60L Tank Fish Mates

[BettaBeFish]

Hi!

So here is it .. 60L tank and the fish I eventually would like to have once tank is cycled and over time of course - may I please ask your expert advice as to quantities please or any subtractions / additions. I’m in the UK in a hard water area. Looking to add black gravel or sand and possibly low light plants

Betta
Cardinal Tetra
Guppy
Celestial Pearl Danio
Pygmy or Panda Corys

Thank you!

 

[Slaphppy7]

Welcome to TFF

If you have hard water, no to tetras...post a link to your town's water report, so we can see just how hard it is

 

[BettaBeFish]

Welcome to TFF

If you have hard water, no to tetras...post a link to your town's water report, so we can see just how hard it is

Hi, no idea how I find that but all the local fish shop sell tetra - we are not aggressively hard water but know we are on the hard side not soft

 

[Essjay]

Look for hardness on your water company's website. It's often in a section called 'in your area' or something similar. There should be a box for you to enter your postcode, and that should give you your water quality report and hardness. Because hardness can be measured in several different units, you need a number and the unit. (eg ml/g calcium carbonate/CaCO3, or German degrees, or degrees Clark or mg/l calcium/Ca etc)
If you can't find the page, tell us the name of your water company and we'll see if we can find it.

 

[Essjay]

Betta
Cardinal Tetra
Guppy
Pearl Danio
Plec or Corys

Cardinal tetras (as with virtually all tetras) need soft water
Guppies need middling to hard water
Pearl danio - do you mean pearl danios (Brachydanio albolineata) or celestial pearl danios (Celestichthys margaritatus)? Pearl danios are fast swimming fish which need a long tank, longer than a 60 litre, but celestial pearl danios (cpds) would be OK provided there are lots of plants, real or fake, to make them feel safe.
A 60 litre is just about big enough for a bristlenose plec, though bigger would be better. If there is sand on the bottom of the tank and the water is soft, a shoal (10 +) of pygmy cories would work.

I've left the betta till last. Bettas are not community fish and are best kept alone. The tank would be good for a betta - with no other fish.

 

[BettaBeFish]

Look for hardness on your water company's website. It's often in a section called 'in your area' or something similar. There should be a box for you to enter your postcode, and that should give you your water quality report and hardness. Because hardness can be measured in several different units, you need a number and the unit. (eg ml/g calcium carbonate/CaCO3, or German degrees, or degrees Clark or mg/l calcium/Ca etc)
If you can't find the page, tell us the name of your water company and we'll see if we can find it.

 

[BettaBeFish]

Oh and celestial Pearl danios - sorry

 

[Essjay]

That is hard water to very hard water. Fishkeeping uses two units of measurement - ppm aka mg/l calcium carbonate and dH aka German degrees. Fish profiles use one or other of those units.

Your hardness is 290 ppm and 16.6 dH.

This way too hard for the majority of tetras, including cardinals, cories, celestial pearl danios and bettas, I'm afraid. It is suitable for the common livebearers, and in 60 litres I would look at just guppies and endlers, and rainbowfish. There are a few species of small rainbows in the genus Pseudomugil, some of which are suitable for your hardness. There is also a relative of cpds which is OK at this hardness, the usual common name is emerald rasbora, Celestichthys erythromicron.

Celestichthys erythromicron (Microrasbora erythromicron, Danio erythromicron) — Seriously Fish

www.seriouslyfish.com

Search Results pseudomugil — Seriously Fish

www.seriouslyfish.com

 

[JuiceBox52]

Essjay is spot on, and knows just about everything about fish chemistry haha, i would take her advice

 

[Wills]

That is hard water to very hard water. Fishkeeping uses two units of measurement - ppm aka mg/l calcium carbonate and dH aka German degrees. Fish profiles use one or other of those units.

Your hardness is 290 ppm and 16.6 dH.

This way too hard for the majority of tetras, including cardinals, cories, celestial pearl danios and bettas, I'm afraid. It is suitable for the common livebearers, and in 60 litres I would look at just guppies and endlers, and rainbowfish. There are a few species of small rainbows in the genus Pseudomugil, some of which are suitable for your hardness. There is also a relative of cpds which is OK at this hardness, the usual common name is emerald rasbora, Celestichthys erythromicron.

Celestichthys erythromicron (Microrasbora erythromicron, Danio erythromicron) — Seriously Fish

www.seriouslyfish.com

Search Results pseudomugil — Seriously Fish

www.seriouslyfish.com

I'd have to slightly disagree with you on the Celestial Pearl Danios, they are so close to the Emerald Rasboras that they can hybridise and their distribution crosses over quite a lot so I would be cool with CPDs in 290ppm.

I'm a hardwater keeper too As Essjay said livebearers and rainbow fish are probably the best route here. There are some tetras that could be considered like X-Rays as their distribution is so huge and varied from blackwater to coastal streams but I'd go for the smaller Rasbora species as it allows for a bigger school.

In terms of numbers and species I'd consider something like

10 Galaxy Rasboras or Emerald Rasboras
5 Oil Catifish - bit of a rareity but not impossible to find and a very cute catfish! https://www.seriouslyfish.com/species/centromochlus-perugiae/ You can also check out Ninja and Orca Catfish too which are close relatives but pretty pricey!

The other option is to try and soften your water in a tank of 60 litres you could get RO water from an LFS and do a 50/50 split with your tap water to give you a hardness of around 6-7 which would open the door for you to keep some of the other species including the Betta.

Wills

 

[Essjay]

I'd have to slightly disagree with you on the Celestial Pearl Danios

I know cpds like hard-ish water but I wasn't sure if they could cope with it this hard. As you have hard water you'll know better than me what can be kept - I have soft water so I know soft water fish better