Larger Peaceful Fish ?

[xshellx]

hi ive got a new tank thats finally ready for some fish in there i have
 
2 male guppies
2 male platies
8 black phantom tetras
8 scissortail rasbora
 
i would like to add a larger fish, for no other reason really than that i like a tank to have a center piece, i have had angels in the past and had awful luck with aggression and so almost 2 years later on the advice of a pet shop bought another to see if it would help. they ended up pairing up and obviously aggression got much worse until i had to re home both being as they were a pair, so angelfish are out of the question. i like the look of silver dollar fish but am lead to believe that they need a larger tank in the numbers that they would be happiest in
 
the tank is 4ft x2ftx1.5ft
 
any suggestions would be much appreciated
thanks
 
 

 

[SouthernCross]

Gouramis? Your tank is quite large so you could get a nice m/f/f trio going. Lots of different types/colours to choose from. If you are after peaceful I would recommend Pearl gouramis. Like in my profile pic.
 
Or you could look at a pair of the smaller, less aggressive cichlids. Rams or apistos, or even kribensis. Pairs are fun to watch if they start exhibiting breeding behaviour

 

[xshellx]

Gouramis? Your tank is quite large so you could get a nice m/f/f trio going. Lots of different types/colours to choose from. If you are after peaceful I would recommend Pearl gouramis. Like in my profile pic.
 
Or you could look at a pair of the smaller, less aggressive cichlids. Rams or apistos, or even kribensis. Pairs are fun to watch if they start exhibiting breeding behaviour

 
i know the tank is large for what is in there but ive been told its best to slowly stock a tank rather than risk spikes of the nasties ive been feeding an empty tank to stop im looking for one or two larger fish and to be honest will most likely just add to the groups of phantoms and scissortails after ive decided on what larger fish.
 
i've been told that the gouramis are quite aggressive and i imagine that much like the angels, if i got a breeding group of them the aggression would only get worse if they did in face start to breed ? im looking to just have the two schools of fish and whatever my new addition may be as i can if needed move the guppies and platies to my smaller community tank. do you think that the phantoms would be able to hold their own with the pearl gouramis ? ive seen the scissortails going for it the length of the tank with some speed so think they could prob handle it but the phantoms dont seem nearly so active, much slower moving but beautiful all the same so they will have to stay as ive grown quite attached
 
thanks 

 

[Marnee]

I have a male betta in my tank.  The tank size is the same as yours, it's heavily planted and has sand substrate.  I have in there, 1 male betta, 12 panda corys, 25 glowlight tetras.  The betta has never even flared at any fish and swims happily around amongst them all.  He sleeps with the panda corys and the tank is very very peaceful.  Maybe a betta could be your centre piece.

 

[sadguppy]

I have a male betta in my tank.  The tank size is the same as yours, it's heavily planted and has sand substrate.  I have in there, 1 male betta, 12 panda corys, 25 glowlight tetras.  The betta has never even flared at any fish and swims happily around amongst them all.  He sleeps with the panda corys and the tank is very very peaceful.  Maybe a betta could be your centre piece.

PLEASE don't do this. He will fight with the guppies and be nipped at by the tetras and generally make the tank impossible to stock.

Consider perhaps a single angel? They are only aggressive at each other. Or Gouramis as mentioned above.

Or, if you are looking for something special, my personal favourite would be a group of rainbowfish. I can see why they are overlooked when they are in shops - I have six red rainbows and they were grey in the shop but have since coloured up to a lovely stunning red colour. Bosemani rainbows are also fab to look at. A group of six would fit in well with you stock.

Take a look here if you need convincing further: http/www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/content.php?sid=5370

I have an angel, a dwarf gourami and six rainbows in my 240l and they get along fine, it's a very peaceful tank.

 

[xshellx]

I have a male betta in my tank.  The tank size is the same as yours, it's heavily planted and has sand substrate.  I have in there, 1 male betta, 12 panda corys, 25 glowlight tetras.  The betta has never even flared at any fish and swims happily around amongst them all.  He sleeps with the panda corys and the tank is very very peaceful.  Maybe a betta could be your centre piece.

PLEASE don't do this. He will fight with the guppies and be nipped at by the tetras and generally make the tank impossible to stock.

Consider perhaps a single angel? They are only aggressive at each other. Or Gouramis as mentioned above.

Or, if you are looking for something special, my personal favourite would be a group of rainbowfish. I can see why they are overlooked when they are in shops - I have six red rainbows and they were grey in the shop but have since coloured up to a lovely stunning red colour. Bosemani rainbows are also fab to look at. A group of six would fit in well with you stock.

