[Betta132]

I have a 65 gallon tank, soon to be heavily planted. I'm working on the stocking, and I'm going for the 'whole-dang-lot-of-small-fish' look. My current stock is:
5-6 Beckford's pencilfish (never see them all, so I can't tell if I have all 6)
Two dwarf pencils that school with the others.
One Schwartz cory
Two Julii cories
Two salt-and-pepper cories
Two dwarf or pygmy cories, possibly hybrids
Two female bettas (soon to be three)
Two or three ghost shrimp
One Stonehead Sulawesi goby (2" long, fairly slender, large-ish mouth but peaceful)
Twig catfish (has a sucker mouth, can't eat anybody)
African pipefish (5" long, true freshwater, very friendly)
One small male orange-throated darter
Two horn nerites
One assassain snail
One gold gourami (may be removed if he shows any signs of aggression)

I want at least four more pencilfish and at least eight more dwarf and/or pygmy cories. I'm also planning on a school of neon tetras, 6 or so, and a rubberlip pleco (4" long, and adorable!). A few ottos may end up in there as well, and probably something like two male Endler's livebearers and four females. I want a bunch of small fish who school at least fairly tightly, so I'm considering microrasboras or celestial pearl danios. Any problems with adding CPDs?
Any other schooling nano fish to recommend?
I'm also planning on chucking a bunch of low-quality cherry shrimp in here and letting them breed.

 

[LB79]

Gold gourami will get large enough to eat most microfish. Other than that, your list seems pretty microfish-friendly to me.

 

[Betta132]

Alright... I might have to get rid of the gourami. Shame... I like him.
Would a dwarf gourami work instead? I want a gourami, but I'm worried that sparkling gouramis might not get along well with my bettas, being so teeny.

 

[Dina-Angel]

And you have to watch with the Ghost Shrimp, they are able to eat everything smaller than 1 inch... So if the Endlers have fry, they might get eaten, maybe even the parents...

 

[Betta132]

My ghost shrimp are getting pretty big. I think they're whisker shrimp... They were sold as feeders, not specifically ghosts, and they're developing markings. I think I'm going to get rid of them pretty soon, as whiskers can get big enough to be dangerous to my tinies.
I plan on trying to breed the endlers. More specifically, I plan to heavily plant the tank and see if I can encourage them to breed, then scoop out the babies and trade them to my LFS when they're big enough. If they start breeding, I bet I can keep myself in free fishy food for a while.

 

[Axelrodi202]

Stock list is pretty good without the gold gourami. I'm very curious as to how you intend to feed the pipefish with all those other fish present.

 

[Betta132]

I think I'm definitely getting rid of him... I just saw him chasing after my female betta. Guess I'll have to find someone who doesn't keep tiny fish.
Feeding the pipefish is pretty easy, actually. He sits on the driftwood, and I use a turkey baster to squirt Cylop-Eeze at him, so he can eat it. He eats until he's done, then he slides off. The other fish go after the food some, but I feed them on the other side of the tank at the same time, so they only grab some random bits. The major stealers are the dwarf pencilfish, who really can't eat much, and this one Beckford's pencil who really likes it.

 

[Phantomic]

It all depends on the personality of your gourami. I myself being a gourami addict have had many gouramis over the years. From what i have observed is that Opaline, Blue, and Gold gourami's tend to be a little more aggressive than the Pearl and Dwarf varieties. I never keep more than one Opaline, Blue, or Gold gourami in a tank as i found that adding more than one will greatly increase aggression, but they dont seem to mind if other gourami's like a Sunset gourami is in the tank with him.

I have had great success with keeping 4 gouramis in a 29 gallon tank. This should be a big no-no but i have a heavily planted tank with carefully selected species of gouramis. I have 1 sunset, 1 opaline, 1 pearl, and 1 recently added dwarf (rescue)
They gouramis all get along with eachother and never touch or harm any other smaller fish, even very small neon's and ghost shrimp.

If i can get away with 4 gouramis in a 29, then you should be able to get away with 1 gourami in a 65! Good luck, and i hope you decide to keep the gourami!

 

[Betta132]

Part of the problem is, he's recently decided he doesn't like my boss betta, and she's the colorchanging one, so she wins over my gold. If he stops, I'll probably keep him, but if not, I'm rehoming him. Don't worry, I never kill a healthy fish, no matter how mean it's being.
Might scratch the microrasboras idea, but I'm getting some CPDs. I had a few before, and I loved them, but I had to rehome them... The other danios didn't like them, and one actually managed to eat the smallest CPD. So, since it's a microfish-safe tank, getting me at least 6 CPDs.