Room temp / Sub-tropical freshwater nano fish?

[mac0eighty]

Hey All,

New to the forum and a fish noob looking for advise?

Recently purchased a 10-gallon tank and I've planted it with live plants and still trying to get my hands on a few more before I add any fish.

I want to stock it with nano-size fish (no more than 2 inches) but I'm looking for a variety of fish preferably non-schooling fish or 1 from my shortlist below.

I'm guarantee going to purchase;
Red cherry shrimp / or Amano Shrimp
Zebra Nerite snail

I do not plan on having a heater in my tank so this narrows my selection down and I also prefer to get fish that do not school but I'm stuck on which fish these are? - I've been monitoring my tank for a month now and it's gone down to a low of 18c and the highest 24 c.

Can anyone shine some light on which fish that can fit my requirements all year round, I currently live in London (I have a heater on standby for the colder months of the year if need be)

I've made a shortlist, just not sure which are compatible;
Clown Killifish
Scarlet Badis
Bloodfin Tetra
Celestial pearl danio
White Cloud Mountain Minnow
Orginal Endlers livebearers
Pygmy Sunfish
Pygmy gourami
Chilli rasbora
Oto Catfish
Albino Catfish

I find myself cutting and chopping my shortlist daily and researching more and more but many sources mention conflicting information.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[KevinZ]

I only list the fish that I know about.
So
Clown Killifish (Most of this fish need tank cover and might jump out of your aquarium and is it not shrimp safe, single Clown Killifish can kill your adult RCS and their mouth might seem small but doesn't mean they can't tear up your shrimp.)

Bloodfin tetra ( really Active swimmer Fish. So I don't think 10 gallon is great for them. 20 is the minimum I guess )

Celestial Pearl Danio / Galaxy Rasbora (schooling fish and need to be in a group of 6 or more, doesn't attack shrimp but might attack your shrimplet if you don't feed them for a while)

Oto catfish (Best Shrimp Safe Fish, schooling fish. Need to be in a group of 6 or more)

White Cloud Mountain Minnow ( Schooling fish need to be in a group of 6 and more, will Definitely eat your newborn shrimplet/Juve shrimp )

If you intend to breed shrimp then the best option is only keeping shrimp with no fishes. But doesn't mean you can't breed shrimps with fish, it is possible to breed shrimp with fishes but your shrimplet survival rate will be lower. But you can increase it with plant like Java Moss.

 

[seangee]

CPD and shrimps are fine together. I'm sure they will eat any shrimplets they can catch but my shrimps have increased from 7 to several hundred, and to return the favour the shrimps eat CPD eggs. https://www.fishforums.net/threads/its-war.455793/#post-3849777

They are best in large groups though. Best site for fish requirements is www.seriouslyfish.com. Optimum temperature for RCS is 25 which is where I keep the tank in the link above, although it does get up as high as 30 regularly in summer. Amano shrimp won't breed in your tank so shrimplets are not a problem for those. The tank in the link above has RCS, CPD and a nerite. Not sure about the nerite but I think the RCS and CPD would both struggle at temps below 22.

In case you don't know this you should only keep one strain of RCS. If you mix and match you just end up with a tank full of dull brown shrimp.

 

[emeraldking]

Hey All,

New to the forum and a fish noob looking for advise?

Recently purchased a 10-gallon tank and I've planted it with live plants and still trying to get my hands on a few more before I add any fish.

I want to stock it with nano-size fish (no more than 2 inches) but I'm looking for a variety of fish preferably non-schooling fish or 1 from my shortlist below.

I'm guarantee going to purchase;
Red cherry shrimp / or Amano Shrimp
Zebra Nerite snail

I do not plan on having a heater in my tank so this narrows my selection down and I also prefer to get fish that do not school but I'm stuck on which fish these are? - I've been monitoring my tank for a month now and it's gone down to a low of 18c and the highest 24 c.

