Stocking suggestions

[LillyBlomqvist]

I'm planning my new setup and would love your thoughts on species of fish.

It'll be a 26 gallon (100 liters) 2,6 feet long (80 cm), hang on back filter, no lid and heavily planted! It'll have a lot of plants both submerged and emerged. I'd like species that can live in room temperature. I'll have a heater, but in case of a few hours blackout during winter I'd like them to be able to survive if I only can rely on the wood stove to keep the house warm. I also want the tank to eventually require low maintanance with just small water changes so I can water some house plants with the tank water but not much more than that, like an ecosystem tank. So I don't want to overstock.

I've wanted to have Rainbow Shiners for a long time now, so I'm planning on keeping 10 of those. Are they shrimp safe (like cherry shrimp)? It's okay if they eat some baby shrimp to keep the population down but I don't want them to harass the adults. Do you think the shiners will jump out of the tank?

I'd also love to have a wet pet, and was wondering if a vampire shrimp (the big blue ones) could be a good choice? 

6 corydoras would also be fun. But here I'm starting to worry if it'll be overstocked if I want to have a low maintanance tank? If it's okay, is there something else I could have in the tank that you could recommend? I was at first planning on nano fish, but I can't resist the shiners so... 🙈

What are your thoughts? I'd really love some feedback! 🥰

[Bobbie]

I think you’ll be fine numbers-wise, 16 fish in a heavily planted 26 gallon doesn’t seem like all that much to me. I’d suggest letting the plants go in first (give them a wee while to settle in), add some snails to keep the algae down, and add the fish in small numbers - maybe the corydoras first and then add the rainbow shiners. If you want a lidless tank I’d strongly suggest using floating plants. 
 

I’ve got 13 fish in a planted 15 gallon and everything is going well, I only do a water change every 10 days or so and never have issues with the parameters - but it took over a year of work to get it to this point. 

Edited July 22, 2021 by Bobbie