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Which centrepiece/show fish for my planted community aquarium?

Animallover

Member
Joined
12 Mar 2021
Messages
75
Location
U.K.
Hi guys,

I'm relatively new to the hobby (6 months). I have attached some pics of my current aquascape. I really want a relatively larger fish than the current fish that is ideally blue either 1 or a few to act as the centrepiece as at the moment something feels like it's missing. I did have 3 powder blue dwarf gouramis which looked perfect in this set up but i'm always up for trying new fishes so would be keen to experiment with new ones. I just want the least chance of aggression and fish death really.

My current livestock are:

15 cherry barbs
12 diamond rummy nose tetras
4 zebra danios
3 otocinclus
6 Amano shrimp
3 Kulhi loaches

Do let me know what you guys think.

Thank!
 
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It’s a 318L tank
 

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Trichogaster trichopterus have always been relatively peaceful and simple to keep for me. Inquisitive and less prone to disease then dwarf gurami. And various blue types to pick from...
 
Trichogaster trichopterus have always been relatively peaceful and simple to keep for me. Inquisitive and less prone to disease then dwarf gurami. And various blue types to pick from...
Yep! The Three-Spot Gourami is a good idea - will get along with the Amanos... if the shrimps are not too small.

Cheers,
Michael
 
Hi @Animallover I can't really offer much advice on the centerpiece fish part, but its great to see how nicely your tank has come along!

Cheers,
Michael
Thanks! Did try increasing light at one point but just too much algae so I stick to around 6.5 hours photoperiod. Maintenance is so much easier when everything is going smoothly.
 
Trichogaster trichopterus have always been relatively peaceful and simple to keep for me. Inquisitive and less prone to disease then dwarf gurami. And various blue types to pick from...
Thanks I had a read at their specifies profile online and looks like they eat plants as well so wondering if they’ll damage the aquascape?
 
Thanks I had a read at their specifies profile online and looks like they eat plants as well so wondering if they’ll damage the aquascape?
It uses plant bits for its nest and it has been known to eat from some plants, but in a large tank with lots of plants and the fish normally fed, I dont think you will notice it. I never noticed it in my tanks back in the day :)
 
Congo Tetra when settled look stunning. Keep a group
They do look stunning but from looking at their care guide they do eat plants so wondering if they’d damage the scape?
It uses plant bits for its nest and it has been known to eat from some plants, but in a large tank with lots of plants and the fish normally fed, I dont think you will notice it. I never noticed it in my tanks back in the day :)
Thanks for the advice!
 
Blue emperor tetra might work for you but my choice would be praecox rainbowfish.
 
Blue emperor tetra might work for you but my choice would be praecox rainbowfish.
Yes I was thinking blue emperor tetra initially but looking for something slightly bigger. The praecox looks perfect. My LFS only has 2 males currently so will wait until they get new stock.

I was thinking 5 males initially due to the colouring of males being better but maybe 3 females and 3 males would be better? Only thing is that I read they can be very aggressive when breeding and kill the worst ranking male hence was thinking having all males will mean more minimal aggression with a compromise of less colouring which would be okay for me.
 
Male rainbows really need the girls to show off to or their colours can fade. I've not seen any real aggression between males when I used to breed them, you got the odd chase but no physical damage was done at all. My personal preference would be 2 males and 4 females minimum and a 1:2 sex ratio works well and you could even go with more females than that.
If you find good stock (and not all stock is good these days unfortunately), the females can look almost as good when in breeding condition. They don't have that vibrant red but they do have nice coloured finance and that vibrant shimmer to the body.
 
Male rainbows really need the girls to show off to or their colours can fade. I've not seen any real aggression between males when I used to breed them, you got the odd chase but no physical damage was done at all. My personal preference would be 2 males and 4 females minimum and a 1:2 sex ratio works well and you could even go with more females than that. If you find good stock (and not all stock is good these days unfortunately), the females can look almost as good when in breeding condition. They don't have that vibrant red but they do have nice coloured finance and that vibrant shimmer to the body.

Thanks for the info- I have no idea to be honest. You're right I think i'll grab both boys and girls tomorrow. Would be nice seeing the whole show if there are both males and females.
 
Just wondering if I can keep praecox rainbows in a high tech tank with CO2 injection? Ph seems like on the limit if not crossing the limit for these fish looking at their care guide.
 
