[shane3fan]

I rescaped my son's 7.5g cube ( actually holds about 6 gallons of water ) and got rid of all the guppy/endler half breeds that were in there. Now I need to pick something to stock it with. I know we all grow tired of the topics of people wanting stocking help with their tanks. I know it normally comes down to personal preference---however, in this tank's case its a little different. I have a few very specific conditions to deal with that will narrow my choices. I would appreciate any insight in this matter.

i : its a small tank with low water volume--approx 6 gallons plus whatever is in the filter case and hoses.

ii : its a rimless tank with no lid

iii : pH 6.5, temp 72-85 is possible ( 200 watt inline heater ) , gH and kH very low.

iv : I will feed quality prepackaged foods but I will not raise food for the critters in this tank or any other tank.

v : The flow is pretty high--Fluval 104. It is adjustable though.

vi : It now has pressurized CO2

vii : It is in a semi high traffic area--did I mention no lid?


I almost think that shrimp and snails are the only critters I can put in this tank, but my son wants fish in it and its 'his' tank. So, if I can find a decent fish to put in there I would like to do that.


Fish that Ive thought of and reasons I dont think they will work ;

Betta ; too much flow
Badis ; too picky with food
Endlers ; I wouldnt mind putting 4 or 5 high end Endlers in this tank but I dont have a local supplier. This goes for other nano fish as well. I may just have to wait until it cools off a bit and get some shipped to me. Its hard to get critters shipped to this area though, we have two seasons-Summer and Winter.

If I do go with shrimp, I dont want CRS or RCS--I have a tank of those already--maybe some 'Snowball' shrimp or something similar that will be hardy like the cherries. How difficult are OEBT as compared to CRS? I have some breeding going on with the CRS--maybe I can try some more difficult shrimp.

If youve made it this far--thanks for reading and thanks for any input.

 

[spyke]

maybe you could try some of these...

galaxy rasboras, neon tetras(everyone loves those), only male charry barbs, cardinal tetras, maybe some species of micro rasbora with some cbs, to make it more like an asian stream biotope...

or you could get something super awesome like some green babaulti shrimp with some green glofish...oh yes, that would be sweet..lol

 

[Aphyosemion]

I agree with spyke. There are a lot of small non-jumpy fish that could work in that tank. I am inclined to always have some sort of shrimp in my tanks, so snowballs also sound like a good idea.
One thing I would keep an eye on though is your PH. If you have very soft water and CO2 there is a chance of sharp PH drops early in the morning just before the lights come on. If you are going with DIY CO2 I would take a couple of readings at that point, just to be safe. If you are going automated, all you have to do is stroll past the PH controller and see what it says.

 

[firefiend]

Rasboras would be great; cherry barbs would be great; white cloud minnows would be great... those are my three favorite small tank fish. I'm not a fan of neon tetras but they work as well as green tetras.

none of these are particularly prone to jumping; I've never had a hooded tank with harlequin rasboras, cherry barbs or white clouds and never had a carpet surfer either.

good luck.

 

[demonr6]

maybe you could try some of these...

galaxy rasboras,

I have six of them in a medium planted 4 gallon (in my signature) and they do fine. Celestial Pearl Danios are the name acutally.

 

[SueD]

You could add 3-4 male fancy guppies. There are so many colors, patterns available you could mix them up or keep it monochrome. Here's an overstocked 5 gal of males, all from one line but with some variation in the tails.

 

[kzimmerman]

dwarf puffers. Really cool, and would love a small planted tank, plus you can keep more than one, unlike other puffer species. Downside is that they need good quality frozen food, I've never seen em eat anything prepared.

 

[GeToChKn]

Not all betta's hate flow. Mine loves playing under his filter and will get right under the water I'm pouring in if I'm doing a water change or top off.

 

[TexasCichlid]

A nice dragon plakat betta might be suitable. Plakats have shorter finnage and tend to be more active. Dragons just look cool.