Restocking A Slightly Acidic, Softer Water Planted Tank

Since you want to have a sizeable shoal of harlequins, how about another big shoal rather than several small ones? I used to be in the 'minimum numbers of lots of species' camp but I have switched to the 'lots of fish of a few species' camp. In my 180 litre I have 2 shoals of about 15 each of espei's rasboras (slender harlequins on here) and Daisy's ricefish. But I know a lot of people do prefer more species than me.

Any of the cichlids would work as bottom fish - just one species. Bolivian rams and kribs need to chose their own mates. The way to do this is to stand quietly in front of the shop tank till the fish forget you are there. Watch them closely. Males will chase other fish away but if a male allows a female to stay nearby without chasing her, get that pair. Cockatoo apistos are harem breeders so they can be kept as 1 male 2 or 3 females.

It's possible that Bolivian ram and cockatoo cichlids would work together as pairs in one large tank with plants/rocks etc in so they can define territories.  They come from the same part of the world after all.  Cichlids communicate with each other through colour changes and movement much like humans do... in different languages depending on where they are from.  For this reason I would avoid kribensis if you want to do more than one species as they will speak a different language where "go away" could be interpreted as "food here" which would lead to constant punch ups between them.  I would do some specific research online for cockatoos and Bolivian rams to see if you are comfortable with mixing them. When I upgrade my tank (eventually!) I'm going to try mixing rams and checkerboard cichlids which exist together in the wild.

You have quite a mixed bad of fish there... then again i probably do myself but a few other thoughts...
Harlies, Fiveband barbs (and Tiger Barbs).  I sort of have these in one category in my head. They are all orange and black fish and not very visually distinctive as you say.  I have rationalised this in my mind as tiger barbs are the best looking but can be nippy so avoid, so go fiveband barbs instead, but fivebands only come in one colour whereas tiger barbs are also available in green and gold.  Harlies are smaller so you can have more of them and come in purple (quite readily available) and gold (these might have to be purchased online) - Harlies therefore win in my book.  I would consider mixing the colour types for a super interesting shoal. Again I'll be doing this eventually!

That would let you bump up the number of black neons to match cardinal tetras at 12 which would probably look better in my view.

I've no experience with dwarf raonbowfish but I think it's a good idea if only because they will be visually distinctive as you say. I also try to mix different behaviours of fish as I find this interesting to watch and this would tick this box for me too.

Just my thoughts... on your tank... so feel free to ignore me completely

Thank you, some good ideas. I like the idea of mixing different colour s in the same shoal. I actually got 6 copper harlies and 6 normal because the lad in the shop reassured me that they were the same fish (I asked in as many different ways as I could think of. I didn't ask about died fish, but my lfs is an MA and I don't think that's something I have to worry about with them. Please correct me if I'm wrong). I will look into different colour harlies.

When my oh pointed out the fiveband barbs in the shop, I hesitated because I knew they looked like another fish that would be less suitable. I had to come home and look up that it was tiger barbs.

I think I prefer the pootler fish to dashy ones. I have a bit of a soft spot for zebra danios, but they've not done well in my tank previously. I think it is because faster fish generally need more calcium and that is something I have very little of in my tank (I also struggle with some fast growing stem plants for the same reason).

I'll have to research black neons a bit more - I thought I was doing the colour thing looking at them.

I think I'll stick with just one type of cichlids. I'd rather not have too many bottom dwellers as I'd never see my kuhlis if they have serious competition.

Definitely more of a mixed bag than I've previously had.

Re harlequins, there are three related species - Trigonostigma heteromorpha, T. espei and T. hengeli. They all have black triangles, and orange colour on the body.
T. heteromorpha are harlequins and have the biggest black triangle. There is also a colour variant called black or purple or royal harlequin (all the same fish!) which is nearly all black with an orange nose.
T. hengeli has a small triangle, an orange line above the triangle and mainly grey everywhere else. Their common names are copper rasbora, porkchop rasbora and hengel's rasbora. If your copper rasboras fit this description, they are not harelquins but they are closely related and should shoal together.
T. espei has a small triangle like hengeli but has more orange on their bodies. Their common names are slender harlequin, lambchop rasbora and espe's rasbora.
You'll find photos of all three here http://www.seriouslyfish.com/species/search/trigonostigma

I got some T. hengeli last year - or that's what they were labelled as. But a year on they have much more orange than T. hengeli should so I think they are actually espei.