Hi all,
Just wondering if I can keep praecox rainbows in a high tech tank with CO2 injection? pH seems like on the limit if not crossing the limit for these fish looking at their care guide.
I'm <"not a CO2 user">, but I don't think you need to worry about the pH depression <"caused by CO2 addition">. The reason is that when you add CO2 strange things happen to pH.

I think pH and buffering are really conceptually difficult, and because of that a lot of what is written isn't quite right or universally applicable. I use a slightly <"different approach"> where I just think about changes in the <"chemistry (ionic strength) of the water">.

In the case of CO2 addition because you have more "Total Inorganic Carbon" in the system (from the addition of CO2) the pH is depressed, but you still have the same amount of <"alkalinity">.
As soon as you know that fish are quite happy with a rapid pH fall when you add CO2 and an equally rapid rise when you turn it off you can tell that it isn't the pH changes themselves that bother the fish, and that acidosis and fish death are both symptoms of underlying problems, rather than one causing the other.
cheers Darrel
 
I know people that have kept them in high tech tanks but I personally haven't, so dont know how they fared longterm. I think they are pretty adaptable to anything but extremes nowadays though (due to their mass production for many years and most sites tend to list wild conditions which doesn't tell the whole story for the species). It's certainly true that most rainbowfish like harder water which is why with our liquid rock tap water here, they did so well.
 
Just wondering if I can keep praecox rainbows in a high tech tank with CO2 injection?
You sure can.. you can also keep them in softish water 3~4 dgh, or at least I have for the last 12 months and they show beautiful colours, male and female.
The tanks only had co2 added for 3 months but I haven't seen any changes to their behaviour whatsoever.
 
Hi all,

I'm <"not a CO2 user">, but I don't think you need to worry about the pH depression <"caused by CO2 addition">. The reason is that when you add CO2 strange things happen to pH.

I think pH and buffering are really conceptually difficult, and because of that a lot of what is written isn't quite right or universally applicable. I use a slightly <"different approach"> where I just think about changes in the <"chemistry (ionic strength) of the water">.

In the case of CO2 addition because you have more "Total Inorganic Carbon" in the system (from the addition of CO2) the pH is depressed, but you still have the same amount of <"alkalinity">.

cheers Darrel
Thanks for the response. Good to know the rainbows will be okay. Didn’t quite understand the pH and CO2 point though. Surely adding CO2 will decrease the PH and not sure but maybe there is a buffer in the whole system but not enough to overcome the addition of CO2 hence why the pH is still lowered. Sorry lol my knowledge is limited so understanding is limited. But I do understand the alkalinity is the same if there is no natural buffer in the close system already. So surely the alkalinity isn’t the thing affecting the fish it would be the direct addition of CO2 causing a more acidic environment?
I know people that have kept them in high tech tanks but I personally haven't, so dont know how they fared longterm. I think they are pretty adaptable to anything but extremes nowadays though (due to their mass production for many years and most sites tend to list wild conditions which doesn't tell the whole story for the species). It's certainly true that most rainbowfish like harder water which is why with our liquid rock tap water here, they did so well.
Good to know! My water is actually pretty hard here so I’m happy they’ll thrive in those water conditions. My LFS prices 3 of these rainbows at £25 so relatively more expensive than other fish I have so hopefully that correlates to better quality but who knows lol.
 
Hi guys,

I'm relatively new to the hobby (6 months). I have attached some pics of my current aquascape. I really want a relatively larger fish than the current fish that is ideally blue either 1 or a few to act as the centrepiece as at the moment something feels like it's missing. I did have 3 powder blue dwarf gouramis which looked perfect in this set up but i'm always up for trying new fishes so would be keen to experiment with new ones. I just want the least chance of aggression and fish death really.

My current livestock are:

15 cherry barbs
12 diamond rummy nose tetras
4 zebra danios
3 otocinclus
6 Amano shrimp
3 Kulhi loaches

Do let me know what you guys think.

Thank!
Judging from your current stock, you have very active, constantly moving fish. You need a a slow moving, inactive center piece fish. Gourami and cichlid are relatively inactive fish, but keep a single male to avoid conspecific aggression resulting in chasing. Blue dwarf and pearl gourami are slow moving, and have small mouth that won't harm tetra. Blue rams are good too and you can keep a pair as they bond strongly.
 
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