Tropical Fish Forum
Tropical Fish Keeping Help and Advice => General Fishkeeping advice => Topic started by: OccultNerd on April 09, 2021, 01:54:55 PM
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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.
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Welcome to the forum, @OccultNerd :wave:
At least one of our members ( @Littlefish ) has hard water, and lots of tanks, and is therefore much better placed to comment and provide suggestions than I am, as she has no doubt had lots of similar thoughts and explored potential options.
In the meantime, though, you might find it helpful to check www.seriouslyfish.com for more up-to-date information on each species' requirements and the hardness range they require (.v. your tap water's hardness in CaCO3/ppm or German degrees as per your water supplier's details for your postcode).
A couple of issues of compatibility that strike me off the top of my head and hopefully helpful as a starter-for-ten:
* I had x-ray tetras (lovely fish) but they were boisterous and I didn't think suitable for keeping with sparkling gourami - that said, your tank's volume is 4x mine so may make a difference;
* if keeping German blue rams (which apparently are very delicate indeed these days), they tend to like to choose their own mate, so best to arrange with the LFS to buy several females for a male, then return the "unchosen ones" to the LFS.
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Hi there @OccultNerd and welcome to the forum. :wave:
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. :)
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Blue Rams (the German strain doesn’t exist anymore) are incompatible for two reasons. Firstly they’re a fish from very soft water. You might get away with the aquarium strain Rams in harder water, or you might not. Secondly to keep them comfortable and stress-free (ie healthy) they need to be very warm, minimum 78 (short term) but preferably in the low 80s. This would be too warm long term for the other fish you’ve mentioned. Blue Rams are best kept in a dedicated tank of very warm very soft water, with tank mates requiring similar conditions.
Otherwise, if you’re wanting a similar cichlid for ‘normal’ temperatures, have a look at Anomalochromis or Laetacara.
X-Rays, Silvertips and Penguin tetras are all good for hard water. They can all be nippy, but it would probably take something like a sparkling gouramy (small and slow with tempting ventral ‘feelers’) to set them off.
How hard is the water btw?
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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.
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@Littlefish dont you mean nose-up? :)
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Yes, my mistake.
I just had a quick check on the tank and it is nose up rather than nose down. :)
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Welcome to the forum @OccultNerd. I too have extremely hard water. I have kept Dwarf Rainbows with no problems and Gobies.