Take a look here if you need convincing further: http/www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/content.php?sid=5370

I have an angel, a dwarf gourami and six rainbows in my 240l and they get along fine, it's a very peaceful tank.

 
i have no intentions of adding a betta in the tank, i understand the suggestion as they are beautiful fish but i also know they are best kept alone while some folk manage in a community setting its not something i am willing to risk. I am glad it is working out for the poster though.
 
my original angel was the only one in my tank and he was awful and he only got worse the bigger he got, he was huge in the end and i was sad to have to re home him but after adding the second (to try to settle him down, which i now understand to have been a silly thing to do but i went with the say so of a pet store worker. was prob the best for them to pair given how aggressive he was) how large do rainbow fish grow ? i may be thinking of the wrong fish but are they not quite small fish ? i'll look them up  
 
thanks

 

[sadguppy]

I have a male betta in my tank.  The tank size is the same as yours, it's heavily planted and has sand substrate.  I have in there, 1 male betta, 12 panda corys, 25 glowlight tetras.  The betta has never even flared at any fish and swims happily around amongst them all.  He sleeps with the panda corys and the tank is very very peaceful.  Maybe a betta could be your centre piece.

PLEASE don't do this. He will fight with the guppies and be nipped at by the tetras and generally make the tank impossible to stock.
Consider perhaps a single angel? They are only aggressive at each other. Or Gouramis as mentioned above.
Or, if you are looking for something special, my personal favourite would be a group of rainbowfish. I can see why they are overlooked when they are in shops - I have six red rainbows and they were grey in the shop but have since coloured up to a lovely stunning red colour. Bosemani rainbows are also fab to look at. A group of six would fit in well with you stock.
Take a look here if you need convincing further: http/www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/content.php?sid=5370
I have an angel, a dwarf gourami and six rainbows in my 240l and they get along fine, it's a very peaceful tank.

 
i have no intentions of adding a betta in the tank, i understand the suggestion as they are beautiful fish but i also know they are best kept alone while some folk manage in a community setting its not something i am willing to risk. I am glad it is working out for the poster though.
 
my original angel was the only one in my tank and he was awful and he only got worse the bigger he got, he was huge in the end and i was sad to have to re home him but after adding the second (to try to settle him down, which i now understand to have been a silly thing to do but i went with the say so of a pet store worker. was prob the best for them to pair given how aggressive he was) how large do rainbow fish grow ? i may be thinking of the wrong fish but are they not quite small fish ? i'll look them up  
 
thanks
Not at all. There are many types and the most common range from the smaller dwarf neons at about 2 inches to the Bosmani rainbows which are good chunky fish reaching about 6 inches. My reds are only about 6 months old and are currently around three inches. They are truly stunning fish.

You can see the different varieties and sizes here: http/www.thetropicaltank.co.uk/keeping_rainbowfish.htm

 

[xshellx]

looks like we might have a winner if i can find them in a shop i trust, may speak to some about the possibility of getting them in 

 

[jonnyf84]

How about a plec, L260 are becoming available again, stunning. Maybe clown loach, a adult may eat guppies but if you buy juveniles that wont be for a few years by which time your guppies will have died anyway.

 

[Daveo026]

Sorry altho people will disagree with this but im yet to see a fighter attack a guppy iv had bettas with guppy many times when i was a child and twice in the last 10 months. (first fighter was killed by filter)
I had one nasty one when i was a teen but that hated everything because in the pet shop he was put in with barbs and lost nearly all his finnage and was stressed with other fish i believe because of that. Just my opinion tho

 

[xshellx]

How about a plec, L260 are becoming available again, stunning. Maybe clown loach, a adult may eat guppies but if you buy juveniles that wont be for a few years by which time your guppies will have died anyway.

 
i do like plecs but most of what you hear on them is that theyve outgrown their welcome, i assume the l260 are smaller than the standard? i did lool at clown loachs but they need to be kept in groups dont they and im not too sure that my tank would be ok for a group of them when they are fully grown?

Sorry altho people will disagree with this but im yet to see a fighter attack a guppy iv had bettas with guppy many times when i was a child and twice in the last 10 months. (first fighter was killed by filter)
I had one nasty one when i was a teen but that hated everything because in the pet shop he was put in with barbs and lost nearly all his finnage and was stressed with other fish i believe because of that. Just my opinion tho

 
as i said in the post i have heard of it working for some folk and im glad seems to have for you thus far but the general belief is that they do best alone, not that they cant be kept with other fish.
either way while i appreciate the suggestion i wont be adding a betta in to one of my community tanks.

 

[MBOU]

I don't personally think the tank is big enough long term for red rainbows, rainbows get so big and boisterous and need the space.. I would settle on a smaller species of rainbow and get a nice trio or group of four, either 1:2 or 1:3.. the more females for the male, the less harassed each female will be, male rainbows are seriously...well.. single minded, as bad as livebearers but more pushy.
 
