Hard Water Schooling Fish- 30 Gal

[xiaoxiy]

Hi,

I'm currently planning out how I want to set up my 30 gal (36Lx12Wx16H) tank and really want to have a single-species schooling fish with several otos and snails as the cleanup crew. The problem I'm running into is that my water is quite hard (180ppm+) as it is from a limestone aquifer. This is quite troublesome as most of the great schoolers (rummies, cardinals, harlequins, espeis) are all soft-water fish. As of right now, I'm thinking about getting a school of Zebra Danios, but my question to you all is, "Are there smaller fish which school well and will tolerate/thrive in hard water?".

[fermentedhiker]

The various Danio species would work or some of the smaller Rainbowfishes like any of the Pseudomugil species would work I think.

[AaronT]

Danios don't really school well. I would go with a smaller rainbowfish species like the ones suggested above.

[VivaDaWolf]

My giant danios school very very well

[xiaoxiy]

Originally Posted by fermentedhiker

The various Danio species would work or some of the smaller Rainbowfishes like any of the Pseudomugil species would work I think.

Jeeeeze. Just checked the price of Pseudomugils on Liveaquaria. A school of those might be out of my price budget.

Nevermind, I found an old stocklist from msjinkzd of Pseudomugil furcatus for a decent price. I wondering if she has any left.

[fermentedhiker]

Originally Posted by xiaoxiy

Jeeeeze. Just checked the price of Pseudomugils on Liveaquaria. A school of those might be out of my price budget.

I've always found liveaquaria's prices to be on the high side. Wetspottropicalfish has much better prices and a much bigger selection. Shipping will still run you a bit though.

[xiaoxiy]

I'll call into my LFS sometime next week and see if they have any in stock. Man, pronouncing those names will be hard though. Ha