30 gallon stocking ideas? Centerpiece fish ideally

[Lexi B]

Hi! I've got a future tank that I want to set up in the next year or so. I don't really know what I'd like to stock in it except for maybe hillstream loaches or a species of corydora, and likely neon tetras. It's going to be planted, I have a HOB filter with modded canister, and a sponge filter for extra aeration and particulate. 

Mostly, I want a community friendly centerpiece fish/ oddball. I've considered angel fish but I'm not quite sure on if I wanted to try doing a breeder set up rather than a community build. My favorite fish are bettas because of their big personalities, so if you guys know of anything that might be similar are well suited for a 30g I'd love to hear!

Again, nothing is set in stone so my ideas stated at first aren't 100% something we need to work around. 🙂

[Gwallace]

How about an old school Paradise fish?  They can do room temp as can most Corys and the Hillstream Loaches you mentioned.  

[SPECTRE]

I have 2 30 gallons. one is a livebearer tank, Mollies and Platys with some Corydoras. The other is a heavier planted tank with Mystery Snails, Shrimp and Guppies. I think another one would be Honey or Dwarf Gourami. Or even a school of Danios, or Rasboras. I have a 40 with Kuhli Loaches in it. They would do fine in a 30 I think.

[JamieDC]

It’s not an oddball, but I love my pearl Gourami. Super chill with the other fish in the tank (both smaller and larger). 

[Lexi B]

On 7/3/2022 at 12:50 PM, JamieDC said:

It’s not an oddball, but I love my pearl Gourami. Super chill with the other fish in the tank (both smaller and larger). 

 

On 7/3/2022 at 12:47 PM, SPECTRE said:

I have 2 30 gallons. one is a livebearer tank, Mollies and Platys with some Corydoras. The other is a heavier planted tank with Mystery Snails, Shrimp and Guppies. I think another one would be Honey or Dwarf Gourami. Or even a school of Danios, or Rasboras. I have a 40 with Kuhli Loaches in it. They would do fine in a 30 I think.

oooh i completely forgot gouramis... i might have to consider one of those 

[nabokovfan87]

On 7/3/2022 at 12:03 PM, Lexi B said:

Mostly, I want a community friendly centerpiece fish/ oddball. I've considered angel fish but I'm not quite sure on if I wanted to try doing a breeder set up rather than a community build. My favorite fish are bettas because of their big personalities, so if you guys know of anything that might be similar are well suited for a 30g I'd love to hear!

a 29G tank (not sure if you mean 29G or specifically 30G, I'll assume 30G!) has the height which gives the hillstream loaches a place to hide.  Mine liked to hide on the back of the tank, right by the filters because it was a black background.  When they weren't there they were on the stacks of pleco caves and would eat aufwuchs and such on the bottom of the tank.  If you want to keep those in particular, I think that's the type of a tank you want to setup to enjoy them the best.  Something like a 20L where you have a lot of floor surface and not necessarily height.  If you want room for hardscape you can run a 29G (same dims as the 20L, just taller).

If you have a 30B / 30L compared to a 30H tank (24" long) then I think that's also a perfect tank size.  I would have the filter central to the tank and accent each corner aside the tank with an airstone or something like the ziss bubble bio.  Lots of flat rocks for them to graze on will also be extremely beneficial environment for them.  Even something like pottery from the garden section is the type of ceramics mine enjoyed hanging around on.

As far as temp / environment.  Corys, rasboras, barbs, loaches, etc. will all enjoy similar temp / aeration as the hillstream loaches or borneo loaches.
 

 

[Lexi B]

On 7/3/2022 at 1:45 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

a 29G tank (not sure if you mean 29G or specifically 30G, I'll assume 30G!) has the height which gives the hillstream loaches a place to hide.  Mine liked to hide on the back of the tank, right by the filters because it was a black background.  When they weren't there they were on the stacks of pleco caves and would eat aufwuchs and such on the bottom of the tank.  If you want to keep those in particular, I think that's the type of a tank you want to setup to enjoy them the best.  Something like a 20L where you have a lot of floor surface and not necessarily height.  If you want room for hardscape you can run a 29G (same dims as the 20L, just taller).

If you have a 30B / 30L compared to a 30H tank (24" long) then I think that's also a perfect tank size.  I would have the filter central to the tank and accent each corner aside the tank with an airstone or something like the ziss bubble bio.  Lots of flat rocks for them to graze on will also be extremely beneficial environment for them.  Even something like pottery from the garden section is the type of ceramics mine enjoyed hanging around on.

As far as temp / environment.  Corys, rasboras, barbs, loaches, etc. will all enjoy similar temp / aeration as the hillstream loaches or borneo loaches.
 

 

Thanks for the advice! I actually kept hillstreams before this, but unfortunately the entire aquarium they lived in was destroyed by a natural disaster. I didn't consider making a bunch of hiding places in a rock/branch set up though. Mine always liked to hang out on the back wall behind my driftwood and eat the algae, so I bet they'd appreciate all the hidey holes. Also it's a 30B- I guess i should've been more specific lol. I've been in the hobby for almost 2 years now but I swear it feels like I'm still a newbie when talking about set ups 

Edited July 3, 2022 by Lexi B

[nabokovfan87]

On 7/3/2022 at 2:00 PM, Lexi B said:

Also it's a 30B- I guess i should've been more specific lol. I've been in the hobby for almost 2 years now but I swear it feels like I'm still a newbie when talking about set ups 

Interesting!  Let me check the dimensions.  I think Racheal's videos on hillstream/borneo loaches are so interesting.  When someone has a love of a specific species and spends so much time with them, it's really cool to be able to get those insights.

Slightly smaller version of a 40B. PLENTY of space and plenty of room.  Very cool.

