Hardwater Fish Recommendations Please

Hi all,

I am looking for hardwater fish recommendations for an over-filtered 200L 100cm long freshwater tropical tank, water can be diluted down with RO if really needed.

*Absolutely not interested in Guppies, Platies or Mollies.*

So far I have the following on my list/CC Tank;

Wrestling Halfbeak - Min. 1 Male 2 Females

Dwarf Rainbowfish - Min. 2 Males 4 Females

X-Ray Tetra - 6 to 10 mixed m/f

Sparkling Gourami - 1 Male 1 Female

German Blue Ram - 1 Male 1 Female

Cobalt Blue Goby/Neon Blue Goby - 3-6 mixed (Cannot find this on the CC so not sure on compatibility?)


Ideally looking for what else I can add and some sort of solo or group loach or catfish (not corys, kuhlis, yoyos, synos or Bn plecs), even if its not compatible please suggest it (as long as it is fine with hard water) as the current list is totally changeable and is only what I have researched so far.

I am in the UK so needs to be fish available here, for context we already have 5 tropical tanks and have been keeping fish on and off for around 15 years, just trying to set up a tank with fish we have never kept before that are more suited to our normal water.

Is there anyway to add my CC Tank to my post or profile? It currently sits at 44% stocked.

Thank You.

Hi there @OccultNerd  and welcome to the forum. 

I have only been keeping fish since around 2015, so I don't have your experience. I have dabbled in all sorts over the past few years, and have generally gone with what I like (and altered the water) rather than sticking with hard water fish.

Saying that, I have found this article useful for suggestions.
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/FWSubWebIndex/fwhardness.htm

On your fish list the only species I have personal experience with are the cobalt & neon gobies. I have a mixture, plus some annie gobies, in my temperate river tank. I adjust the water in that tank down to 15dH (my tap water being around 17dH).

In the same tank I also have some panda garra. Ideally they need softer water than I am providing for them, and even though they are very boisterous they are fine with the other fish, including the gobies.

Saying that, panda garra probably wouldn't be suitable to mix with the wrestling halfbeak as the boisterous nature of the garra would probably make the halfbeak jump out of the tank.

I'm not sure how useful my advice is going to be - although I have hard water I also lean towards fish that are less likely to work in a community set up because they can be a bit grumpy. In the community tanks I have the inhabitants also include a mix of corys & plecs. I also have bulldog plecs in my river tank, but they are quite similar to BNs.

I might have to spend some more time having a think about this. 

Following on from @Hampalong comments, I do have a shoal of penguin tetras in a South American community tank. I like the way they hang around pointing in the same direction and slightly nose down. All quite synchronised and well organised. They can be a bit territorial, and there is quite a bit of chasing around the tank, but they seem to do quite well in a large group. In that tank I also have a mix of marbled hatchets, corys, a BN, snails & ammano shrimp.

Yes, my mistake.
I just had a quick check on the tank and it is nose up rather than nose down.