Can anyone shine some light on which fish that can fit my requirements all year round, I currently live in London (I have a heater on standby for the colder months of the year if need be)

I've made a shortlist, just not sure which are compatible;
Clown Killifish
Scarlet Badis
Bloodfin Tetra
Celestial pearl danio
White Cloud Mountain Minnow
Orginal Endlers livebearers
Pygmy Sunfish
Pygmy gourami
Chilli rasbora
Oto Catfish
Albino Catfish

I find myself cutting and chopping my shortlist daily and researching more and more but many sources mention conflicting information.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

If it comes to the temperature range you´ve mentioned, all will do fine. Just start with juvenile fish. For they will get adjusted to lower temperatures faster. All of my tanks are without a heater. The only way to regulate the difference in water temperature is the location of the tank overhere.

Every fish is able to eat shrimps but not all will. Shrimps are most vulnerable when changing scales during one day. For sure, shrimplets are smaller and `can` be more of a prey than bigger ones. Most nanofish like e .g., CPD can be combined with shrimps perfectly.
But I saw endlers as being the only livebearers on your list. If livebearers ain´t aproblem, why not try least killifish (Heterandria formosa)? These are small livebearers which are superfetative. So, they won't have as many fry but will take a period of days to drop the whole batch of fry. But just 1-3 fry a (1-2) days during a period of 10-14 days. They do have a good margin when it comes to water temperature. They do well between 15°C-30°C.

 

[Naughts]

The only subtropical fish on your list is the white cloud mountain minnows and they are schoaling fish. As Seangee says, the shrimp are tropical too. Why don't you want to use your heater?

 

[mac0eighty]

I only list the fish that I know about.
So
Clown Killifish (Most of this fish need tank cover and might jump out of your aquarium and is it not shrimp safe, single Clown Killifish can kill your adult RCS and their mouth might seem small but doesn't mean they can't tear up your shrimp.)

Bloodfin tetra ( really Active swimmer Fish. So I don't think 10 gallon is great for them. 20 is the minimum I guess )

Celestial Pearl Danio / Galaxy Rasbora (schooling fish and need to be in a group of 6 or more, doesn't attack shrimp but might attack your shrimplet if you don't feed them for a while)

Oto catfish (Best Shrimp Safe Fish, schooling fish. Need to be in a group of 6 or more)

White Cloud Mountain Minnow ( Schooling fish need to be in a group of 6 and more, will Definitely eat your newborn shrimplet/Juve shrimp )

If you intend to breed shrimp then the best option is only keeping shrimp with no fishes. But doesn't mean you can't breed shrimps with fish, it is possible to breed shrimp with fishes but your shrimplet survival rate will be lower. But you can increase it with plant like Java Moss.

Thanks for your input.

This narrows down my selection of fish quite considerably, I also don't mind if some shrimplets get eaten.

 

[mac0eighty]

CPD and shrimps are fine together. I'm sure they will eat any shrimplets they can catch but my shrimps have increased from 7 to several hundred, and to return the favour the shrimps eat CPD eggs. https://www.fishforums.net/threads/its-war.455793/#post-3849777

They are best in large groups though. Best site for fish requirements is www.seriouslyfish.com. Optimum temperature for RCS is 25 which is where I keep the tank in the link above, although it does get up as high as 30 regularly in summer. Amano shrimp won't breed in your tank so shrimplets are not a problem for those. The tank in the link above has RCS, CPD and a nerite. Not sure about the nerite but I think the RCS and CPD would both struggle at temps below 22.

In case you don't know this you should only keep one strain of RCS. If you mix and match you just end up with a tank full of dull brown shrimp.

CPD and shrimps are fine together. I'm sure they will eat any shrimplets they can catch but my shrimps have increased from 7 to several hundred, and to return the favour the shrimps eat CPD eggs. https://www.fishforums.net/threads/its-war.455793/#post-3849777

They are best in large groups though. Best site for fish requirements is www.seriouslyfish.com. Optimum temperature for RCS is 25 which is where I keep the tank in the link above, although it does get up as high as 30 regularly in summer. Amano shrimp won't breed in your tank so shrimplets are not a problem for those. The tank in the link above has RCS, CPD and a nerite. Not sure about the nerite but I think the RCS and CPD would both struggle at temps below 22.

