ll come back with a nice Oscar!


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[tam]

Pygmy cories are certainly small enough for this size of tank, you'll want a shoal of 6-10,
though they really prefer 10-20 (which I'd consider too many for tank area & volume)

Can you really put 10 pygmy cories in a 16L tank?? I've a 30L and that seems small to me.

It also looks like you've got a fair bit of substrate/hardscape taking away volume.

I'd stick to shrimp or if you really has to have fish and could keep up on water changes maybe 5 chilli rasbora or 3 male endlers (first if you have soft water, second if you have harder water).

I'd second seriously fish for tank sizes etc. http://www.seriouslyfish.com/species/corydoras-pygmaeus/

 

[sonicninja]

Yeah don’t worry I won’t be going to corys. It’ll be chilli rasboras or endlers. Thanks for the stocking suggestion, I think 5-6 will be plenty.


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[Swampy]

Endlers, don't forget about the family planing issue. I'd suggest a bachelor pad might be a good idea!

 

[Kalum]

Scarlet Badis?

Would be good in a species only tank and not too active so the smaller footprint might be better than some of the more active nano fish

 

[sonicninja]

I went with 6 chilli rasboras which so far I can’t find at all. Testament to my tanks thick planting but not very helpful in accessing how well they’re doing!


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[alto]

Can you really put 10 pygmy cories in a 16L tank?? I've a 30L and that seems small to me.

I'd only do this if I had another (bigger) tank as a back up
but have seen it done with seeming success - cories active & doing their midwater shoaling

 

[sciencefiction]

I went with 6 chilli rasboras which so far I can’t find at all. Testament to my tanks thick planting but not very helpful in accessing how well they’re doing!


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That's probably quite the bioload at once so you may want to step up to daily water changes over the next week or longer.

 

[a1Matt]

Lovely choice of fish. Good size for the tank and should do well with shrimp compatability too.

 

[Furgan]

Guppys require larger tanks and also as they swim a lot need more width space 16L is very small esp when it’s well hardscaped and planted. The chillis will be much happier.

 

[alto]

We can agree to disagree

I'd not put Rasbora brigittae (especially if wild caught) in this size of tank as dominant males can be rather hard on subordinate males & can easily claim the tank, it's also a relatively nervous fish - I'd be surprised if the 6 show well (rasbora behaviour studies indicated a minimum 8 is required for displays of "higher" level behaviours)

In contrast guppies seem to flutter happily about most tank scenarios (as long as tankmates are compatible) & an all male trio would provide color & movement

 

[sonicninja]

So far all is well. They’ve finally stopped hiding but haven’t got they’re colour back. Not sure if it’s typical of these fish but they are very thin indeed, and I think quite young. One of the six is definitely missing presumed dead although when I drip acclimatised them I did notice a very sad looking individual so I didn’t expect him to survive. They seem to be doing well with the co2 injection rate but I’ve had to turn down the eheim liberty flow a little as they were struggling a little. Hopefully it won’t affect my plants too much!


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