Stocking suggestions

[L_goodei200]

I have a 40 Gal. Breeder that currently houses 5 Paradise Fish and a Japanese Trapdoor Snail. My plan is to move 1 or 2 of the Paradise Fish to a different tank, and turn the 40 Gal. breeder into a coldwater blackwater biotope for the remaining Paradise Fish. For plants I'll probably add Nymphaea sp., Cryptocoryne sp., and Pistia stratiotes (and maybe Java Moss). For fish I plan on adding 9 White Cloud Mountain Minnows. Now for the hard part: finding a bottom dwelling fish for this tank... maybe Cobitis sinensis? They seem to occur with both Paradise Fish and White Clouds in parts of their range. Any other suggestions for bottom dwellers? Any other plants? Does it need another fish sp? 

Thanks.

[Fish Folk]

Been thinking about your set up for a little while. I'm not sure if there's much evidence that White Cloud Mountain Minnows and Paradise fish actually share a common biotope. White Clouds are virtually gone from the wild. Where they originally were collected appears to be higher elevation waterways than the lowland / river-dwelling Paradise gourami. Now, they might share a biotope where they have been artificially introduced -- e.g. Vietnam -- but otherwise, there seems to be very little to guide a set up. That being said, as long as the Paradise fish don't prey on the White Clouds, they seem like they'd make excellent tank mates. You can dive into the species a bit here and here. Paradise fish seem like thy'd do fine in a blackwater setup, but I'm not sure that White Clouds would do as well. There's a brief reddit post that seems to discourage blackwater set ups for White Clouds here. I suppose it's all about what your water parameters actually end up being. You can see some recommended blackwater Asian species here. Quoting that link, the possible blackwater fish would be: "Barbs, danios, red tail sharks, knifefish, gourmais [sic], glass catfish, Asian clown and dwarf loaches, wild betas and paradise fish are examples of fish for an Asian blackwater tank." So maybe a tank with some Paradise fish + Danios + Dwarf Loaches would provide you with the balance you're looking for in a blackwater setup. 

I'd really encourage you to reach out to Scott Fellman at Tannin Aquatics. He spoke at our fish club a couple years ago, and it was a brilliant talk about blackwater tanks. Good luck!!

[L_goodei200]

2 hours ago, Fish Folk said:

Been thinking about your set up for a little while. I'm not sure if there's much evidence that White Cloud Mountain Minnows and Paradise fish actually share a common biotope. White Clouds are virtually gone from the wild. Where they originally were collected appears to be higher elevation waterways than the lowland / river-dwelling Paradise gourami. Now, they might share a biotope where they have been artificially introduced -- e.g. Vietnam -- but otherwise, there seems to be very little to guide a set up. That being said, as long as the Paradise fish don't prey on the White Clouds, they seem like they'd make excellent tank mates. You can dive into the species a bit here and here. Paradise fish seem like thy'd do fine in a blackwater setup, but I'm not sure that White Clouds would do as well. There's a brief reddit post that seems to discourage blackwater set ups for White Clouds here. I suppose it's all about what your water parameters actually end up being. You can see some recommended blackwater Asian species here. Quoting that link, the possible blackwater fish would be: "Barbs, danios, red tail sharks, knifefish, gourmais [sic], glass catfish, Asian clown and dwarf loaches, wild betas and paradise fish are examples of fish for an Asian blackwater tank." So maybe a tank with some Paradise fish + Danios + Dwarf Loaches would provide you with the balance you're looking for in a blackwater setup. 

I'd really encourage you to reach out to Scott Fellman at Tannin Aquatics. He spoke at our fish club a couple years ago, and it was a brilliant talk about blackwater tanks. Good luck!!

Hello, thank you for the input. I did notice the habitat preference of White Clouds typically being streams, but it mentions Paradise Fish and White Clouds co-occuring in most White Cloud locations,  on Seriously Fish here: https://www.seriouslyfish.com/species/tanichthys-albonubes/. I suppose I can only think of introduced populations on White Clouds occurring in blackwater, but I recently had two White Clouds in with my Paradise Fish (two was definitely not a preferred number, but they were given to me by a fellow hobbyist who lost all but those two in an accident), and they had incredibly intense coloration indicating that they were in good health, and I really liked the way they got along with the Paradise Fish (they didn't dart around the tank exciting the Paradise Fish,  the Paradise Fish mostly just ignored them and were much less aggressive towards each other with the White Clouds in the tank). I like your stocking suggestion, however I'm having a bit of trouble finding a loach species that likes calm water. I thought of dojo loaches, but they get WAY too big for my tank, I thought about Kuhli loaches, but they like it too warm (I'd say most fish don't like 65°F water... funny). Since I lost the two white clouds I had (breeding tank accident), my paradise fish's aggressiveness has skyrocketed, so I'm going to need the figure out something (though I'm not ordering any fish until at least April).

Sorry about the long reply,

Thanks again. 

[Fish Folk]

Love long replies! 😅Chinese hillstream loach? Dwarf chain loach?

[L_goodei200]

I'm pretty sure Chinese hillstream loaches like more flow than paradise fish (I could be wrong though). The dwarf chain loach might work, I think I'll do a bit more research before I decide though. I might mention that my tank's pH is approximately 6.5, so it's within the acceptable range for white clouds. 

Edited February 17, 2021 by L_goodei200