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[777james777]

@Essjay @CaptainBarnicles

Can I just triple check that the 2 rainbow fish need to go back.

My wife has been looking online and is saying that they are fine “can thrive” in hard soft water.

Iv explained what you have all said but I just wanted to ask the question to be sure.

 

[Essjay]

It depends on the species, there are many species of rainbowfish. Most are hard water fish but Melanotaeinia preacox (dwarf rainbowfish) is soft water. Yours are not M. praecox as they are light metallic blue with coloured edges to the fins (males red, females yellow edges). The only other rainbow I can identify are boeseman and it's not them either. Do you have the species name? If not I'd return those as you can't be sure if they are one of the hard water species.
Rainbows also need a group so 2 is a bad number.

 

[CaptainBarnicles]

I think it's a red rainbow...
https://www.seriouslyfish.com/speci...d rainbowfish is quite,for a very large group.

Hard water I'm afraid

 

[777james777]

It depends on the species, there are many species of rainbowfish. Most are hard water fish but Melanotaeinia preacox (dwarf rainbowfish) is soft water. Yours are not M. praecox as they are light metallic blue with coloured edges to the fins (males red, females yellow edges). The only other rainbow I can identify are boeseman and it's not them either. Do you have the species name? If not I'd return those as you can't be sure if they are one of the hard water species.
Rainbows also need a group so 2 is a bad number.

I’m honestly not too sure, il be back at pier aquatics later on this afternoon so I will take note.

I’m going to get a picture of each tank and note down everything when I get there. This is the best picture I have

 

[Essjay]

From CaptainBarnicles link - hardness 10 to 20 dH (180 - 360 ppm). Yours is under 2 dH. And minimum of 6 to 8 fish.

 

[777james777]

Had a very busy afternoon and will post all what I wrote down this evening. As it stands now we have 12 rummy nose and 12 cardinal @Essjay @CaptainBarnicles

 

[CaptainBarnicles]

Awesome! You'll have to post us a full tank shot...

 

[777james777]

I spent a good 20 minutes noting down the ones I liked the look off. I’m sure some of these won’t be suitable @Essjay @CaptainBarnicles
I managed to get a picture of them all two. They should be in the correct order

1. Metallic Male Guppies
2. Silver Shark
3. 5 banded barb
4. Preacox Rainbow (zebra piec)
5. Redtail blackshark
6. Dalmatian Molly
7. Red Oscar
8. Loxosonus Cory
9. Blue diamond Guppy
10. White fin rose tetra
11. Tiger Barbs
12. Green tiger Barbs
13. Red eyes tetra
14. Gold Nugget (white skirt tetra)
15. Key hold cichilid
16. Melon Barb
17. Tiger barb
18. Blue Rainbows
19 Dwarf Gourami
20. New red tetra
21 .red phantom tetra
22. Leapord cory
23. Bleeding heart
24. Assorted male guppy
25. Albino Rainbow

 

[CaptainBarnicles]

Well done so...guppys and mollys are hard water fish, so they're out.

The sharks, although very nice grow to ridiculous sizes and a pet peeve of mine. They also need to be kept in groups, so unless you're planning a massive 400+litre aquarium in the future then they're out too.

The Oscar will also grow very large and will eat everything it fits into its mouth...so that's out.
The tetras and barbs are all shoaling/schooling fish and will need to be kept in large groups...you've already got 2 groups so I'd probably have to rule those out too...

So we're left with
Dwarf gouramis

Trichogaster lalius (Dwarf Gourami) — Seriously Fish

www.seriouslyfish.com

Zebra plec

Hypancistrus zebra – Zebra Plec, L046, L098 — Seriously Fish

www.seriouslyfish.com

And lox corydoras

Corydoras loxozonus — Seriously Fish

www.seriouslyfish.com

Someone may need to double check and add

 

[Essjay]

My reservation about dwarf gouramis is iridovirus. Most dwarfs that were bred in the far east are infected with it. It is incurable. If you really want them, carefully study all the gouramis in the shop tank. If any of them have so much as a tiny spot, don't get any. Or look at honey gouramis instead.


Tiger barbs, skirt tetras and red eye tetras are notorious fin nippers.
Melon barbs grow to 7 cm, keep those in mind when you get the big tank for the sharks.

 

[777james777]

@CaptainBarnicles thank you for whittling that down! I was quite sure that the guppy’s and mollies are hard water. Yeh some of them sharks were big,

After what @Essjay has said there doesn’t seem to be many left, there seems to be some “issue” with most spices

So out of the 25 that caught my eye, would you say the only 2 for my tank would be the Corydoras and zebra plec

 

[Byron]

OK, to recap so we are all clear, the tank is 160 liters (roughly 40 gallons) with a length of 100 cm (39 inches). It is soft water, good. Are there any fish now in this tank? Sorry, but there are several similar threads, and reading through 31 pages of posts...we need reminding.

 

[CaptainBarnicles]

OK, to recap so we are all clear, the tank is 160 liters (roughly 40 gallons) with a length of 100 cm (39 inches). It is soft water, good. Are there any fish now in this tank? Sorry, but there are several similar threads, and reading through 31 pages of posts...we need reminding.

We have 12 Cardinal Tetras and 12 Rummynose

 

[Byron]

Thanks, I thought so but couldn't find it in this long thread.

Both these tetras are lower level, so you want to be looking for fish that live at or near the surface, and mid-tank. Corydoras in a group of 12-15 are good if you go with them, they are obviously substrate level, but this is still a good match. For upper level fish, look at the hatchetfishes. Some of the pencilfishes (these are in the genus Nannostomus, and some are ideal, a few are nippy terrors) swim in the upper half. Penguin Tetras also live near the surface but you would not want these and hatchetfishes, either. All of these are shoaling, so that means a group of say 10-11 or 15, depending upon species.

 

[Byron]

I saw Tiger Barb, and @Essjay is correct on its unfortunate behaviour problems. But there is a lovely barb very similar, except the males have a ruby red head. Black Ruby Barb, Pethia nigrofasciata. It is not too boisterous, and swims mid-level. I would not have it with hatchetfishes though. A group of 9-11.

Not sure how Zebra Pleco got included, I don't see it in the list, but this is probably going to cost a fortune. They do here anyway.