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Stocking Poll for 54 litre planted tank

Your choice of fish stock ?

  • Ember Tetra

    Votes: 10 29.4%

  • Black Neon Tetra

    Votes: 2 5.9%

  • Lemon Tetra

    Votes: 1 2.9%

  • Lambchop Rasbora

    Votes: 10 29.4%

  • Chili Rasbora

    Votes: 15 44.1%

  • Rasbora Kubotai

    Votes: 6 17.6%
  • Total voters
    34
M

MMonis

Member
Joined
19 Mar 2021
Messages
123
Location
Aalborg, Denmark
After a long vacation where I had a disaster in my aquarium and had all my plants and fish die (harlequin rasboras and neon tetras), I have now rescaped and got it to the point that it was before.

Here is a pic of the tank in the current condition
1649869377325.jpeg
Tank specifications are as follows:
Volume : 54 litres (60cm x 30 cm x 30cm)
Filter: OaseBiomaster 250 thermo with spray bar output. Medium to high flow
Light: Fluval Aquasky 2.0 LED
Background: Black

Water parameters:
pH : 7.6 (start of co2) - 6.7 (end of co2)
Nitrates : 43 mg/l from tap water
Total Hardness : 14 °dH from tap water
Carbonate Hardness: 9.7 °dH from tap water

I am now looking to stock the tank with fish as my current inhabitants are only cherry shrimp (red and yellow) and so looking for suggestions.
I would prefer to keep two types of fish that hopefully can tick most of these characteristics:
  • Schooling fish
  • Active swimmers
  • Hardy to water parameters above
  • Contrasting look to my scape
  • Won't eat my cherry shrimps (adults atleast)
  • Shouldn't jump out of the open tank
I have listed a few in the poll which I feel could be good candidates, but feel free to suggest some more in the comments

Regards,
Mel
 
I'm a big fan of the espei rasbora which I think is the lambchop rasbora. I'd probably just have them and increase the numbers rather than having two smaller groups. It's a beautiful tank and I think picking one species (if it's not shy) and upping the numbers will look more harmonious.
 
Nice tank and all but I’d discount lemon tetra, they get a bit big, and kubutai as they really like throwing themselves on the floor. My favourite fish is the neon tetra. As such that’d be my choice.
That said I’d probably add wild type endlers myself, they are a fish that are so bold, busy and stupid they’re hard to not find very endearing.
 
I am having a similar dilemma with a bigger tank I want to set up. Previously I had community tanks with loads of different fish types but this time want to keep it more simple. I was looking at Rosy Tetras as the tank is tall rather than long (more of a cube shape). Last week I talked myself into a tank full of male Endlers instead, and other days think "you cannot beat Neon Tetras". Harlequin Rasbora's are also in the running as they are quite active. Out of interest, mine will be nearer 75 litres, so how many tiddlers could I safely put in?
 
As others have said lemon tetras are quite deep bodied and get quite large. Massively underrated fish in my opinion though.
Chilli rasboras are beautiful but I don't think it would be the best setup for them and they might hide a lot.
My vote would be for the lamb chop rasboras or if available (not on the list) red cherry barbs or the albino variant. Massively underrated fish. The male red cherry barbs have beautiful colours and the females are a bit more colourful in the albino variant.
 
mort said:
I'm a big fan of the espei rasbora which I think is the lambchop rasbora. I'd probably just have them and increase the numbers rather than having two smaller groups. It's a beautiful tank and I think picking one species (if it's not shy) and upping the numbers will look more harmonious.
Click to expand...
Yep, espei rasbora is the lambchop rasbora. The reason for two groups was to have some sort of variety to look at yet keeping it simple and clean from a viewing perspective 😬. If I keep just one species I might get bored looking at them after a few weeks or months 😀.
I had harlequin rasboras and neon tetras earlier and it was a good combination considering their different behaviour where the harlequins would usually shoal and the neons would just swim randomly anywhere and explore among plants. Maybe I can start with espeis and then add another species later depending on how the espeis behave.
 
If you want more action and think two species would suit then go for it. I'm happy with single species tanks but I know they aren't for everyone and the espei can be very shy to begin with (and sometimes for a long time), so something to bring them out isn't a bad idea.
Perhaps something completely different like rosy loaches might be a nice fit with a shoal of neons (or something that's not the same amber colour for contrast).
 
How about lamb chop rasboras with a group of pygmy corys?
Their bronzy marking with the silvery sides & black stripe could look nice with the more pink tones of the rasbora.
I can see the rather aloof rasbora shoal being sent into disarray by a group of giggling pygmys trying to join in & swim with them! 😄
 
Any of the small danios (Danio chopraeare, Brachydanio tinwini etc.) are quite active. When I look at your tank I deffinately see Lambchops or similar swimming around. Have always loved they way they look in a planted tank.
 
Clown killifish/banded panchax (Epiplatys annulatus) - ideal because you have a spray bar and low flow, not really shoaling
Chilli rasbora (Boraras brigittae) - might not shoal much but will bop around - this one got my vote
Cherry barb (Puntius titteya) - Agree with @ScareCrow - quite stunning, also will force others to shoal, a tad lively and not much of a shoal
Pygmy corydoras (Corydoras pygmaeus) - they really want from Grindal worms, they do shoal but are nervous and might not come out a lot
Norman's lampeye (Poropanchax normani) - Better in low light, not as good for baby cherry shrimp, relatively larger, good for low flow
 
ScareCrow said:
As others have said lemon tetras are quite deep bodied and get quite large. Massively underrated fish in my opinion though.
Chilli rasboras are beautiful but I don't think it would be the best setup for them and they might hide a lot.
My vote would be for the lamb chop rasboras or if available (not on the list) red cherry barbs or the albino variant. Massively underrated fish. The male red cherry barbs have beautiful colours and the females are a bit more colourful in the albino variant.
Click to expand...
I think one option I am settling for is the lambchop rasbora.
Now to accompany these I would need another fish group that would help shoal the lambchop rasbora (but not completely into hiding) and also contrast the colors of the lambchop rasbora.
I think cherry barbs might just give the same color look as lambchop rasboras. It's difficult to find the albino variant here in Denmark. So is there something that would have similar traits to the cherry barbs but have a contrasting color to the lambchop rasboras?
 
