clinton1621

Well now that I have my tank (30g) back to being good and healthy... I reeeaalllly want some new additions. It has been looking pretty bland to me now. So this is my current setup, along with some possible additions......

Current - 1 Male Flame Gourami, 6 Harlequin Rasboras, 3 Otos, 2 Panda Corys

Possible additions - 6 Cardinals or 6 Black Neons, 4 more Cory Cats, and possibly either 6 Hatchetfish or 6 guppies

I really should know this.... but can you mix different types of Cory Cats together in a school? I'm thinking 2 each of 3 different types.

Steen16

i have so i ges its ok lol

RandomKayos

Yes, Corys are like Danios and Tetras, they don't much care what color thier friends are, more interest in thier shape and where they swim.

Hmmm, that could be said for some other species I know.

RK

SkyCrystal

If I were you, I'd probably go for 6 Cardinal Tetra's or the Marble Hatchetfish, but really, I think anything you listed would go well with what you currently have. I hope this helps!

Blub

I think it would be best to add 4 more corys and leave it at that.

clinton1621

Thanks for all the suggestions =)

I ended up getting 2 albino corys, 2 julii leopard corys, and 5 black phantom tetras (2 males and 3 females)

I wasnt really planning on getting the tetras, but I decided I wanted to get something other than plain schooling fish like the neons.

cognizant

Pictures of the new additions? You know how much we love pictures of the fishies....

clinton1621

I'll get some soon lol, they are acclimating at the moment since I literally just bought them about 30 minutes ago

clinton1621

Well, I tried to get some pics... but the couple I did get were blurry, and then my batteries died lol.

clinton1621

Some good and not so good updates...

My Flame Gourami thought it would be a good idea to kill all the black phantom tetras... fortunately I already had a friend who wanted him, so there was no homicide in my tank lol.

I am actually quite pleased with the outcome though, the tetras and the rasboras seem to be in love with each other... they now school together and the rasboras actually seem much happier without the gourami. I'm still surprised that they are schooling together though considering they are entirely different species, but it definitely makes the tank seem much more active, which is what I wanted so I am definitely happy and not complaining =)

The corys all seem great together, they all pair off with their own breed, but they still hang out with the other ones. The albinos are now my favorite, they are tiny (about as big as my thumbnail including fins) and they stand out very well in the tank. One of the julii leopards had me worried when I first added him, he was staying at the top or hiding... but now he is out and about with his other leopard buddy and acting just fine.

So all in all, I am very pleased with the final setup and improved activity, even though I had to lose my last remaining Gourami in the process.

RandomKayos

Glad to hear it's going well. I always liked Gourami's but always found them agressive. If I am thinking correctly, your barbs are about the same body shape as the tetra's. If so it's not suprising that they might tend to spend time together. And to add to it, the coloring should be simular.

As for the albino cory's I love them, and I also prefer to keep a couple albino with Julii's if I can get the Julii's. Mostly false Julii's available here. All in all I'd say you have a good mix going and I hope it stays stable for you. From all indications it should.

RK

clinton1621

Are rasboras related to barbs? I actually didnt know that if they are lol. The black phantoms are somewhat similar in shape... the rasboras are definitely much fatter and not quite as tall as the tetras though. Oh, and the coloring is way different, the black phantoms are grayish silver with black fins (or red fins depending on sex) while the harlequin rasboras are more of a bright orange-rust color.

RandomKayos

LOL, I'm tired. Rasboras and barbs are two different critters. For some reason I've always mentaly put harlquins in the barb group. Thought barb was a nick name for Rasboras and just generaly confused myself. But considering the scientific community has the same problem I don't feel to bad. Look what happened with the Galaxy....whatever, First it was a new class, then it was a Rasbora and now it's a Danio.

Anyway, I just took a minute to pull up references on the Harlequin Ras and Black phan and yep, color is very different, body shape is about right though for schooling. At least enough for the small schoos to want to merge. What I have noticed is that size and body shape seems most improtant in a school. The thing with small mixed schools is what fish the rest are keying off. In mixed schools there is usually one domanate from each species and as long as they work off each other the school stays together. It's when the domonates take different courses that the schools split and generally split along the species lines because the less dominates are paying attention to 'their' leader. Arg, again i'm on a kick. Going to be a long night I can tell.

RK

clinton1621

Lol, I dont blame you for the rasbora / barb mix up, they are quite similar in some aspects and I wasnt really sure either. I knew they were related to something though... its in the same class as goldfish and danios, kind of odd lol. I went and looked at them again, and the actual body shape, minus the fins, is almost identical like you said. I also forgot that they both have the black spots on their sides that are lined with a neon stripe. I bet that really confuses the heck out of them!

EDIT: Speaking of mix ups lol... I thought the black phantoms with the red on their fins were males, turns out those are the females! So I actually ended up with 2 females and 3 males

RandomKayos

hehe, sounds like some lucky girls, in that tank. They get the choice for a change. It's nice to know they mix well too. I've been wanting a new tank with all Tetra's and I've thought about the harliquins being in there, completely not thinking of them as rasbora. But the good thing I guess is that I just don't have the room right now for anymore big tanks. And I'm having a ball with my garden now that I've got fish out there.

As for the male/female issue, I did that back in the day with convicts. Kepts getting the gender mixed up. Fortunatly they tend to pair off so even if wrong you still got one of each.

RK

clinton1621

Yeah, this is really the first time I've tried to keep the larger tetras, I've always had either cardinals, neons, or black neons. So I was a little worried about them getting along with the harlequins, but they seem like a great match.

I only say "really the first time" because I bought some serpae tetras once and they were quickly murdered by my angelfish... another one of those trial and error learning sessions lol!

clinton1621

Thanks for bringing that up, I actually didnt know there were false juliis... another mix up lol. I looked them up and guess what... mine are not the true julii either, they are the false julii. Oh well, from what little difference I saw in the pictures I found, I actually like the false juliis better.

RandomKayos

Frankly I like all cory's. And it is very different to tell one species from another sometimes because the difference is so slight. And variations within the species can produce almost identical fish to the eye. Most often the differrence is internal anyway. I figure that as long as you like your fish it really don't matter in the long run.