Do A Lot Of Small Fish Look Silly In A Large Tank?

[Alm0stAwesome]

I am getting very ahead of myself here - but what's new!

I currently have 1 male betta, 3 sterbai cory and 6 hengeli rasbora who I am quite attached to - I've got my eye on a 130l tank (

62cm x width 39cm x height 72cm) which I would like to put these fish in (at some point in the not so near future). I will obviously add more fish (more corys!) but they will all need to be little fellas from what I understand. Will this look silly? Is there some larger sized fish that could go in? How would you stock this tank?​

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I do like the smaller varieties of fish, quite a lot really but I think they may look lost and not have much impact...​

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Also I'm worried about my betta in such a large tank.​

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[font="Arial]Or should I just get something like 90L instead? [/font]​

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Looking forward to your responses!​

 

[OldMan47]

I have a 6 foot tank and love the look of lots of small fish in it. I do not end up with pairs and trios of fish because it takes a large number of each type of fish to really look right in a large space.

 

[Cazgar]

The Betta will be fine in a large tank.
I like small fish too & large schools of them can look really good.
Have a look at what you like, post your wish list, then people here can advise whether they'd be good in your larger tank

 

[fluttermoth]

A large school of smaller fish has it's own beauty that is different to, not less than fewer larger fish.

I have 42 false neons in the 4'/240l tank at the end of my bed, and they're gorgeous.

I bore my son rigid, every time we see or hear about large tanks as he knows that, at some point, I'm going to say, "Imagine how many neons you could keep in there"

 

[Juggler75]

Big shoals look fantastic imo. Only downside to small fish in larger tanks I think is the danger of them deciding to visit the external filter graveyard. A sponge on any external intake, cleaned at every waterchange solves this though. Bettas will explore everywhere in the large tank, theres no downside to having one unless you also want some fish that may nip, but if you build your stock around him then no probs.

 

[Alm0stAwesome]

This is all very reassuring guys thanks!

Ok so fish I like are endlers (males only lol), cardinal tetra and harlequin rasbora. My LFS had something called a purple rasbora that looked quite nice. So what would you recommend stocking with these species. Not all of them necessarily, I do like the idea of having a nice big group. Plus bearing in mind that I'm going to up my number of corys by at least 3 (more?). Should I up my number of hengeli rasbora too?

Feel free to suggest alternate species, I don't know that many varieties but I've used Fishy Friend2's betta compatibility list as a base.

 

[Cazgar]

I like the harlequins, I have a few of them in with a male betta
I've seen the purple ones in one of my Lfs, but I'd be wary of them as they could be dyed

 

[fluttermoth]

If you want to make a real impact, you can't do better than having just one, large shoal rather than two or three smaller ones.

 

[ellejay]

Big shoal of cardinals would look great. However, I recently added some harlequin rasboras and have found that they and the cardinals really complement each other nicely

 

[pablothebetta]

A large shoal of cardinals would look fantastic imo. If you've got hengeli rasbora atm, I'd up those if you get a bigger tank. You could either do 1 large hengeli shoal or 2 smaller shoals of the hengelis and another type, though 1 large shoal would probably have the biggest impact. You want to try to find a fish that isn't too nippy what with your betta, though I've read that larger numbers of fish in a shoal can help to reduce 'nippyness'. I'd definitely up the cory number to at least 6, perhaps 8. The bigger the group, no doubt the happier they'll be How big is the current tank? If you can go for bigger (130L instead of 90L), I'd go for bigger!

 

[stu40]

If you want to make a real impact, you can't do better than having just one, large shoal rather than two or three smaller ones.

+1.
i'd up the Hengelis (but then i'm biased), they provide lots of interest in the top 1/3, plus they're a bit smaller so add less to your bioload.
Up the Corys, to have the same impact at the bottom.
I know nothing about keeping Bettas, but it sounds like he'll go where ever.
IMO keeping larger numbers of small fish shows behaviour off better.

edit: i need to type faster ^^^^^

 

[soundteaser]

More corys and then more corys. Love these little fellas-full of character.

 

[fluttermoth]

If you want to make a real impact, you can't do better than having just one, large shoal rather than two or three smaller ones.

+1.
i'd up the Hengelis (but then i'm biased), they provide lots of interest in the top 1/3, plus they're a bit smaller so add less to your bioload.
Up the Corys, to have the same impact at the bottom.
I know nothing about keeping Bettas, but it sounds like he'll go where ever.
IMO keeping larger numbers of small fish shows behaviour off better.

edit: i need to type faster ^^^^^

Bigger is definitely better

Most of my tanks just have two species, a mid water shoaler and a bottom dweller, though small plecs keeping getting in there as well

 

[stu40]

Bigger is definitely better

i couldn't possibly comment

Most of my tanks just have two species, a mid water shoaler and a bottom dweller, though small plecs keeping getting in there as well

To each, their own.I prefer the top 2 layers.
Hengelis, Rummys & Silvertips. Mayhem at feeding

 

[Alm0stAwesome]

Thanks for all of this advice guys. I think to start out with I'll get more hengelis and corys, see how the tank is looking and then consider adding the cardinals if I think I need more colour.

If I were going to have 6-8 corys and my betta, how many hengeli's could I have? OR if I split between hengelis and cardinals how many could I have of each?

I have to be careful with the corys because even though it's a 130L tank, it's quite tall..not a cube but definitely not a long tank either.