Please recommend small fish that are calm

[hencpu]

Can anyone please recommend fish with the following criterias?
- less than 2"
- orange or yellow color
- invert/plant safe
- calm/slow swimmer

My tiny planted tank is 40x25x28cm, PH 7.2. At the moment I got 5x CPD, 4x P. Furcatus, some shrimps & nerites
The CPDs are extremely shy, keep hiding behind plants.
While the Furcatus are way too fast, zooming here & there, make me feel stress looking at them, lol. I think I might give them away.

What I have in mind at the moment are:
- Golden WCMM
- P. Gertrudae
- Sunset Platy

Are the above calm/slow swimmer?

Thanks in advanced

[lucasjiang]

Yes, the fish you have in mind dont swim really fast, maybe except for p. gertrudae during mock fights between males, or when the males are chasing the females, then you will see some dashing. However, i believe that almost all fishes (except for oto) will snack on shrimplets, hence they are not totally shrimp safe.

[limz_777]

whats golden wcmm ?

gertrudae behaviour is the same furcatus

platy i find is mid range


maybe you might want to look into schooling fishes

[hencpu]

Yes, the fish you have in mind dont swim really fast, maybe except for p. gertrudae during mock fights between males, or when the males are chasing the females, then you will see some dashing. However, i believe that almost all fishes (except for oto) will snack on shrimplets, hence they are not totally shrimp safe.

Thanks, lucasjiang. Guess I can't do anything on them snaking on shrimplets, as long as they dont snack on the adults

[hencpu]

whats golden wcmm ?

gertrudae behaviour is the same furcatus

platy i find is mid range


maybe you might want to look into schooling fishes

Golden WCMM, the albino/golden variety of White Cloud Mountain Minnows.

Ok, thanks for the tips on gertrudae.

[shrimppaste]

There are quite a lot. Scarlet Badis almost always just hover, pencilfishes are nice. Small corys maybe? Hastatus or pygmaeus. I think I saw pygmaeus at C328 earlier. Boraras Brigittae are very small and nice.

[morning breakfast eat]

How abt red? ember tetras?

[stormhawk]

With that pH, I think your best bet are some Endlers. I have no idea if they will attack your shrimps but with enough hiding spaces, shouldn't be a big problem, especially since they don't really grow that big in size. Slow swimmer, maybe you can try some hatchetfish. They're not exactly fast moving and should not go for your shrimp.

[hencpu]

There are quite a lot. Scarlet Badis almost always just hover, pencilfishes are nice. Small corys maybe? Hastatus or pygmaeus. I think I saw pygmaeus at C328 earlier. Boraras Brigittae are very small and nice.

Thanks shrimppaste, not planning to get the Cory or Boraras. But the Scarlet Badis looks nice. Are they available easily in most LFS? I think I might have confused them with Cichilds.

[hencpu]

How abt red? ember tetras?

Thanks, I will look into them.

[hencpu]

With that pH, I think your best bet are some Endlers. I have no idea if they will attack your shrimps but with enough hiding spaces, shouldn't be a big problem, especially since they don't really grow that big in size. Slow swimmer, maybe you can try some hatchetfish. They're not exactly fast moving and should not go for your shrimp.

I'm afraid Hatchetfish is not suitable, since I'm not planning to cover my tank. Endlers wise, the colors a bit funky But thanks for the suggestion.

[stormhawk]

There's another livebearer that you can try - Micropoecilia parae. There's two forms that will suit your needs, one being orange-red and the other being yellow. Occasionally see them at C328 but not very often.

[hencpu]

There's another livebearer that you can try - Micropoecilia parae. There's two forms that will suit your needs, one being orange-red and the other being yellow. Occasionally see them at C328 but not very often.

Thanks for the tip, stormhawk. But I went to C328 this evening & I couldn't seem to find them.

Anyway, I've already got 2x juvies DP, 5x CPD, 5x albino WCMM at the moment, so probly left very little room for schooling fish.
Thinking of getting a pair of Dario Dario or P.Gertrudae. So far I've tried GC, Polyart, C328 & East Ocean, but couldn't find any of them. Hmmm

[stormhawk]

I was there just now too, they didn't have Micropoecilia parae, but still had males of Micropoecilia picta. Anyway, those in the small tank looked stressed out. Dario dario not advisable because they don't seem to take dry foods like pellets etc. P. gertrudae, I didn't see them anywhere either but others have said Seaview has them. I too agree your tank probably not enough space for any more fish so I think the current fauna is sufficient.

[hencpu]

Do Dario take frozen bloodworms? Because i do feed my fish pellets & frozen BW on alternate days, since my DP only eat frozen BW.

Yeah, I'm pretty happy with my current stocking. Although I'd really love to have P.Gertrudae or sunset Platy to brighten up the tank. Its strange that GC has Furcatus, Red Neon & Ivantsoffi, but not Gertrudae.

[stormhawk]

Their mouths are quite small so you might have to chop up the FBW for them to eat. They are attracted to live food, not so much dried or frozen foods. May eat frozen Daphnia or BBS, but this one is no guarantee.

Not all shops will have Ps. gertrudae. In fact it has been months since I saw any gertrudae at C328. I didn't even see Ps. furcatus the past few times until recently. Even that batch almost sold out from the tank.

[hencpu]

Oh, ok then. Will take note of that, thanks. Yeah, when I got my Furcatus at C328, the tank was quite full of it. Then the next few days I went, they were all gone.

Guess I'll wait for the Gertrudae to appear one day, lol.

[lucasjiang]

Oh, ok then. Will take note of that, thanks. Yeah, when I got my Furcatus at C328, the tank was quite full of it. Then the next few days I went, they were all gone.

Guess I'll wait for the Gertrudae to appear one day, lol.

You should be able to get furcatus and gertrudae at seaview. When i went, there was a tankful of furcatus. Although they had only a few gertrudae there, i think they dont display all their stock in the tank.

[hencpu]

You should be able to get furcatus and gertrudae at seaview. When i went, there was a tankful of furcatus. Although they had only a few gertrudae there, i think they dont display all their stock in the tank.

Unfortunately Seaview a bit far for me since have to go all the way there just to get 2 or 3 gertrudae. But thanks for the tips.

[tetrakid]

Maybe one of these days you can try keeping a group of RED EYE BALLOON Tetra on their own in a nano tank. But they may not be colourful enough for you.

These Balloons are simple fish which are undemanding and easy to feed. Their silver sheen and prominent red eyes are nice. And unlike other Tetras, which are almost impossible to catch with a net, these little chappies are easy to net. There are two types, namely normal Red Eye Tetra, and Balloon Red Eye Tetra. The balloon version is rounder in shape.