My white skirt tetras (glofish, technically) have finally died after three pretty healthy years, and I'm looking for a fish to add to give my aquarium some pop. Tank is a 40 gallon long with a rather large cansiter filter, and has been well established for a number of years with many plants of rotating flavor.
I'm looking to add either a larger, solitary "centerpiece" fish, or maybe a school of brightly colored fish to the mix that might be active swimmers in the mid-upper range of the aquarium. There are a few stragglers from schools that have dwindled over the years, but those fish still keep on living.
I have:
- Six kuhli loaches
- Somewhere between 8-12 Endler's
- One white skirt tetra
- One cory cat
- One nerite, racer, and several pond snails
- 5 amano shrimp that are the size of a small house each
Water parameters are:
- pH ~7
- Temp ~78
- Nitrates and nitrites are very low
- General hardness is very high (my strips measure over 180ppm)- working on reducing but the water softener pillow didn't do much
- kH is fairly low or normal
I need something that will be happy with my endlers and shrimp but otherwise I am impartial. Was thinking of a Dwarf or Pearl gourami, and maybe a small school of rasbora or something? Would love a Ram but not sure I can get my water parameters happy enough. Have had good luck and bad with bettas (one very angry one in this tank, but several peaceful ones in the past). Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Posted by camp_jacking_roy
9 Comments
More Cory cats for sure. Have you considered thread fin or fork tail rainbow fish?
Ember tetras. The vibrant orange is a stunning contrast against a greened out tank.
I second adding more cories. Make your solo cory’s year by adding 6 more just like him/her. Heck, you have room, add TWO schools of cories if you like.
If you want pretty top dwellers, I like the idea of dwarf rainbowfish, like blue eyed, threadfin, gertrudae. Similarly, you could add chili rasboras or most other “nano” fish if you want a big school.
For a centerpiece, it’s hard to find things compatible with your shrimps and endlers, since centerpieces are generally big, and big fish like to eat small fish. Honey gourami might be worth looking into. Beautiful fish, and they get along well with shrimp and endlers.
Pearl gourami is what came to mind for me, they’re generally hardier and less aggressive than dwarf gouramis
Some harlequin rasboras would make for a nice match for one too!^^ (and paired with the kuhli loaches it has a sort of “southeast asian” theme going on too)
Electric Blue Acara- beautiful, peaceful, non-destructive, and good personality.
Emperor tetra school of 8 or above.
Pearl gourami with a big school of ember tetras would be great
Your tank is awesome I have a 75 gallon I’m having trouble planting could you perhaps give me a plant stocking list of this tank?
An army of Cory catfish. So many varieties