Is it worth it?

[Essjay]

It's a difficult one. You would need a hard water fish suitable for small tanks. The hard water fish which always spring to mind are livebearers, rainbowfish, central American and Rift Lake cichlids. The two types of cichlid are usually too big for your tank, as are most species of rainbowfish and the common livebearers apart from endlers and guppies which you already have.

For small tanks, Pseudomugils are usually suggested, but you can't get those. I know one member with hard water keeps Sawbwa resplendens (common name Asian rummy nose, not related to rummy nose tetras) but I have no idea how easy they are to get hold of.

 

[Jinx_]

What about scarlet badis? Or are they soft water fish or would they just rip apart my shrimps?

 

[Essjay]

Scarlet badis are tricky fish. Most reports say they only eat live food and won't touch flakes/pellets. Recommendations are for brine shrimp, daphnia and worms such as microworms - in other words very small. I don't know if guppy fry would be too big for them.
The other 'problem' is that many shops sell only males, and males are territorial so that means just one fish.

 

[Jinx_]

Scarlet badis are tricky fish. Most reports say they only eat live food and won't touch flakes/pellets. Recommendations are for brine shrimp, daphnia and worms such as microworms - in other words very small. I don't know if guppy fry would be too big for them.
The other 'problem' is that many shops sell only males, and males are territorial so that means just one fish.

Oh good.. Another fish to avoid lol.

Maybe for the other tank I should get a paradise gourami, then let my guppies breed freely and just feed the thing with excess fry? The 55L will be pretty long so that'll give it space, and I'll make there tiny tunnels just for my loaches.

Yeah, I think that's gonna be my plan.

 

[Gamegurl564]

Another fish suitable for hard water and the tank size is endlers. But males only or the tank would be vastly overstocked in no time. There are quite a few different colours/patterns around, and if you live near a Maidenhead Aquatics they usually stock them - cheaper than buying on line with the postage costs.

Question about male endlers. All males wont quarrel with each other? Say a group of 6-8? Thanks and sorry for the hijack...

 

[Essjay]

They are usually OK together. In the absence of females they will display to each and try to mate with each other but they don't usually do any harm. When I had a tank of just males, they would all chase one fish across the tank, then suddenly turn and all chase a different fish.

However, the endlers I had were pure endler, bought from private breeders. Those sold in stores are usually endler/guppy hybrids so could possibly behave differently to mine.