Stocking ideas for a "zen", peaceful tank?

[Gorsim]

Setting up a 48 gallon, heavily planted aquascape. Looking for stocking ideas for peaceful fish that "hang out". Don't want highly active fish, no zoomers, no big schools, no bettas, no big fish. Yes shrimp and otocinclus. Considering (among others) small glass cats.

 

[yannachka]

small rasboras like the chili rasbora would work well. my current “zen” tank has a big group of boraras rasboras and a group of red beckford’s pencil fish and is my calmest tank to watch. the rasboras are very calm and the pencil fish tend to chill towards the top. 

[Lizzie Block]

Ohh I second that - we have a small school of strawberry rasboras at home in a 'zen' tank and they're super chill too. I'm also a huge fan of Pseudomugil rainbows, they seem very laid back, they love heavily planted tanks and they are beautifullllll 

[Streetwise]

Your aquarium plan sounds great. Ember Tetras are very chill, good with shrimp, and would fit your concept. Celestial Pearl Danios would also look good.

Cheers

Edited October 20, 2020 by Streetwise
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[Sleepy]

My "Chill" tank is an all male guppy tank full of color I can watch them all day!

[Bekah]

our zen tank has cardinal tetras and endler guppies. very peaceful and nice to watch. waiting to get a pea puffer or two in there. We will be removing the guppies once we get the puffer

[IanB]

I agree with @Streetwiseon Embers or CPDs. I’ve kept both in aquascaped tanks and they are wonderful. I might lean to embers given how large your aquarium is and the fact that, in my experience, they are less shy but also less active moving around. If you want a small fish to just hang out, you won’t do much better than embers.