Inspire me!

[Wills]

I have a 100 litre 60cm tank (60x50 footprint). Quite high lighting, heavily planted, around 9x turn over rate and heater is set to 22c. Water is currently hard but I've installed my RO unit now so this will gradually soften now. The tank is well lit but equally densly planted so

I've finally added the first fish, 5 Stiphodon gobies I believe them to be Atropurpureus, they've been in for around a week and seem to be doing well.

Planned stocking was going to be something like

3-4 Red Eye Red Tail Puffers (1m 2-3f)
15ish small Rasboras - maybe Green or Blue Neons?
5 Stiphodon Gobies (or similar species)

Using RO water to achieve a Gh of 10 and the temperature of 22 would suggest a good level of compatibility.

I'm having cold feet on the puffer fish, I've kept them before as a group of 4 in a 10 gallon tank, I had them for about 6 months and they were really fantastic. I didnt keep them with other fish but from what I've read and seen it can work really well. On the other hand I've been speaking to some people who keep them and some have concerns about the size of my tank - not in terms of tank mates but with each other. Males can harrass females severely.

So... what would you do? Starting point is 5 Stiphodon, who do well in softish, medium/cool water. What would be your schooling fish and what would be your feature fish?

Wills

 

[Wills]

Think I'm back to trying the puffers and definitely stick to just a single male.

Does anyone else have other ideas?

 

[PheonixKingZ]

I would definitely do some sort of Rasbora (your choice there) - your tank just screems “Rasbora’s!”

I’m not really sure on the puffers, sorry. I’ve never heard of red eye red tailed puffers.

 

[AquaBarb]

How about some Scarlet badis or Apistogramma macmasteri with some of the green neon Rasbora

Think tank mate options with the puffer will limit you a bit maybe

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[didz04]

There's one called amazon puffer which are very social between each other and i think they do alright in community with fast moving fish, but best doing a bit of research on this.

 

[Wills]

I would definitely do some sort of Rasbora (your choice there) - your tank just screems “Rasbora’s!”

I’m not really sure on the puffers, sorry. I’ve never heard of red eye red tailed puffers.

Its these https://www.seriouslyfish.com/species/carinotetraodon-irrubesco/

How about some Scarlet badis or Apistogramma macmasteri with some of the green neon Rasbora

Think tank mate options with the puffer will limit you a bit maybe

​

I've been tempted to make it a purely nano tank with things like the Badis, Sparkling Gourami, Dwarf Anchor Cats, Peacock Gobies... but also like the idea of a 3 species tank with the puffers...

There's one called amazon puffer which are very social between each other and i think they do alright in community with fast moving fish, but best doing a bit of research on this.

Yep SAPs are very cool but bit too big for this tank would need a 4 foot. Schoudenti are the other 'community' puffer that gets to a reasonable size but are less likely to need dentistry than the SAPS. Some people keep these Red Eyes with SAPs too because they can live in the same kind of community.

Wills

 

[PheonixKingZ]

Its these https://www.seriouslyfish.com/species/carinotetraodon-irrubesco/

Awesome! Very unique looking.

Those would definitely suit the tank well.

 

[mbsqw1d]

I was going to say badis badis too

 

[AquaBarb]

Didnt think puffers were great with friends but the red eyes look pretty cool and unique

Would love an updated pic of the tank with the new Stiphodon gobies when you get chance