Most Pieceful Community Setup You Can Think Of?

[onidrase]

Hey guys

My boyfriend is trying to get into the hobby, and he is rather intimidated by all my more aggressive, larger fishes. He even finds the tiger barb squabbling a bit disturbing for some reason. He was originally gonna get a little like 5 gallon desktop aquarium, but I talked him up to a 20 gallon instead. I am hoping for him to get a 30 inch long one, but he might end up being stuck with the standard 2 foot one.

Community tanks with small fishes most certainly are not my area of expertise. I'm very very attached to my aggressive fishes, and any fish less than 2 inches to me looks more like "delicious exotic cichlid snack" than "beautiful community tank resident" (Sorry little fish lovers. )

Because of this, I'm having a hard time recommending him any fish species.

He also likes snails. Which I find gross. And he likes shrimp (more delicious exotic snack) and catfish. He absolutely adores my catfishes. I'm also taking a gander he'll be getting live plants rather than plastic ones.

Anyways. Can you guys recommend a tank setup that will have as little bickering, squabbling, territorial behavior, nipping, ect as possible?

 

[Hunterprey]

If he's using sand he can have some cories, theyre small and friendly, also a bumblebee catfish(Microglanis iheringi), a little territorial but harmless. Balloon mollies are quite docile too 1 to 2 male to female ratio is recommended

 

[minnnt]

10 Ember Tetras
4 Pitbull Plecs
3-4 Apple Snails
10 Amano Shrimp

A heavily planted tank with dark sandy substrate will show these inhabitants at their best.

 

[ParadiseGuerrero]

I'm still only a beginner but commenting based on what fish i have-
a shoal of white cloud mountian minnows with a group of cories, i doubt you would get any agression from these guys (i haven't atleast) and they are very fun to watch when the boys start showing off they're fins and suprisingly good looking fish even if they are a bit common- they look very good with plants. I'm sure you could find a peaceful center piece fish if you wanted one- Mine live with a paradise fish which is supose to be agressive but isn't, though this could ge because he isn't yet full grown.
Black Ruby barbs are very peaceful but the boys do tend to chase the girls around- I'm not sure if that would count as squabbling or not. Then again cories if you wanted. Though I do find that black Rubies will try to steal the food off the cories so they need feeding carefully or the cories get shoved out the way.
They're the most peaceful I've got.
I've also been looking into lamp eye killifish lately ( I saw some at the LFs and they are really quite amazing with the blue eyes) which from everything I can tell are very peaceful but a bit skittish and they are very small.

 

[moochy13]

a group of cherry barbs looks great against a planted tank, just make sure you get nice bright red males. the femlaes are nice in their own way, but lack the visual impact of a school of bright red fish. nice and small and totally harmless.

 

[fluttermoth]

10 Ember Tetras
4 Pitbull Plecs
3-4 Apple Snails
10 Amano Shrimp

A heavily planted tank with dark sandy substrate will show these inhabitants at their best.

That's a nice stocking!

If your BF prefers blue to red, you could swap the embers for green/false neons. Panda or one of the dwarf cories would make a nice substitute for the pitbulls (though they're not aggressive as their name would suggest!).

 

[minnnt]

I was going to suggest Panda's also, but i took up the space with shrimp instead

There are lots of peaceful fish available, maybe find out what he likes and ask for advice on compatability etc?

 

[creeker]

I agree with minnnt (this time .)I think you might need to visit the lfs and see what he likes, then run it by us. Seems like he already has some strong preferences. He's probably going to want to pick them out himself.

 

[Frazzledazzle]

A corydora species, i have a trio of Peppered who are great to watch. (Try and get more though, i've scoured everywhere in the hope of getting 3/4 more!)
Cardinal Tetra - Nice striking colours never any trouble from them.
Guppies - Male and female - Been breeding them so have some lovely colours coming through, it gives you a side interest on top of the general upkeep plus you get to see the males showing off to the females.
Harlequin Rasbora - I've got a small group of these and they're brilliant mid/top level swimmers. Never any trouble, they chase eachother.

 

[eaglesaquarium]

Lots and lots of peaceful fish...

To throw out a completely different stocking than others have...

You could go with a nano-stocking and heavy planting.

Nano-species:
10 microrasboras (Trigonostigma hengeli or T. espei are my favorites - they look very similar to the standard harlequin rasbora, but are smaller)
3 sparkling gouramis
8 Corydoras habrosus

 

[This Old Spouse]

I like that list! Plus you could throw in some ghost shrimp if you like. They're really fun to watch and really don't add to the bioload much. And then lots of plants and driftwood for hidey holes and caves for the cory.

Push for the 30" long 20g. It's my favorite tank by far. Easy to maintain and really nice to look at.

 

[onidrase]

There aren't a lot of fish that he's turned away from due to looks or anything. I'm just trying to gather a list of fish that fit well in a community tank so we don't get anything that may end up looking sweet but turning out to be a terror, like my buenos aires tetras way back when. Even my favorite larger tetras have a tendency to be a bit nippy.

 

[eaglesaquarium]

Yeah, some of the best looking tetras definitely can be very nippy. Serpae, bueno aires, skirts, etc. But, there are also a bunch that are not... cardinals, neons, red eyes, etc.

 

[moochy13]

Yeah, some of the best looking tetras definitely can be very nippy. Serpae, bueno aires, skirts, etc. But, there are also a bunch that are not... cardinals, neons, red eyes, etc.

yet only last week i was reading a post where somebody ws avoiding red eyes because they were nippy (not my experience with them), and i have 6 BA tetras that have never bothered anything other than themselves.

 

[eaglesaquarium]

Who was that? Was it by reputation that they were avoiding the red eyes (misinformation?) or was it by personal experience? Nippiness, whether within the shoal only or extended beyond is still nippiness to me. Tiger barbs go beyond the "nippy" label and are just mean.