Back again after two years.

[Jeremy180]

Some of you may remember me from a couple of years back.
I had almost finished fish less cycle when several things happened in a row in my life that made me decide it wasn't a good time to take care of an aquarium.
But I am ready now.

 

[Colin_T]

Hi and welcome back

what do you plan on keeping this time?

 

[Jeremy180]

Well, when the tank cycles, the ones that are definitely are cherry shrimp and male fancy guppies, both because males are less efficient hunters of shrimp, and to avoid being overrun by baby guppies.
Haven't 100% decided yet on the others, definitely a school of cories, probably panda cories, as my sister doesn't really seem interested in any of the smallest species. Was thinking of a female longfin albino bushynose as a possible centerpiece. Most other Plecos either get too big or are reported to be too shy for my taste.
Would love to have a big school of any fish about 2 centimeters or so long, but most that size seem to prefer softer water than mine, which is 7 degrees dKH, and about 8 PH from the tap.

 

[Colin_T]

7dgh is not hard water, it's only about 120ppm which is still in the soft water category.
Medium hardness is about 150-250ppm
Hard water is above 300ppm.

Depending on how long the tank is, Melanotaenia praecox and Pseudomugil species are small peaceful schooling fish. There's more info on rainbowfish at the following link.
http://rainbowfish.angfaqld.org.au/Melano.htm

 

[Jeremy180]

Was actually thinking about threadfin rainbowfish, but at 9.99$ each at lfs, x6 =60$+after tax, for a fish that apparently lives only 2 to 3 years, is a bit steep for me.

 

[Colin_T]

You can always breed Iriatherina and sell them. Or see if the American rainbowfish society has any eggs you can buy. Gary Lange and a few others sell fish and eggs and the eggs travel pretty well. Otherwise Melanotaenia praecox, they can live for 6+ years, and you can easily breed them.

 

[Jeremy180]

Thinking about it, neon dwarf rainbowfish are probably too big with my current stocking in a 29 gallon tall, Thank you for the suggestions, though
It's strange, though most of the online prices for threadfin are about 4$ Usually my lfs has pretty competitive prices, maybe the one I saw were adults instead of juveniles.
Also saw another report of threadfin living 4 or 5 years.
That is more reasonable.
Was really wanting a big school of something that would actually make the guppies look big, though. Even threadfin are fairly large compared to male guppies. EDIT: what I am really looking for is something significantly smaller than a Neon Tetra.

 

[Colin_T]

The only schooling fish smaller than neon tetras are ember tetras but they don't do well in alkaline water.

How about Pseudomugil gertrudae? They grow about as big as a neon but have cool fins and are fine in alkaline water.

 

[Jeremy180]

Yes, seems like most every fish under 3 centimeters prefers soft water. Pseudomugil gertrudae, I will look into that, thanks. Celestichthys margaritas (celestial pearl "Danio") looks like my parameters are within thier comfort zone, but I have heard that they are quite timid, and not very tight schoolers, can anybody confirm this?