Neon Tetras - Will Fewer Than 6 Get Lonely?

I'm sorry to say but 14 litres is too small for any neons. They must have a tank with a footprint of at least 60 x 30 cm.

There are very few fish that are suitable for 14 litres. The only one I can think of at the moment is a betta, though it is really a bit small for even a betta which needs 19 litres minimum.
It would make an excellent shrimp tank though, especially if it was planted with live plants as well.

Shrimp are lovely. 

Sorry, I must be one of the few people in the world who can't abide shrimps.  All those wiggly legs are just like insects/spiders! Ugh!

And, as I have been an avid gardener for the past 40 years, anything with the name 'snail' in it makes me instantly hate it! LOL

Bettas just don't make me smile.  Isn't there anything else? Or am I going to be looking at a planted tank?

Good call @TopCookie
One dwarf puffer could go into your tank @ros77uk and they are so adorable. What is your water hardness?
http://www.seriouslyfish.com/species/carinotetraodon-travancoricus/

Seriously fish suggest larger tank sizes for some of the other fish in the clip, but you could have 1 dwarf puffer in your tank. They are very inquisitive fish, so you'd have to put things in the tank for it to explore (plants, caves, etc.), they are an absolute devil for coming to the front of the tank and begging for food, and their cute little faces are difficult to resist - as you may be able to tell, I do have dwarf puffers. 

I did enjoy looking at the clip about nano fish; thank you so much for it.  If nothing else, it was encouraging to think that there are tiny fish out there!

The CC on here says I can have 4-6 salt-and-pepper cories (love 'em already!).  I was thinking of the chili rasbora, but unfortunately that is not a fish in the CC's database.  Is there an equivalent in the database that I could use to make a community comparison with?

I was even contemplating getting a 16 litre tank instead (read: as well as, MTS!) which has a length of 35.5 cm. 

The closest I can come to the neon tetra is arriving today - a background poster with a shoal of them!

I'm afraid both the salt & pepper cories and the chili rasboras need a bigger tank.

16 litres is no better than a 14 litre in terms of fish you can keep. If you got a 25 litre tank a betta would be suitable provided you do not have hard water. But a 40-ish litre tank would mean you could keep fish like cories and chili rasboras.

Most small shoaling fish are wild caught which means they must have water in the middle of the hardness and pH range as given on Seriously Fish. Commercially raised fish can cope with water slightly outside these parameters but wild caught fish cannot. All species of Boraras need soft water.

The problem with the CC is that it's a bit out of date. This is the current version of the forum; there was another before this but it was lost when the then owner was given a week's notice to find a new host. I joined the old forum in 2006, and all the fish profiles had been written before that. You will find in older books that recommended tank sizes were smaller in years gone by, and I'm afraid some entries in the fish profiles on here still use those older recommendations.
The other problem is that we now know that the three dwarf cory species need groups of at least 10 to do well, and a 30 cm long tank doesn't have enough floor space for 10 cories.

Scarlet badis again need a 45 x 30 cm tank. I've often fancied these fish myself but their need for live food always put me off. And the fact that a lot of shops only sell males.



Do you have soft water, hard water or middling water? That info should be somewhere on your water company's website. If you can't find it, tell us the name of the company and we;ll see if we can find where they hide it.

If you have soft to middling water, I would suggest a male betta (siamese fighting fish). If you have hard water, one pea puffer.
With both these fish, get live plants. They don't have to be anything fancy - java fern or anubias attached to wood would work nicely. And with a betta, some form of floating plant. I have just put some Brazilian pennywort in my tank and left it to float. My new betta likes swimming through the stems.

It feels like I'm being pushed by some sites towards building an aviary, when all I want is one budgie.
why can't I keep a maximum 2" fish (like the sparkling gourami) - just one, no other fish at all, just plants?

Fish, not kept in line with what both research and experience reveal to be basic requirements, tend to succumb to an early demise. As pet/fish owners, we are responsible for doing the research and ensuring that we meet their needs. You'll see from the Seriously Fish website that sparkling gourami need a 45x30cm-footprint tank and need to be kept in at least a pair or trio - these figures and this information doesn't translate through to keeping fewer in a smaller tank.

When I first started tropical fishkeeping, I had a look round the LFS and had my heart set on certain fish. It was only through research on sites such as and especially this one that I realised that the fish I wanted would not have been at all suitable for my soft water or my small tank size. This was quite a disappointment and took a week or two to get used to. I also realised that what I wanted had to come secondary to what the fish required and I had to find what would be compatible with what I could provide. I was soon, and remain, extremely happy with my tank and its inhabitants - I would love more, and frequently go through "broody phases" for more, but know it would not be fair on the fish to over-stock the tank.

Thanks @Sue that's very kind of you.

@fcmf when I first started I had my heart set on certain fish, only to find out that they were only suitable for soft water conditions, which is certainly not what I have. I'm still very partial to the rummy nose tetra, and can't help myself from stopping to have a look at the at the LFS. 

I wish that I had your water. 
Mine is much harder, at 17 degrees German, and causes me all sorts of problems, from limescale in the kettle to hard water marks on the glass of my tanks.
As this relates to the fish discussed earlier in the thread:-

It's fine for a dwarf puffer, which has a range of 5-25 degrees german.
http://www.seriouslyfish.com/species/carinotetraodon-travancoricus/
https://www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/features/articles/how-to-keep-dwarf-puffer-fish
http://www.aquariadise.com/spotlight-dwarf-puffer/
If you look at the Seriously Fish link an adult dwarf puffer really is only around the size of the one in the picture, they are tiny. They are carnivores, so something like frozen bloodworm (comes in cubes, defrost as required) is perfect, and they actually eat is a bit like the spaghetti scene in Lady and the Tramp. Although they are a very active fish, always on the go, they are not fast swimmers, and I tend to think of their style as "general pottering around", although my favourite is in an article that I can't find at the moment, where it is described as having the swimming style of "an inebriated cow". They are fine as a single fish, active, inquisitive, and adorably cute. They will never jump out of the water and go for your fingers, they have neither the body shape nor fin size for those sorts of antics, their tactic for extra food is to look at you with their big eyes and wait until you cave in.

Your water is also suitable for a betta,
https://www.seriouslyfish.com/species/betta-splendens/
https://www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/news2014/guidelines-released-for-keeping-fighters
https://bettafish.org/care/
I note that earlier in the thread you have said that they just don't make you smile. Everyone has their own preferences with fish. Some don't like surface feeders (like the betta) because their mouths turn down (easier to feed at the surface), which makes them look grumpy. There are so many different types of betta, so you might want to have a look online to see if there is a style/colour that you do like. Due to the size of your tank I would recommend looking at the plakat bettas, which have shorter fins. Bettas with the really huge fins are beautiful, though can sometimes find swimming/maneuvering a bit more tricky. I have 2 betta tanks. These fish are very bright, and they also interact with their keepers, beg for food, etc. and also enjoy exploring their tank.

I have both shrimp and snails, and completely understand what you have said about them (I'm also a keen gardener). We will keep searching to see if there is anything else that may be suitable for your tank, but I'm not holding out much hope for finding anything else that would be generally available within the aquatics trade.