I'M After Your Expertise !..Yes..

[jua]

I have a 55L Tropical tank
Filter; Heater came with it

Sand substrate
approx 10 real plants
no other decor

stocking: 2 harlequin rasboras and 2 red shrimp!

Can anyone tell me what would be a nice slow-moving fish that I could get ? Am toying with a betta.

Or maybe a gang of marbled hatchetfish - although the flying aspect makes me a little worried!

Ideally I'd love something for the bottom (maybe cories) and something slow moving that I can just gaze and watch for hours on end !!
BTW Am not keen on small/little fish ( i inherited the harlequins)
Would consider an oddball - maybe a SAP - something out of the ordinary..

I know you are up to helping me solve this dilemma !!!

 

[drobbyb]

I would start by upping the harlequins to 6.

 

[Curiosity101]

If you're keeping the harlequins long term then I'd up them to 5 straight off. If you don't want to up the number then I'd suggest re-homing.

Same with the shrimp, they do much better in larger groups and produce very little waste, so a group of 5 would be better.

Aside from that as a main, slow moving, fish...
Honey Gouramis, you could get a male female pair, they tend to be peaceful and relatively slow moving once grown.
A Male Betta, again not really 'slow moving' but certainly a good centerpiece for a 55l tank
Cockatoo Apistogramma? Not sure how the shrimp would fair against them and they aren't slow moving, but they are extremely colourful and interesting.

What are the actual dimensions? That would help alot

 

[Davo86]

Maybe a pair or trio of honey gourami, which could also be kept with a betta
or a group of sparkling gourami

SAPs are far to active and get too big for a 55L
dwarf puffers could work but you would need to rehome your existing fish.

 

[jua]

Oh wow!!

You have given me some real good ideas.

Rehoming the harlequins should not be a problem..like i said am not keen on 'little' fish so would not increase their shoal.

I absolutely love the idea of a betta with gourami's..would they def not fight each other ?

And would adding some cories be overstocking ?

 

[Curiosity101]

I completely disagree with mixing a betta and gouramis.
It's a bad idea, in a 55l there is no way they can establish seperate territories and therefore be happy co-existing.

What are the tank dimensions...

 

[jua]

its approx L: 60cm x W: 30cm x H:35cm

I take it a sole Angel would be unsuitable in here too ?

Or could I have a sole betta ?

 

[Curiosity101]

A single angel wouldn't fit no. But a single betta would be absolutely fine.
And in a tank of those dimensions you could have pygmy corys and shrimp?
Or ottos?
Or pitbull pleco?

Oh and normal corys aswell, sorry about that I totally forgot to add those.
I would stick to the smaller varieties, 5cm ish.

 

[jua]

Curiosity: Would u agree then a betta and perhaps 4/5 panda corys and shrimp ?

Or how about a betta and hatchetfish ?

Am not familiar with a pitbull plec. Any reason why you specify that plec in particular ?

 

[Curiosity101]

It's just it's the only true plec suitable for your sized tank.

And yes a Betta, 5 panda corys and shrimp would be great.

A betta and hatchetfish could go both ways...the betta often hangs around the suface as they need air to breath and could disturb the hatchets...but alternatively they could get along fine.

 

[jua]

OK. I may just give the plec a miss in any case cos just got rid of a common plec and also the waste factor

I feel alot happier now - cos the panda cories at my LFS are super-cute..shall prob get a handful more of the shrimp and go and find a beautiful betta somewhere !!

About betta's though - I removed my airstone (motor was really noisy) but should it be replaced if the betta comes home ?

 

[Curiosity101]

I presumed you had the air stone alongside a filter?

In which case there is no need to replace it.
Air stones aren't normally neccesary for anything other than decoration.

Where abouts are you based? Depending on how much you're willing to pay you could practically get any type of colour combo you could think of.
How much do you know about bettas? I could point you towards info on tail types and colour types if you wanted?

 

[jua]

west London

I know v. little about Bettas apart from what I have learnt on here..

I did toy with the idea of having one in a biorb one day

Should I also reduce the current from my filter ?

Would love the info on tail colours etc

 

[Curiosity101]

Info on the tail types you can get
http/www.bettysplendens.com/articles/catview.imp?catid=857

Info on the colour types you can get
http/watershed3.tripod.com/types.html

I would advise against a biorb, it's such a bad shape both for gas exchange and swimming.
As for your filter, could you get a spray bar attachment for it? If so this would probably be the best option.

Depending on how much you wanted to spend on a betta the best option for us UK people is to order either from someone called...
The betta lady
Or Ebay

You can always order from Aquabid, but I don't understand 100% how the shipping works. I know it has something to do with transhippers (the ship from thailand to someone in the UK and then the UK person ships out from there). So it can get pretty expensive, and we don't have many transhippers in the UK I dont think. But it's an option.

Eitherways, few quick betta tips.
Don't keep with anything nippy.
Don't keep males with any other bettas, or fish with long bright tails. Males will attach female and males of their own species, and anything that looks like a male betta (guppys etc).
Hikari betta pellets are some of the most widely used staple foods for bettas. But a cooked deshelled pea, bloodworm, daphnia etc are all given every now and then to give some variety.
They need access to air to survive, over time they have evolved to have gills that aren't actually efficient enough to keep the fish alive without access to air.
Lots of plants are a great addition to give the fish somewhere to rest near the surface, and to simply give them a place to hide.

 

[arobinson1984]

Just wanted to point out before you went out and bought them that panda corys are notoriuosly difficult to keep and are one of the most sensitive type of cory.

I dont want to put you off them if you've got your heart set on them, just thought I'd point it out incase you were looking for fairly hardy fish

Andy