Cardinals, neons and green neons are in the genus Paracheirodon; black neons are in the genus Hyphessobrycon. This is the problem with common names, they sound as though fish are related when they are not 


I would avoid tiger barbs now you have the harlies. They can be very nippy fish and are best kept on their own. They do have the advantage that they come in three colours (orange with black stripes, very pale orange with white stripes and dark green) so you can have all three colours to make the tank look more interesting.

Because the three Trigonostigmas are closely related, they should all shoal together. If you want more of them you could always get equal numbers of the two species. My espei (or hengeli whichever they really are) behave the way other people's harlequins do.
One thing that I and other people on here have found is that they don't like bright lights. Until I got some floating plants my rasboras stayed in the back corner. As the floating plants took over more of the surface, the rasboras came further into the tank, but always under the plants.

I wouldn't believe anything a shop said. Even the ones who know about fish can't know about every fish so I always assume none of them know anything, it is safer that way 

I think my "copper" raspora are probably espeii. I've managed to take a photo (sorry it's not great, had to use the digital zoom to avoid spooking them) of one definitely harlequin and one copper.

I think the body of the copper looks mostly orange, rather than grey with an orange line.

I think they both look a lot like the photo in the "slender rasbora" profile. 😀 Which is labelled as espeii.
http://www.thinkfish.co.uk/fish/slender-harlequin.html

So I've looked up all the fish on my potential list. They are all either from Asia or south America - with the exception of kribensis, which are from Africa. They also mostly have the same type of habitat - except for the rams.

So I could add Fiveband barbs and dwarf rainbow fish and have an Asian tank (except for my BN Plec). I'd need to check the pH of my water, as the addition of the rainbow fish significantly reduces the range that is acceptable to all.

Or I could go for the mixed bag.

I think I should probably rule out the rams, as I don't think they would like my tank as much.

@Matt 's comment about different "languages" has got me thinking whether kribensis would be ok in the tank, even if they were the only territorial breeders. They are beautiful fish and would definitely be visually distinctive to all the others!

Although rasboras and fiveband barbs are similar shapes and colours, I think the bands on the barbs would be an interesting addition.

It's difficult to move away from a fish that I've decided I like! Except if it wouldn't do well in my tank.

I'll have to make sure that when I get another dozen rasboras, half are harlies and half are coppers (I'll have to go by appearance rather than name!)

So I think I've decided what I'm eventually going to restock my tank with (when I've got the substrate and plants sorted).

My stocking list will be:
1 BN Plec
14 X kuhli loaches
13 X harlequin rasboras
12 X espeii rasboras
6 X five band barbs
6 X dwarf rainbow fish
2 X kribensis

This will take my tank to 89% stocked according to the community creator. I know from past experience, that with my low nitrate, soft water, my heavily planted tank is better balanced with a higher fish stock. But because I can't maintain my tank as frequently as I'd like, I've switched a lot of my plants for slow growing ones. I know this will effect the optimum fish stock level for my tank.

I've also read (several times) the article that suggests that the community creator uses different (more generous?) stocking calculations to most other sources.

The other thing I'm not so clear about is which figure the 'tank volume' actually refers to. Is it the volume of water in the tank, or the volume of the tank itself. Ie, I have a 240l tank, but I'm in the process of removing a large amount of substrate. So where I used to have 170l of water, I'm not really sure how much more water I will have when I start restocking fish.

So taking into account plants and additional water I will have in my tank, is my proposed stocking level ok?

I thought I'd put my other question in a separate comment: the last one was about stocking levels. This is about fish compatibility.

I've had a few different conversations about how many kuhlis I could have in my tank and also whether kribensis would be ok in my tank with fish from other continents. I realised today that I need to join up these conversations. If I have 14 kuhlis, would they be ok with (and vice versa) a pair of kribensis? I have seen my kuhlis hunting on the substrate. Would  it be carnage in my tank with a breeding pair of kribensis (if I'm so lucky) and so many kuhlis?