What to add next...

[Yves514]

Hello everyone,

We'll my 46g planted tank is just over a year old now. I'm looking to add some more fish. right now, I've got:

- 3 SAEs (3" ea.)
- 1 Rainbow Shark (3")
- 7 Tiger Barbs (1-1.25" ea)
- 2 Ottos
- 1 Rubbernose Pleco
- ~ 14 Zebra Danios (1-1.5" ea)

I had recently bought 3 rosy barbs cause they were on sale. I put them in my planted quarantine tank. The little buggers are making a feast out of my plants!!! So they are definately not being promoted to the main tank. I had two rubbernose plecos in my main tank but I had to remove one as they were always fighting for their corners of the tank.

Overall, my tank is a little agressive but the fish all have good speed so nothing serious ever happens. Just some chasing once in a while. I have been thinking of removing my danios from the tank and putting something else instead. Something a bit more calm. This might slow down the pace of my tank a bit. Right now, the danios are always going nuts so it's getting the attention of the other fish all the time.

What do you guys think would go well in my tank? I was hoping for something cool or something with colours. I saw some velvet swords but I have a feeling they would get nipped at all the time. Same with Angelfish. Maybe discuss? Shrimp was something else I was looking at but I have a feeling they would become food. I saw a really cool 4" blue lobster but I know nothing about these and I wouldn't want to see what would happen when he'd meet my rubbernose pleco.

The other factor is I'm thinking I need more fish overall. My nitrite and amonia is always zero which is good but my Nitrates are always pretty much zero too. So I think there is plenty of room for more fish.

PS. The LFS in my area doesn't carry too many exciting things (Big Al's) but does carry common stuff.

[Aphyosemion]

None of the fish in there would bother shrimp, except for that rainbow shark. You would think tiger barbs would swarm down like pirahnas and butcher shrimp, but I had a tankful of them and they never bothered with anything on the bottom of the tank. They were far too busy chasing each other around the middle of the tank. I would be careful when adding them initially though, and I would avoid cherry shrimp because they are just a little too alluring and bite sized.
As for a good fish for your tank, I would suggest smaller species of rainbowfish. They school great and are damn fast, but generally kind of mellow. They don't dart about constantly like danios and they don't hurt anything, shrimp or fish, as far as I have seen. Plus, they aren't nippy like tiger barbs.
Oh, and as for the blue lobster. He would love it in your tank. All that fast food constantly dancing in front of his face every day and then sitting quietly for him to snatch up every night would make him very happy.
-Aphyosemion

[Yves514]

Yeah, I kinda figured the lobster would be out of the question... I'm going to my LFS today so I'll see what they have in terms of rainbowfish. The only small species that I found info on were Threadfin and Neon rainbowfish. All the others seem to grow pretty big (ie: up to 5")