Black neons are an underused and underrated fish, which would go well I think.

I like Simon's clown Killi suggestion. It was one I was going to suggest at the start but I saw you had an open topped tank. A combination of those and rosy loaches would make a very different feel to two schooling species, if you wanted to go in a completely different direction.
 
kayjo said:
Any of the small danios (Danio chopraeare, Brachydanio tinwini etc.) are quite active. When I look at your tank I deffinately see Lambchops or similar swimming around. Have always loved they way they look in a planted tank.
Click to expand...
Have been reading a bit on them and found that Lambchop rasboras tend to jump when excited or scared. I hope they dont land on the floor since I have an open tank 🙄
 
The Miniaturist said:
How about lamb chop rasboras with a group of pygmy corys?
Their bronzy marking with the silvery sides & black stripe could look nice with the more pink tones of the rasbora.
I can see the rather aloof rasbora shoal being sent into disarray by a group of giggling pygmys trying to join in & swim with them! 😄
Click to expand...
A bit of reading says Corys need nitrates on the lower side (not sure how much it is true). My nitrates out of tap water itself stand at 40ppm 🙁
 
I had a look into this for you and I could not find any bioassays specifically looking at nitrate impact upon Corydoras. The closest I came was this paper describing an experiment on the intensive cultivation of Corydoras aeneus in which the authors suggest that the safe nitrate concentration for culture is below 50 ppm and that above 75 ppm this could affect the growth rate of juvenile fish. However, the authors did not cite the evidence and only the opinion passed down through a trail of earlier papers, one on nitrite and another that seems to have considered completely unrelated species, possibly even shrimp. In the same family is Ictalurus punctatus the Channel catfish which is not an aquarium species but a paper a few years ago showed that it had a 96 hour LD-50 of 6299 ppm for 50-76 mm fingerlings. Most authors agree that there is nitrate tolerance difference between species and that results are very divergent and often contradictory. Yet, however many times I try to drag up evidence of nitrate toxicity below 400 ppm in adult freshwater species, there is always a notable absence of evidence. Other times, the studies focus on densely-stocked fish farming and rely upon conjecture as to what exactly is causing the problem. However, I do feel that for smaller fish species that it could be reasonable to presume that the toxicological affects observed in juveniles of other species might apply. What this means for C. pygmaeus is anybody's guess. And guesswork seems to be the basis of all anecdotal evidence. If I was you, I would buy one and put it in your tank and see how it does. One of the first signs that there is nitrate toxicity is that it will begin swimming sideways, apparently. I could not find any studies on nitrates in the Nanary River or it's tributaries from where the fish comes from. They tend to suffer more from lack of appropriate food, which should ideally be Grindal worms fed several times per day. I do think that they may have been more sensitive to other toxicological factors and low oxygen levels but I rarely get any deaths.
 
Simon Cole said:
I had a look into this for you and I could not find any bioassays specifically looking at nitrate impact upon Corydoras. The closest I came was this paper describing an experiment on the intensive cultivation of Corydoras aeneus in which the authors suggest that the safe nitrate concentration for culture is below 50 ppm and that above 75 ppm this could affect the growth rate of juvenile fish. However, the authors did not cite the evidence and only the opinion passed down through a trail of earlier papers, one on nitrite and another that seems to have considered completely unrelated species, possibly even shrimp. In the same family is Ictalurus punctatus the Channel catfish which is not an aquarium species but a paper a few years ago showed that it had a 96 hour LD-50 of 6299 ppm for 50-76 mm fingerlings. Most authors agree that there is nitrate tolerance difference between species and that results are very divergent and often contradictory. Yet, however many times I try to drag up evidence of nitrate toxicity below 400 ppm in adult freshwater species, there is always a notable absence of evidence. Other times, the studies focus on densely-stocked fish farming and rely upon conjecture as to what exactly is causing the problem. However, I do feel that for smaller fish species that it could be reasonable to presume that the toxicological affects observed in juveniles of other species might apply. What this means for C. pygmaeus is anybody's guess. And guesswork seems to be the basis of all anecdotal evidence. If I was you, I would buy one and put it in your tank and see how it does. One of the first signs that there is nitrate toxicity is that it will begin swimming sideways, apparently. I could not find any studies on nitrates in the Nanary River or it's tributaries from where the fish comes from. They tend to suffer more from lack of appropriate food, which should ideally be Grindal worms fed several times per day. I do think that they may have been more sensitive to other toxicological factors and low oxygen levels but I rarely get any deaths.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the detailed response 🙂. It is truly difficult to find scientific evidence, yet there are some websites which just throw random pH, nitrate numbers, etc. adding to more confusion.
I think one option I can try is to check the nitrate values of my LFS and also have a word with them if they found any issues regarding Corys with higher nitrates.
With regards to feeding them, grindal worms are a bit difficult to get at my LFS. Maybe the Corys should be fine with occasional frozen brine shrimp and algae pellets.
 
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