Don't consider anything nippy if you want guppies in the tank so ignore most larger fish and definitely cichlids like angels, though you have found that out!
 
Gouramis ought to be fine in your tank!

the only times I ever see people complaining because their gouramis are aggressive is because they are in too small a tank (4ft/240L is minimum imo for the medium species like pearls, blues, golds etc for them to be happy) or they keep multiple males which is just asking for trouble! If your LFS cant or wont sex them for you (and ask them to point out what they are looking at when they sex them in case they are lying! and do research, look at pictures of both sexes!) but if they cant or wont, take your custom somewhere better!
 
Pearls, Blues (opalines/three spots/platinums) and Golds will all be fine as either a 1:1 pair or a 1:2 trio. You could also look about for Thicklipped Gouramis! Not so common but not rare, come in a few colours, a little smaller than the other species but not as small as Honeys and well tempered enough, probably better off kept 1 male : 2 female, though I have a 1:1 pair of the striped (took a month to colour up fully!) and they are great!
 
Or you could go for 4-6 Honey Gouramis

They are smaller but are great fun! I also have 2 Yellow Honeys and 2 red Honeys in my tank, though personally, I think best to introduce pairs/trios a few weeks apart to get them to bond to the right males/females

could do a pair of each or a 1:2 trio of each

 
Don't worry about your tetras, Black Phantoms are tough old things, they do take a while to become confident! But they will always hold their own if they need to, don't worry about that!

 

[sadguppy]

I don't personally think the tank is big enough long term for red rainbows, rainbows get so big and boisterous and need the space.. I would settle on a smaller species of rainbow and get a nice trio or group of four, either 1:2 or 1:3.. the more females for the male, the less harassed each female will be, male rainbows are seriously...well.. single minded, as bad as livebearers but more pushy.

Really?? I've not found this at all. Mine are very peaceful; I have had them about 6 or so months and they've never shown any aggression between themselves or to other fish.

Also I am a little concerned - a 4ft tank should surely be big enough for a group of red rainbows; that is what I have them in and they are currently about 3/4 of their adult size at 3-4 inches each. I've never seen any above 5 inches which is the max given on lots of sites. I don't want trouble in my future but everything I read suggested a 40gal minimum for a group.

 

[MBOU]

We have a 5x2x2 with red rainbows in at work that are far bigger... because people underestimate their size! The trouble is, like with most larger species is that less and less people keep them alive long enough for them to grow to decent size and tank size does factor in... so people might keep them for years in 4 ft tanks but imagine the fish might have lived twice as long in bigger tank and got bigger...
 
At last place I worked, we took on 3 tinfoil barbs that had been in 90L... 1 was about 14cm and the other two about 20cm... all three had been owned for 15 years.... 15 years in that tank!!! Put into about 750L, in the space of 4 months... the 14cm shark died... but the other two... well... one is now about 29cm and the other closer to 34-35cm!
 
After 15 years, they still had a massive growth spurt in them... and the owner never knew any different because they stopped growing in her tank... all hands to her.. they weren't actually hers, they belonged to care home and she did her best by them and she still visits them!
 
But I think the same is with rainbows... they think 12cm for an adult red? I've seen some much larger specimens than that... That said I guess measurements would make it closer to 15cm... I reckon the males could push 18cm but it's how active they are that makes them seem so much bigger!! Even a group of 15cm rainbows would struggle in a tank 120cm long but generally only 30cm wide... for a fast swimming fish, it doesn't give much space to turn... Though with rainbows.. I found a good strong powerhead top left corner facing across the front of the tank kept them occupied (swimming into the flow!) for hours!
 
They aren't an aggressive species! They just tramp up and down the tank like they own it, knocking other fish out the way, causing them to hide lower and further back than would be normal...
 
I had 3 blue rainbows in 300L heavily planted and you wouldn't know there were 20 cardinals and 20 harlequins in there, let alone the rest of the odds and ends! They weren't bullies... they just played with each other in a way that made the other fish stay way back! But male rainbows can be really randy little things... constantly nudging the females... again, no harm done but the females stress and cant get away... my blues were constantly spawning but always one female hid in plants 'having a break' whilst the other got harassed!
 
I make it sound like I don't like rainbows... I absolutely love rainbows!! Just think people underestimate shear size

 

[LIL860]

I have a striped headstander in with guppies, platies, mollies, apple snails, corys and a pair of bristlenoses. He is about 5 inches long and is a absolute angel he just goes about his business lets the others do there thing. Even tiny baby mollies go near him and he dosnt bother!! He does stay in the same place all day only moves at night. On the other hand im having to rehome my large angel as he is such a bully and nips everything causing them all to hide he is now out of the tank. I guess it depends on a fishes temperament.