What kind of wood and rocks do you like to use? I saw this random EU rock that might be available here. Looks like Seiryu a bit, but without the calcium stripes. It's called Rhino / Rhino skin stone.

Slate might be a pretty awesome option as well.

[Lexi B]

On 7/3/2022 at 2:06 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

Interesting!  Let me check the dimensions.  I think Racheal's videos on hillstream/borneo loaches are so interesting.  When someone has a love of a specific species and spends so much time with them, it's really cool to be able to get those insights.

Slightly smaller version of a 40B. PLENTY of space and plenty of room.  Very cool.

What kind of wood and rocks do you like to use? I saw this random EU rock that might be available here. Looks like Seiryu a bit, but without the calcium stripes. It's called Rhino / Rhino skin stone.

Slate might be a pretty awesome option as well.

I actually recently saw a set up on Reddit someone made basically tailored around hillstream. It was a high flow river set up with big algae covered river rocks over a false bottom. It had some species of top swimmer that liked high flow as well, though I can't remember what they were. Awesome set up!

I use seiryu stone. I like the pattern, only thing I'm not a fan of is how jagged it is. But that's because I have Bettas- clumsy ones at that. 

As for woods, I don't have a specific type. I used to use drift wood that I gathered and let soak and bake for a long time, but I've moved to a part of the state where bodies of water are very rare. I do like spider wood for small details though, and there's a local pet store that sells all kinds of drift wood for reptiles and aquariums. Right now I was thinking about making a "tree of life" set up, and make one of those underwater bonsai types with mosses and anubias and use spider wood as the roots weaving in a rock cliff. 

I'm not very skilled at aquascaping though. My best looking tanks are probably the jungle set ups haha

[nabokovfan87]

On 7/3/2022 at 2:37 PM, Lexi B said:

I'm not very skilled at aquascaping though. My best looking tanks are probably the jungle set ups haha

I definitely am not as well! But that's fine.  If it looks good to me, I enjoy it, that's all I care about.

There's a few places to pick and choose some decent wood.  I would try looking at manzanita or ghostwood and see if anything strikes your fancy.  Cool stuff.

[Lexi B]

On 7/3/2022 at 2:40 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

I definitely am not as well! But that's fine.  If it looks good to me, I enjoy it, that's all I care about.

There's a few places to pick and choose some decent wood.  I would try looking at manzanita or ghostwood and see if anything strikes your fancy.  Cool stuff.

you know, buying a specific type of wood to use shouldn't be a novel concept to me... but wow! Ghost wood was secretly all i've ever wanted. Thanks a lot for the recommendation!

[JettsPapa]

On 7/3/2022 at 3:37 PM, Lexi B said:

 

oooh i completely forgot gouramis... i might have to consider one of those 

I like pearl gouramis, but a 30 gallon tank might be a little small, especially since I like to keep them in groups.  Have you considered honey gouramis?  Maybe 5 or so?

[Lexi B]

On 7/6/2022 at 9:09 AM, JettsPapa said:

I like pearl gouramis, but a 30 gallon tank might be a little small, especially since I like to keep them in groups.  Have you considered honey gouramis?  Maybe 5 or so?

I was thinking the same thing. Ive been looking into honeys or maybe dwarf gouramis 

[JettsPapa]

On 7/6/2022 at 11:30 AM, Lexi B said:

I was thinking the same thing. Ive been looking into honeys or maybe dwarf gouramis 

I wouldn't recommend dwarf gouramis.  Due to their popularity, commercial breeding practices have resulted in them being plagued with health and aggression issues.  If you want to try anyway, they're the only gourami I'd recommend keeping alone.  And I mean alone in the tank, not just no other gouramis.  While they don't all do it, I've seen numerous reports of dwarf gouramis that would harass any other fish in the tank.

[Lexi B]

On 7/6/2022 at 9:37 AM, JettsPapa said:

I wouldn't recommend dwarf gouramis.  Due to their popularity, commercial breeding practices have resulted in them being plagued with health and aggression issues.  If you want to try anyway, they're the only gourami I'd recommend keeping alone.  And I mean alone in the tank, not just no other gouramis.  While they don't all do it, I've seen numerous reports of dwarf gouramis that would harass any other fish in the tank.

Oh! Thanks for letting me know. When I was doing my quick surface level research I kept seeing friendly community fish lol.

Honeys will probably be a good choice then. Its just too bad that there isn't anywhere local to me that sells any honey gourami

[AquaHobbyist123]

I did have a Dwarf Gourami once but it did have health issues, they are a very inbred fish.

[Lexi B]

On 7/6/2022 at 10:14 AM, AquaHobbyist123 said:

I did have a Dwarf Gourami once but it did have health issues, they are a very inbred fish.

Unfortunately, I keep Bettas so I understand. I appreciate that captive bred animals don't continue to put pressure on ecosystems, but I honestly wouldn't mind giving up the fancy colors and fins for a healthy wild type in captive populations

[AquaHobbyist123]

We do need to preserve ecosystems, but at the same time, keeping some for conservation while not breeding them in crazy colors just to catch people's eyes in the local Big Box Store. Wild type fish are beautiful in their own way.

[JettsPapa]

On 7/6/2022 at 12:35 PM, Lexi B said:

Unfortunately, I keep Bettas so I understand. I appreciate that captive bred animals don't continue to put pressure on ecosystems, but I honestly wouldn't mind giving up the fancy colors and fins for a healthy wild type in captive populations

 

Wild caught fish don't always put pressure on ecosystems.  In some cases they're what helps sustain the ecosystems.  If the residents can make a living catching and selling fish they have a vested interest in maintaining the population and environment.  Without that the ecosystem may be destroyed for farming, or some other purpose.