Rainbows, Platties, Cories, oh my😳

[Trailblazur]

Looking to stock a new 240 w some combo of bosemani rainbows, panda Cories, red wag tail platys, cardinal tetras, and Columbian rams. 

How many and what combo of each would you do🤔

[Fish Folk]

I think I can appreciate each of these species. They’re individually wonderful.

I’m not positive how well they’d _all_ work together. Rams and Corys will both tend to be more or less benthic (at least bottom 1/3 of the water column). Bosemanis are absolutely stunning! But big males might become “hogs” if not bullies. Platys and Rainbows generally do fine with moderate temps and moderate-to-hard water. Rams, Tetras, and some Corydoras prefer soft water and can thrive at much warmer temps. I’m not sure about diet compatibility either.

If you try it, be sure to take notes and share! They might be a wonderful community. Just be ready to separate if things are going sideways. 

[Trailblazur]

Thanks for the input!!!

[Trailblazur]

I'm gonna give it a go. There's so much information both ways out there lol. 

Some YT gurus say a stable neutral PH, gh, kh should work for most any fish since most breeders aren’t keeping dozens of tanks and completely different specific parameters. 
 

THEN others say you do need to follow the natural wild parameter for each species. 
 

I left keeping African Cichlids because of aggression 🤣

I’ve done a lot of research in the meantime and it looks like there’s just always going to be some type of aggression to manage 😕

 

 

[ccc24]

So one of my display tanks is a hodge podge of “can’t be done together” species. It has bosemani rainbows, Threadfins, mollies, guppies, a gourami, a snowball pleco, a clown pleco, rosy barbs, serpae tetras, swordtails & two female bettas. Depending on who you ask, this is an awful idea or it’s just fine. 
It is extremely heavily planted (jungle would be an accurate description) and I purposely positioned the rocks to form barriers/hiding spots and we have 3 caves. 
It is a very active and definitely “experimental” to an extent - you can mix all kinds of stuff as long as you have a plan for if it doesn’t work out. If the gourami suddenly decides it must throw down with the betta everyday, fish gotta move around, but right now, it works. 
You got some great advice above.
 

my thought (for what it’s worth) - If you are going to experiment try to minimize the factors that would cause it to fail. If you are going to try to species together that aren’t known for being best buds, at least get species that do well in your water and match what you have as far as aquarium design. 
 

Edited July 23, 2022 by ccc24

[Trailblazur]

On 7/23/2022 at 9:21 AM, ccc24 said:

So one of my display tanks is a hodge podge of “can’t be done together” species. It has bosemani rainbows, Threadfins, mollies, guppies, a gourami, a snowball pleco, a clown pleco, rosy barbs, serpae tetras, swordtails & two female bettas. Depending on who you ask, this is an awful idea or it’s just fine. 
It is extremely heavily planted (jungle would be an accurate description) and I purposely positioned the rocks to form barriers/hiding spots and we have 3 caves. 
It is a very active and definitely “experimental” to an extent - you can mix all kinds of stuff as long as you have a plan for if it doesn’t work out. If the gourami suddenly decides it must throw down with the betta everyday, fish gotta move around, but right now, it works. 
You got some great advice above.
 

my thought (for what it’s worth) - If you are going to experiment try to minimize the factors that would cause it to fail. If you are going to try to species together that aren’t known for being best buds, at least get species that do well in your water and match what you have as far as aquarium design. 
 

Wow that sounds awesome!!!