Community tank stocking

[Mattyd123]

Hey Everyone! 
 

any ideas on what to add to my planted community display tank? Its a 300 litre (80 gallon) 

the temperature is set to 22 degrees and the nitrates stay pretty low.

so far it has 9 golden zebra danios 

8 whitecloud minnows

15 panda corydoras 

5 honey gouramis 

1 big male Bristlenose

heaps of cull cherry shrimp

my water is stupidly hard so unfortunately no soft water fish

all suggestions welcome!

[Andrew Puhr]

That sounds really good already. I like the variety and think they would play well together for the most part. I personally wouldn't add any more but you could always build out with more danios or white clouds for larger schools. 

[Mattyd123]

I have accidentally bred about 100 zebra danios 😂 just from removing them from my quarantine tank and then sure enough 3 days later it was rammed with fry 

about 4 months old now so a couple of them could definitely join the mix

[Lennie]

On 12/13/2023 at 8:29 PM, Mattyd123 said:

I have accidentally bred about 100 zebra danios 😂 just from removing them from my quarantine tank and then sure enough 3 days later it was rammed with fry 

about 4 months old now so a couple of them could definitely join the mix

Sounds great to have your own babies join the community. Congrats on the accidental breeding 🥳

 

If I were you I would consider adding some algae eaters that would enjoy those temps and setup. Also, if you are like me, besides their algae eating benefits, they are just as fun as keeping other fish! I really enjoy keeping my SAEs. Besides being an algae eater they are just fun to watch. I wouldn't keep a group less than 3, they are weird creatures, love to play around and chase each other but noone else in my experience. Keeping two would result in too much chasing between individuals, number three allows mine to get distracted between each other. Maybe 4 would be even better? Your tank is BIG! 

Other than that, you can also add some hillsteam loach/borneo sucker, I think. To me, they are very unique and fun too! 

I have no idea about hillstream loach tolarance for hard water but my borneo sucker and SAEs seem to tolarate harder waters and higher ph up to 8 in my experience. @Guppysnail Gup did you mix RO for your hillstream tanks or do they just do fine in your liquid rock tap? 

[JettsPapa]

On 12/13/2023 at 11:26 AM, Andrew Puhr said:

That sounds really good already. I like the variety and think they would play well together for the most part. I personally wouldn't add any more but you could always build out with more danios or white clouds for larger schools. 

I agree about not adding more species, but I'd like to suggest adding ten or so more panda corys instead of the danios or white clouds.

[Guppysnail]

On 12/13/2023 at 1:41 PM, Lennie said:

Gup did you mix RO for your hillstream tanks or do they just do fine in your liquid rock tap? 

Mix ro/distilled with tap. My kh is well over 180 and gh over 350. Gassed off ph is 8.2-8.4 and during hyper chlorination goes to 8.8. Not much lives comfortably in that. 
Their tank is 

[GoofyGarra]

A group of 4-5 panda garras would be super fun. They are colorful, personable, active, algae-eating, and peaceful.

[Kit Craft]

Me being me I'd double the numbers on the White Clouds and Danios. Or look into some rainbow shiners. 

[Lonkley]

Celestial pearl Danios?

Edited December 13, 2023 by Lonkley

[Mattyd123]

On 12/13/2023 at 9:29 PM, Kit Craft said:

Me being me I'd double the numbers on the White Clouds and Danios. Or look into some rainbow shiners. 

Ooo rainbow shiners is a really good call! 

On 12/13/2023 at 10:22 PM, Lonkley said:

Celestial pearl Danios?

I have got a 50 litre with about 15 CPD’s in my bedroom in that i was considering breeding, although i would worry they would be outcompeted for food. But i could always try them and then pull them out if its not workimg 

[Tanked]

On 12/13/2023 at 1:41 PM, Lennie said:

I really enjoy keeping my SAEs. Besides being an algae eater they are just fun to watch. I wouldn't keep a group less than 3,

My SAEs have become one of my favorites for all the reasons you mentioned.  When it comes time to take a break  They often do this as a group.  This evening, I will at some point find my 5 attached to the glass in the top righthand corner of the tank. They did occasionally play tag with the Bloodfins when they were younger.  That was definitely fun to watch.

[Mattyd123]

On 12/14/2023 at 2:56 PM, Tanked said:

My SAEs have become one of my favorites for all the reasons you mentioned.  When it comes time to take a break  They often do this as a group.  This evening, I will at some point find my 5 attached to the glass in the top righthand corner of the tank. They did occasionally play tag with the Bloodfins when they were younger.  That was definitely fun to watch.

My display tank seems to be magic amd has zero algae, used to suffer from hair algae but made a few adjustments to my fertiliser schedule and now I haven’t seen a spot of algae in months would that be a problem for SAE’s?

[Tanked]

On 12/14/2023 at 7:34 PM, Mattyd123 said:

My display tank seems to be magic amd has zero algae, used to suffer from hair algae but made a few adjustments to my fertiliser schedule and now I haven’t seen a spot of algae in months would that be a problem for SAE’s?

They are omnivores. The SAEs will eat algae, biofilm, flake food, anything.    I've never seen any indication that they eat plants, but they will graze on whatever grows on the plants.