Tetras Or Danios?

Neptunienne

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I've been looking for a small, not-too-fussy fish to add to my aquarium.

This is a 15 gallon, 30x30x60 cm. I estimate that I'll have room for about 4-6 adult danios or 8-10 neon tetras. Other inhabitants will be a few Cory cats. I know that this is considered slightly overstocked by US standards, I'm actually following the 1-litre-per-centimetre-of-fish rule that we go by in metric Europe (funny, right? 1" per gallon = approx 1 cm per 1.5 litres; quite a difference when dealing with small tanks!). This will be a fishlessly cycled tank, by the way.
My water quality runs something like PH around 7-7.5, hardness around 10dGH.

I would like a top-to-middle dweller that's active and/or colourful, and obviously, small, as it's a small tank.

I've had a dozen neon tetras a long time back, but found them relatively uninteresting. They're beautiful, but I wasn't taken by their personality or their swim patterns, really. I also know they like soft and acidic water, and that's not what I have.

I've looked at danios and find their activity really interesting and fun. But will they be unhappy in a tank of this size, and in a group of no more than 6? Also, I read they nip fins, would they be a risk for the Cories?

Any other ideas, besides these two?
Or would I be better off keeping the Cories with a couple of dwarf Gouramis instead?
 
Danios will need more room IMO as they are an extreemly active species as would most medium sized tetra species.

I would go for one of the rasbora species, Rasbora maculatus are ideal for small tanks, but harlequinns, Rasbora brigittae or rasbora espei could also work,
White cloud Mountain Minnows is another possibility if your tank is not too warm.
1 or 2 honey gouramis would also add a centrepiece to your tank
 
8-10 danios (of the small species, zebra, leopard, blue, etc) should be fine in that size tank. Although they are active fish they don't have to have huge tanks. They are also surface dwellors living in the upper half of the water column.

Most tetras will be fine in water with a PH of 7.5, you don't have to change it unless you are keeping wild caught neons or cardinals, and you don't get them these days.
Have you looked at other types of tetra like black phantoms, kerri tetras, splashing, etc?

Possibly look at blue-eye rainbowfish. There are a number of species available and most only grow to an inch in length. They are active schooling fish that live in the top half of the tank and come from water with a slightly alkaline PH. Look up Pseudomugil rainbowfish.
http://members.optushome.com.au/chelmon/Melano.htm

I would avoid the red and blue dwarf gouramis and look at other small species of gourami like the honey dwarf mentioned above, licorice gouramis, betta imbellis, indian banded gourami, etc.
 
I'd go with the rasboras suggested, much more active and interesting than pretty-but-boring tetras.

Danios can just becrazily active, I have 12 in a 50 gallon corner tank and they use every tiny bit of space available in it. They would be OK in that size of tank, but rasboras would be happier and IMO are more colourful.
 
Nice, thank you guys! I will look into Rasboras, see what the LFSes in the region have on offer. I like the look of the Espes Rasbora particularly, very pretty, but they seem to be pretty rare, of course! Switzerland isn't super original in terms of variety in shops, but I live close to France and that's generally better.

New question... I am a Betta addict, I admit it. If I get a tank established with Rasboras, are my chances of putting in an impulse-buy Betta very bad? Or are they also fin nippers? (obviously, no Betta if I do go for a Honey Gourami, which was actually what I was thinking of - again, if I can get my hands on one)
 
some bettas are fine with honey dwarf gouramis but others aren't. You could try them together and see how they get along. If they argue then separate them.
Rasboras are normally fine with bettas and generally don't bother nipping fins.
 
Most of you guys don't know much about tetras then you think. Tetras do very well and are quite active if you have a large school or many other alpha peacful fish. Most people complain that there tetras don't school much but as in my experiance and right now I have a 30 gal tank with some G danios, dwarf aussie rainbows, and pearl gouramis with 7 neons and they are quite an excellent addition to the aquarium. But in your case you say u have a 15 gal which can still house several small species. If you don't mind may I recomend a neon tetra tank even or some type of other tetra rasbora? I've been to the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago Il and they had a tank of about 300 neons and it was most dazzling thing I've seen but it's up to also it just depends you might do better with somthing else.
 
I'll second the suggestions of small danio's, I have 5 pearls in a tank almost exactly the same size as yours and they are very active top dwellers. Being that close to a light source does show off the more mature ones.
 

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