In case you don't know this you should only keep one strain of RCS. If you mix and match you just end up with a tank full of dull brown shrimp.

Nice one I'll check out these links

 

[emeraldking]

The only subtropical fish on your list is the white cloud mountain minnows and they are schoaling fish. As Seangee says, the shrimp are tropical too. Why don't you want to use your heater?

The shrimp species which are mentioned will do fine at room temperature. Once I seemed to have overlooked a number of cherry shrimps in one of my outdoor tubs and they've survived winter overhere. And all the fish mentioned on the list overhere will do fine at room temperature as well. But start with juvenile fish.
A lot of people make the mistake when the origin of a fish is a tropical country then the fish itself must be tropical as well. Many just don't realize that a reasonable number of fish coming from a tropical country do live in subtropical waters for there are subzones that are subtropical within a tropical country.

 

[mac0eighty]

If it comes to the temperature range you´ve mentioned, all will do fine. Just start with juvenile fish. For they will get adjusted to lower temperatures faster. All of my tanks are without a heater. The only way to regulate the difference in water temperature is the location of the tank overhere.

Every fish is able to eat shrimps but not all will. Shrimps are most vulnerable when changing scales during one day. For sure, shrimplets are smaller and `can` be more of a prey than bigger ones. Most nanofish like e .g., CPD can be combined with shrimps perfectly.
But I saw endlers as being the only livebearers on your list. If livebearers ain´t aproblem, why not try least killifish (Heterandria formosa)? These are small livebearers which are superfetative. So, they won't have as many fry but will take a period of days to drop the whole batch of fry. But just 1-3 fry a (1-2) days during a period of 10-14 days. They do have a good margin when it comes to water temperature. They do well between 15°C-30°C.

Thanks for the info.

I'll check out the least Killifish, I think I've came across them before but never made by shortlist based of appearance and colour scheme I want for the tank.

The temp they're able to cope with is great, I need more fish like this just so I don't have to worry 1 half of the year being summer or winter when temps rise and fall out of this range.

 

[mac0eighty]

The only subtropical fish on your list is the white cloud mountain minnows and they are schoaling fish. As Seangee says, the shrimp are tropical too. Why don't you want to use your heater?

I just want a self-sufficient tank somewhat so I'm trying to use the bare minimum and especially that space is limited already.

 

[Essjay]

Unfortunately most of the fish on your list need bigger tanks than 10 gallons. Look on Seriously Fish as seangee suggested; look for the minimum tank size, temperature range and hardness range in particular. If you need to covert between cm and inches etc, there is a calculator on here to do the conversions. https://www.fishforums.net/aquarium-calculator.htm

 

[FishGuest5123]

The only subtropical fish on your list is the white cloud mountain minnows and they are schoaling fish. As Seangee says, the shrimp are tropical too. Why don't you want to use your heater?

The shrimp can easily live in 70-74F temp. RCS actually prefer a temp around 72F. They are not Tropical. There just isn’t a lot of swimming room in a 10G for most fish. A betta would work but will likely eat your shrimp. White Clouds need at least a 20G long for swimming length.

 

[mac0eighty]

Great

I really don't want a shrimp only tank - seriouslyfish.com aren't giving any fish recommendations when I do a beginner search based on my dimensions.

I just want an economical tank with 1 or 2 mid to top fish a few mid fish and have my shrimp and snails at the bottom.

If I have to put in my heater I will do because by the sounds of it nothing seems to work.

 

[FishGuest5123]

I’m afraid it’s the length of your tank that is going to limit you. Hope it works out for you though. Keep us posted.

 

[Essjay]

Seriously Fish's search doesn't seem to work, you need to search for the species you are thinking about.

I have looked up your tank, a 30 litre Biorb Cube. I'm afraid it's not even 10 gallons; according to their website, it's 8 gallons. Dimensions 12.6 inches long x 12.6 inches wide x 13.6 inches tall (32 x 32 x 34.5 cm)

https://www.biorb.com/en-US/aquariums/cube/

I cannot think of any fish besides a betta which can be kept in a tank with this volume and dimensions, but bettas need warmer water than room temperature and will eat shrimps.