Questions, Suggestions, More Questions

[CorydorasEthan]

Hey everyone,

I feel like it would be a pain to manage many different posts of questions I had, so I figured that I would just ask them all on the same thread.

• Has anybody had any experience with Thick-Lipped Gouramis (Colisa labiosa/Trichogaster labiosa)? If so, are they peaceful? What are good tankmates for them? The reason for this is because I found one amongst some honey gouramis at my LFS, and I was considering getting one. I've also seen them in some of Cory's videos, specifically the store tours.
• How easy are Rosy Barbs to breed? Can they be bred/kept outside during the summer in tubs?
• Can white cloud mountain minnows and endlers be kept together where they both breed? Do they prey on each other's fry? How about platies?
• Schooling fish recommendations for a 29 gallon aquariums with endlers and cories? I am looking for something that 1) doesn't get too big, and can live happily in a 29 gallon tank, 2) won't prey too much on the endler babies, and 3) that doesn't fin nip or is food aggressive. Bonus if they are easy to breed and easy to raise their fry. I was at first considering cardinal tetras, but now I am overwhelmed with many other great looking fish my LFS carries. I need to narrow down from this list: cardinal tetra, cherry barb, rosy tetra, lemon tetra, Cochu's blue tetra, black neon tetra, black skirt tetra, glowlight danio, dwarf neon rainbow, white cloud mountain minnow, diamond tetra, emperor tetra, phoenix rasbora, penguin tetra.
• How much do plants affect filtration/stocking? Like the number of plants in relation to the amount of fish and size of tank.
• Plant recommendations. I need them to be tall, really easy to keep, low-medium light (I have a Nicrew 30 inch light on my 29, not sure if it is low light or high light), and preferably not a stem plant. I already have water sprite, vallisneria, crypt wendtii, Java fern, dwarf lily, amazon sword, and dwarf hairgrass in the tank, but I want something different. If not, then I'll just do more water sprite.

I'd appreciate the advice and answers. Thanks guys.

[FrozenFins]

For schooling fish I am a big fan of my Zebra Danios right now. They are little pigs though. Also a nice big school of neon tetras in any kind of planted tank looks pehnonmnal.

It really depends on what plants you want. For example something like a Java Fern would pull out nutrients maybe a little less slower then your water sprite, amazon frogbit, red root floaters, hornwort. Generally all the plants I mentioned also grow faster too. 

Because you don't want any stem plants but you want a tall and big one I would do some anubius, more java fern, etc. Heres a video Prime Time Aquatics did on different kinds of Java Ferns:

 

[WhitecloudDynasty]

The endlers fry will hunt down the white cloud fry...since they are born so much bigger

[Hobbit]

There’s a super tall anubias called Anubias Lanceolata. I have it in my 55. It’s really tall and seems super hardy! May be worth checking out.

In terms of how plants affect stocking, I think we can say definitively that plants help, and more plants generally help more, but I don’t know that there’s any golden ratio. It will depend on the type of plants, type of filtration, surface area for bacteria, water flow, type of fish, etc. Of course floating plants can use nitrogen faster than submerged because they have access to the CO2 in the air. There are a few principles like that to help guide you, but I think the best strategy is to try things and keep testing your water. If you overstock and can’t keep up with the nitrates, you know you’ve gone too far. (Or you need to add more plants. 😉)