Variety The Spice Of Life?

Personally, I'd keep away from platies and guppies. They're weak 'cos of all the in-breeding to get the colours, and they like hard water. Talking of which... you say you have hard water at 7.6ppm? D'you mean a pH of 7.6, 'cos 7.6ppm is very soft water.

As for stocking - you'll get a different opinion from everybody here, but mine would be to get larger shoals of fewer species. They act far more 'naturally' under these conditions. If I was starting with your tank I'd get cory cats for the bottom(~6), barbs for the lower half (~9)and tetras/ rasboras for the upper half (~9). Useing the community creator to get the correct number.... and this might give space for a pair of Honey Gourami as well.

How's that sound?

Morning Aquamaid,

Exciting times....new tank and fishy choosing
I would agree with Colin about the guppies, they do seem to just die suddenly for no apparent reason....I had some but haven't now for precisely that reason. I have heard the same for platys too, but speaking from my own experience, I bought 3 of the blue marbled ones when I first set my tank up, (about 18 or more months ago) and have had no real problems, (other than loads of babies, but that's another issue) and I only recently lost my last original one. As you say, the blue ones are very pretty.
I think you should definitely consider cories...no tank should be without them, I think Again though, I would say , check which ones to go for as some need a more mature tank not a newly cycled one, but that isn't a problem in itself, as you just have to wait around about 6 months, and then....yay! joy oh joy! you can go fishy shopping again They are also better in shoals of 6, they will act completely differently and you would really see their character....and they have plenty of that! Also, they prefer to be in shoals of each kind rather than 2 of this cory, 2 of that etc...did that make sense?
I would avoid the dwarf gouramis (Colisa Lalia) as they too are prone to an incurable disease, which happens from nowhere, and will kill the fish...slowly. Not nice, been there...done that too
However, I think I'm right in saying that you wouldn't run this risk with Honey Gouramis, but Sue will tell you for sure.

Meanwhile though, have loads of fun choosing and go and see lots of fishies in the shops, and make sure that you're happy with the shop you will be using. If their stock look healthy etc. Bear in mind that often the fish in the shops don't always show their colours very well as they may be stressed or young, but will bloom once they're settled in a lovely new home.
Happy fishing!

With hard water you just need to avoid fish that really must have it soft. Researching a species that catches your eye will flag up any problems in this area.
Platies and guppies do prefer hard water. Have you looked at endlers, they are slightly smaller than guppies, but hardier and brightly coloured, they just don't have the long tails. All the ones in the shops are actually guppy-endler hybrids. You can keep all males quite easily. They do chase each other but don't make contact.
Glowlights can go quite hard, Seriously fish does make the comment though that they are brighter coloured at lower pH.
Harlequins and pygmy cories should be OK.
Black widows prefer it a bit softer and lower pH. And can be fin nippers - could bite gouramis feelers.

A small shoaling fish that likes hard water is this fish. I see it has changed it's latin name yet again  Common names include emerald rasbora, the shop could call it Microrasbora erythromicron, or Danio erythromicron (that was it's name last time I looked) though they are unlikely to use the newest name of Celestichthys erythromicron.

Honey gouramis are a better choice than dwarfs. This species is fine as a pair. I've had more trouble with females fighting in trios than the male harassing the female in a pair. The wild colour is hard to find. This is male with golden tan body and yellow top fin, female pale silvery grey. The more common colours are yellow and red (often called red robin). Yellows are easier to sex than reds. If you decide on them I'll tell you how 


I can't think of a specimen fish in black and white that would fit in a 90 litre tank though 
If you wanted black and white with a bit of red for shoaling fish, look at golden pencilfish here and here


There are two schools of thought about numbers of species. You do have to bear in mind that you need at least 6 of any shoaling species, with more being better. There is the group that reckons several species with the minimum numbers of each looks nice and the other group prefers large shoals of just a couple of species.

If you really like the platties (enough to sacrifice getting most other fish) you could always set your tank up specifically for them. If your water is naturally too soft, you can try adding crushed coral into your filter, or limestone as a decoration which will increase the hardness of your water. If you do this just make sure you keep testing the water to make sure it remains within acceptable ranges

Have you used the community creator on here? That's how I got some ideas for fish, then checked them out with people on here. Note though it doesn't seem to take into account water parameter requirements so you have to do that bit yourself, from seriously fish / the fish profiles. And by checking on here.
I have CPDs and they are lovely, but I've already lost 3 and only had them a couple of months. Not sure if that's them or the tank (it's water).
My pH is about the same as yours, I have 10 ember tetra and 5CPD and am planning on more fish, maybe a shoal of Pygmy Cory. But my tank is only 55l. You have quite a bit more choice with yours.

Ummm don't do what I did and mistake water hardness for Ph.

I would say your pH is 7.5. The odd point or two doesn't make much difference; you need the ball park figure (slightly alkaline) and to be able to tell if it changes.
Oh, yes, before I forget, is that the pH of tap water you have just run, a glass of tap water that has stood for 24 hours, or tank water?


Your hardness at 16 german deg is 112mg/l Ca and 280mg/l CaCO₃ - just different units for the same hardness. My water company's website has a pretty coloured chart labelled in mg/l Ca which is why I needed to convert it. Hard goes from 80 to 120, so 112 (yours) is near the very hard end of hard.
This means you need to choose your fish carefully, I'm afraid. I'll now head over to your other thread