Paradise fish

[luxum]

I've been reading obsessively about fish that may be appropriate for my tank when the fishless cycle completes. It is an extremely well filtered 20 gallon long, well planted with lots of cover and driftwood and little surface agitation. I'm planning a school of small fish with a centerpiece fish or pair that is larger. I was originally thinking of a m/f pair of dwarf gouramis, but females are next to impossible to get and the stock of males around here seems to be of dismal quality. So i was wondering if maybe a single male paradise fish would work. I know they are aggressive and couldn't be kept with anything very small or long finned, but maybe zebra danios would work? Any ideas?

 

[Inchworm]

Hi luxum

A 20 gallon long is a very interesting tank. It is all top and bottom with no real "middle" level. Where in a regular 20 gallon tank you could have a bottom feeder or two, a top feeder and a school of mid level fish, the area that would be the natural home for many fish is simply not there.

There is one combination, however, that I know will work out great for this tank. Its a single beautiful male betta and a big school of corydoras catfish.

This combination works well because all corys get along with each other and other fish and are no competition at all for the betta. In fact I've found that they keep a solitary betta interested and more lively then it would be by itself.

They eat the same foods too.

Here's a link with pictures of the many kinds of cory cats:

http/www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/calli...ra/g_thumbs.htm

 

[luxum]

While that is a great idea, and i have successfully kept cories and a betta together, the cories are out of the question for this tank due to my pure flourite substrate which would be rough on their barbels. I don't really want to modify the substrate to accomodate them, the plants grow so well in it. I considered getting a lone paradise fish with no tankmates but i don't think that would provide enough nitrate for my plants and i don't want to have to dose it.

I really love my little tank, the proportions are so attractive. I want something more unusual than a vanilla community tank, although i may just pick a small tetra and make it a species tank for impact... I want something visually arresting, but i don't want to stock anything completely inappropriate... Ah anyways, the search continues, i'll probably stock it this weekend if the fishless cycle stays on schedule, i'm just trying to have lot's of possible combos in my mind so that i can choose whatever fish seem to be the healthiest instead of having my heart set on something that i can't find any high quality specimens of. Because i know what happens then, i buy the fish anyway even though they don't look so hot, they die, i blame myself. I'd like to avoid that this time!

 

[BettaBabe]

From a site I was to purchase my Paradise (since change my mind) it was listed that they are to be kept in groups of 1:2 male/female ratio.

BB

 

[jams.alaskan]

Do you like the look of the pearl gourami? Maybe they are too "vanilla" for you, I'm not sure but mine is wonderful and quite colorful and he dosen't touch a soul. Perhaps a trio of those?

ALASKA

 

[Auratus]

Paradise fish are very aggressive and attack any other gourami looking fish in the tank. They do well with tetras and danios however. I also had mine with killifish and they got along great. Maybe you could trying some neons or something.

 

[luxum]

Ah, they don't bother small tetras? I am really leaning towards glowlights but was concerned those might be a little too close to bite-sized.

The pearl gourami is not real appealing to me in pics, but i saw some at the store that were quite attractive. I was under the impression they required a larger tank than mine though. I'm also considering american-flag fish or boesemani rainbow (1m2f group) for the centerpiece fish, but i'm not sure there is enough space for the rainbows... i've even considered 5 boesmani and nothing else, maybe a few ghost shimp... but not sure if that's enough swimming room.

Now when i started this topic it was very clearly about an anabatoid, now i've turned it to general FW musings, sorry!