400L tank filled with nano species.

[GaryE]

Big fish make a big tank look small. Nano fish in a big tank make it look like a real stream. Why waste a good, large tank on big fish? Nano is the way to go. It can be spectacular.

 

[Mezoraven]

Haha. Ok. That's plenty of reassurence. I'll go for a metric ton of small species with maybe a centre piece. A dwarf gourami or Betta. Maybe even a small trio of angels

But first I need to clean it

 

[Byron]

Haha. Ok. That's plenty of reassurence. I'll go for a metric ton of small species with maybe a centre piece. A dwarf gourami or Betta. Maybe even a small trio of angels

But first I need to clean it

Dwarf gourami risk iridovirus which is untreatable. And bettas are not community fish. Either cold really be asking for trouble.

Over the years, with 4-foot and 5-foot tanks with small fish I usually considered a slightly larger shoaling fish, and this strategy worked well. In my 5-foot tank for example, I had a Bolivian Ram (which some would call centerpiece, though I wouldn't) and a group of 11 Bleeding Hearts. The rest were much smaller characins (tetras, pencilfish, hatchetfish) and of course 60 or so Corydoras.

 

[Colin_T]

So rule of thumb is what 1cm per litre so if I ignore the sump. Just galaxy rasbora 2cm adult size. That would be like 200. So I reckon 100 fish would be easy do able

Don't put 100 in a 4 ft tank. Have 20-30 and let them breed. It's much more interesting watching a group of fish breeding and increasing their population rather than just watching one big group.

As Byron said, no dwarf gouramis (Colisa lalius) or any of their colour forms. They are regularly infected with the Gourami Iridovirus and or Fish Tuberculosis (TB). Neither of which can be treated and once they are in the tank, they are there until you disinfect everything, including the fish.

There are other small gouramis (licorice, sparkling, honey, chocolate, etc) that don't usually have these diseases and are better options.

No angelfish with small fish.

 

[dmaccy]

Great idea!!

I've a 240 litre tank and have been moving towards "small" fish in the last year or so.

The microdavario kubotai make a stunning shoal. I've 13 of them and they look amazing, especially alongside the strawberry rasboras too. I'd can only imagine what 30+ of each would look like.

It would be awesome to have a tank of small fish and a few corydoras at the bottom.

 

[WhistlingBadger]

If you want a larger, centerpiece species that isn't predatory but has a similar visual appeal to angelfish, consider a group of pearl gouramis. With that much space to spread out, you won't have any aggression issues (especially if you have plenty of floating plants), and they aren't predatory. Five or six would be a good start; try to have more females than males. You could then add huge schools of SE Asian nano fish. There are so many to choose from, but I'd probably start with espei rasboras.

Or skip the whole centerpiece idea and just have big schools of smaller fish.

 

[seangee]

Or skip the whole centerpiece idea and just have big schools of smaller fish.

+1 on that