Inspiration For 85l Tank

[CherryDanio]

Hi again. Sorry to be a pest... We are really getting into this fish keeping malarky and after having had one tank for 8 months suddenly seem to be aquaring a plethora. Someone on the work intranet has offered us a free 85L tank. Whilst I know this is quite small and so limits us as to what we can have in it I was hoping someone could suggest something different for it. We are quite happy to have a few fish or just the one 'odd ball'. By the time we get this tank up and running we will have a :
very large cold water tank
1 Ryukin fancy goldfish
1 blackmoore goldfish
1 blue oranda
danios
white cloud mountain minnows
1 hillstream loach
1 apple snail

Betta tank: avec one male betta

mini tropical tank with (probably): 4 male guppies, 6 tetras and 3 cherry shrimp.

Preferably we would like something we have never had before. (which would be anything apart from the critters listed here). Hope to hear from a few of you

 

[BigTom]

Sounds pretty much perfect for about 5 dwarf puffers if you ask me! I converted my 90L planted tank over to DPs two months ago and they're really good fun. Pretty much species only, although you can just about get away with ottos and shrimp as tankmates depending on the individual puffers personality.

Or you could maybe go with a breeding pair of south american dwarf cichlids of some type, plus a shoal or two of the smaller tetras.

Or maybe badis? Killifish?

 

[bagu]

hmmmmm

F8 puffers, or a green spotted puffer or south american puffer.

You could keep a pair of German Blue Rams or Gold Rams (a pair, 1 M and 1 F)

2-3 golden panchax?

Or due to German blue rams being a fish that likes softwater

keep some German blue rams with some harlequin rasboras, or rummy nose tetras?

 

[CherryDanio]

I have to say I'm intruiged by the idea of the dwarf puffers. It wil be a big endevour though as I've never had a planted tank before... What plants would you reccomend? Do you reckon if it were heavily planted enough I could chuck a load of snails in there and some might breed rather than setting up a seperate breeding tank?
* wanders off to find out more about puffers/plants/snails*

 

[BigTom]

I have to say I'm intruiged by the idea of the dwarf puffers. It wil be a big endevour though as I've never had a planted tank before... What plants would you reccomend? Do you reckon if it were heavily planted enough I could chuck a load of snails in there and some might breed rather than setting up a seperate breeding tank?
* wanders off to find out more about puffers/plants/snails*

The DPs will probably continue munching snails until they're all gone, mine all vanished within 2 days

I'm planning on setting up some sort of snail breeding thing, but whether it'll be an actual tank or just a bucket or something I've not yet decided. In the meantime they're happy on frozen bloodworm and a weekly treat of live glassworms. The thing with the planting is to try and break up lines of sight as much as possible, so you can actually get away with less decor if it's positioned right. They are very inquisitive though and love having lots of nooks and crannies to explore.

 

[bagu]

i have a strange story...

on the outlet tube in my tank, where water is pushed out; i had a colony of snails brewing =/, i could see them every day! and could get rid of them =(

anyhow, i couldn't get them out at all; so i kind of pointed it out to my DP... the next day; the shells were on the floor

how the bloody hell did he do it lol!? the puffer is a genius! lol

her name is Mr.Wally

because she's always hiding