3rd Fish Species for Community Tank

[powerdyne6]

Help me decide in a third fish species… (yes I am still trying to decide)

Looking for another schooling/shoaling species that stay relatively small (2-2.5 inches). Maybe something with some colour.

Something that will work in soft water with a PH of around 7. Something that will work with 12-15 Dwarf Chain Loaches and 20-25 Penguin Tetras.

I have a 75 gallon tank currently being set up. The Tetras will be moved into this tank from my current 15 gallon

 

[Byron]

You asked this in the older thread, here is my answer from there. You should proceed with only one thread on the topic though, to avoid confusion.

Your options are almost endless. I have the same water so this is easy. Any peaceful characin, rasbora, barb, or danio are options. The loaches are somewhat active, the penguins less so given their nature to cruise among floating plants. So with this in mind I would not look at danios here. I cannot think of other characin species that would not work, the most "active" being the rummynose tetra but this activity is no where near that of some danios that charge around. Other species are more quiet, thinking of many of the beautiful disk-shaped species in Hyphessobrycon, including the Black and Red Phantoms, Rosy, or the Bleeding Heart which is a lovely tetra for larger tanks as it gets larger but is peaceful, and remains basically mid-water. The others mentioned here in the Rosy clade are generally a bit lower in the water column, as are the rummynose. But the Bleeding Heart, the Black Phantom, the Penguins, rummynose, with the loaches--something like this would spread the fish out in the tank. All are shoaling so groups of 12-15. Avoid the Serpae/Red Minor tetra, they are notorious fin nippers and I can see them tearing into the Bleeding Hearts.

Many if not all of the medium-size rasboras would be other options. Several of the barbs, those that remain medium-sized and are not overly-active. The Black Ruby Barb is a real beauty, the males very colourful, in a group of 12-15 again, they are active but not overly so. I had these in my 90g for some years, then moved them into the 33g and some of the eggs from their frequent spawnings survived predation and hatched. A lovely barb.

 

[powerdyne6]

You asked this in the older thread, here is my answer from there. You should proceed with only one thread on the topic though, to avoid confusion.

Your options are almost endless. I have the same water so this is easy. Any peaceful characin, rasbora, barb, or danio are options. The loaches are somewhat active, the penguins less so given their nature to cruise among floating plants. So with this in mind I would not look at danios here. I cannot think of other characin species that would not work, the most "active" being the rummynose tetra but this activity is no where near that of some danios that charge around. Other species are more quiet, thinking of many of the beautiful disk-shaped species in Hyphessobrycon, including the Black and Red Phantoms, Rosy, or the Bleeding Heart which is a lovely tetra for larger tanks as it gets larger but is peaceful, and remains basically mid-water. The others mentioned here in the Rosy clade are generally a bit lower in the water column, as are the rummynose. But the Bleeding Heart, the Black Phantom, the Penguins, rummynose, with the loaches--something like this would spread the fish out in the tank. All are shoaling so groups of 12-15. Avoid the Serpae/Red Minor tetra, they are notorious fin nippers and I can see them tearing into the Bleeding Hearts.

Many if not all of the medium-size rasboras would be other options. Several of the barbs, those that remain medium-sized and are not overly-active. The Black Ruby Barb is a real beauty, the males very colourful, in a group of 12-15 again, they are active but not overly so. I had these in my 90g for some years, then moved them into the 33g and some of the eggs from their frequent spawnings survived predation and hatched. A lovely barb.

Yes I did make a new thread but was only wanting to see more options. I just haven’t come across anything that jumped out at me.

I was looking at the Cherry Barb or Gold Barb

But I do the Black Ruby Barb you mentioned