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Micro fish

zig

Member
Joined
4 Jul 2007
Messages
686
Location
Dublin Ireland
Im setting up a small 54 litre tank atm and I want to stock it with a micro type fish, Im just looking for a few suggestions my fish knowledge is not the greatest, the tank is 60x30x30cm. Im looking for something very small to fit the Iwagumi scape I have in mind.

I know Rasbora maculata or Galaxy rasbora would probably fit the bill but I am looking for other suggestions as well, what else is out there? a shoaling type fish is preferable. Thankyou.
 
I have the same size tank, also stocked with teeny fish :)

Currently I have:

7xRasbora maculatus (lovely fish, temperament like zebra danio), shoal well
4xCorydoras pygmeaus
6xotocinclus hourani
Numerous shrimp

In the LFS the cory shoal really well and are more midwater swimmers in certain scapes - I did wonder longer term about a tank purely for them, they really shoal well, though 2 of my original 6 died - one jumped out when it was in my 5-gallon and the other, in short, over did the whole reproduction thing ;)
 
Here`s my Rasbora dorsiocellata in a 60cm x 30cm x 36cm. I`m not sure exactly how big they will get, but they look great ATM. I`ve had them since around May, and they have hardly grown at all from 1.5cm.

LB006psss.jpg


I have also got some Hyphessobrycon amandae (Ember tetras) in my 24l which are a real nice orange colour, and are barely 2cm long. I did find them a little timid, which they took a long time to get over, but they are looking pretty good now. They may be happier in a bigger shoal, which you will be able to do in your tank.

Dave.
 
How about some Lampeye killifish? They are very subtley coloured, except for a bright metallic blue eye. I had some baby ones, but they didn't make it unfortunately. As soon as I see some adults in a LFS again I'll buy as many as I can and get breeding them!
 
I have both boraras maculata and CPD's and they are both great. For an iguami I would probably edge towards the boraras... unless you could source captive bred CPD's.

If you give me a few months I may have some :)
 
I have/had some of the Ember tetras as well, but I found they suffered quite badly with dropsy initially and I lost half of them. This may have been a bad batch though. They would have been really nice in a clean, small tank but I had them in a 2' with barbs and a crypt jungle and they got a bit lost.
 
Some good ideas here folks, thankyou.

It can be difficult to get micro fish around here, the shops normally don't stock them, they figure they end up as lunch in most peoples tanks with larger fish present, so they tend not to sell very well when they do have them. So basically they don't bother getting them in most of the time.

I had some spare time yesterday and visited a couple of the largest lfs around the city here, one shop had farm bred Galaxy rasboras, cute little guys but expensive at about £5 each and considering 10 of those guys would still look pretty lost even in a small tank I ruled that one out pretty quick, nice little fish but wrong colour and shape for me, although I was surprised to see them at all, they were definitely farm bred though I know this shop well they wouldn't stock them otherwise.

They also had one lonesome Rasbora maculata all on his own, they look good I would have probably bought those if they had more of them.

The next shop actually had lampeyes Ed, nice fish with the big blue eyes , I had read somewhere that they breed very easily so I didnt really want to get into all of that scenario of being over run with fry, but maybe they ain't so easy to breed?? I will probably go back to that shop tomorrow anyway so will have a good look at them again, what sort of max size would these fish get, any idea?

But thanks for the other ideas as well, the tank won't be ready/grown out for about a month so no hurry with stocking, I will keep looking around.

Dave/beeky the ember tetras look excellent I will keep an eye out for them

Thanks for the offer maximumbob Im sure you will have no shortage of takers on that one if you are successful in the breeding stakes.

Thanks everyone
 
The Lampeyes you see will be adult size. They may grow another mm or so but that's about it! They aren't the hardest thing in the world to spawn, but you won't suddenly find you're seeing loads appear in the tank either. You need to save the eggs and feed the little ones to get lots of young ones.

And, even if they do start laying loads of eggs, I know someone you could post them to to raise....
 
I have to agree with George, re the M.nana Ive got two and although they are dwarfed by my clown loaches they are stunning little fish, which have an iridescent green colour in the right light. I'm certainly thinking of them for when I redo my nano.

Also think about the Australian rainbow fish, such as Gertrude's Rainbow Pseudomugil gertrudae and they can be a bit easier to find than some boraras species.

Sam
 
Cheers Sam Cheers george, I have never seen Microrasbora nana around these parts but I will keep an eye out for them.

I went back to the shop today and bought a dozen of the lampeye killifish just in case I dont see anything suitable in the next month or so, I just needed to confirm that I wouldn't have 5 million lampeyes by christmas time!!! nice little fish the eyes really are a gas.

I will keep my eyes open for the other fishies as well, Im getting more tuned into that side of the hobby at long last and I have 3 tanks now that need stocking so room for plenty more new arrivals.

Have a very good evening one and all ;)
 
Cool, can't wait to see some pictures when they're settled in!

BTW Sam where have you seen Pseudomugil gertrudae??? I'd love some of those too, but the only one I ever see around here is P.signifer and then pretty rarely...
I was trying to get eggs of them, and a rare Lampeye imported again from a guy in Hawaii!!!
 
http://www.trimar.co.uk have a reasonable choice of the smaller fish, I got my b.maculatus from there, the postage was more than the fish though, £1 per fish (got 7) and £10 P&P :)
 
Ed - my local MA has some gertrudae in stock at the moment :) got them in special for me a while back then re-ordered them. They are quite good like that. Try your local MA, they all use the same wholesalers so no doubt if you ask nicely they should be able to get some in.

They dont seem to sell overly fast so there might be a few left if/when you pop down for the forum weekend at mine :)

Sam
 
Cheers Sam,
I'm really hoping to make it down to yours but can't say 100% at the moment as something may get in the way! I'm working hard to make sure it doesn't! Should know for sure in a week or so!
Thanks for the tip, I will look for a MA near me, or make a detour to your local one!
Cheers!
 
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