Endlers vs Green Neons vs Chili Rasboras

[Cole23]

A little over two months ago I got my Fluval Flex out of my closet and set it back up. I started out with guppies which my wife said she was disappointed with, I was too a little. So I gave those to a friend of mine. Earlier this week I had a halfmoon betta arrive and my amano shrimp killed it within 3 hours of adding it to my tank. So this is gonna be my third time trying to stock this tank this time around. I’m interested in adding a decent number of a single species of one of these 3 fish, endlers, green neon tetras, or chili rasboras.

Fluval Flex 15 gallon (Fully cycled)

Current Stocking: 1 mystery snail, 2 nerite snails, 1 bamboo shrimp, and 5 large amano shrimp

pH - 7.5
Temperature - 78 degrees

I asked a question similar to this last year. But which of those 3 fish would you add, why and how many of them would you add? Here’s a picture of my tank, it doesn’t look good compared to some of your all’s tanks but hopefully I’ll get better at plant keeping and make it look better over time. Thanks!

 

[CrackerboxPalace]

totally personal preference, but chilli rasboras are my favourite from that bunch. I’d get around 12 maximum. if you were disappointed by guppies you might be let down by endlers too.

 

[Cody]

Another suggestion would be Ember Tetras.

But for the 3 listed I would go with Chilu Rasboras. Very unique and not super common in every tank. I am a fan of wild green tetras but I think because they so closely resemble neons and cardinals that they aren’t as interesting, personally.

There are a lot of cool varieties of Endlers but they don’t give you as nice of a schooling affect as the others will. So I agree you will be disappointed with theses the same as you were with the guppies.

I would say to do a school of 10-12 in that tank.

 

[awilkinson871]

I think the color of the chilis would look great in that tank. Green neons would look best in a tank with a dark background. Endlers are livebearers so they just seem to overpopulate too quickly.

 

[Cole23]

totally personal preference, but chilli rasboras are my favourite from that bunch. I’d get around 12 maximum. if you were disappointed by guppies you might be let down by endlers too.

I’ve never had chili rasboras but everyone seems to love them on here, I might try them out, thanks! And I should have specified I actually love guppies but I was disappointed with the lack of color variety from the male assortment I ordered. Also my amanos just killed my halfmoon betta so I decided not to go with guppies again because I was worried about the amanos catching their tail fins like they did with my betta. Also I wanted something with a smaller bioload than guppies, given I’ve never kept chili rasboras but I’m assuming they have a small bioload.

Another suggestion would be Ember Tetras.

But for the 3 listed I would go with Chilu Rasboras. Very unique and not super common in every tank. I am a fan of wild green tetras but I think because they so closely resemble neons and cardinals that they aren’t as interesting, personally.

There are a lot of cool varieties of Endlers but they don’t give you as nice of a schooling affect as the others will. So I agree you will be disappointed with theses the same as you were with the guppies.

I would say to do a school of 10-12 in that tank.

I actually had ember tetras on my list but I was worried that their color wouldn’t be as noticeable in my tank as the chili rasbora or green neons. I had also read from different posts on here that embers sit a lot and don’t swim around as much as chili rasboras, and I like an active tank. Is it true that embers aren’t as active as chilis or green neons?

I think the color of the chilis would look great in that tank. Green neons would look best in a tank with a dark background. Endlers are livebearers so they just seem to overpopulate too quickly.

I was a little worried about the green neons on a white background. If I did go with endlers I was going to get all males so they wouldn’t breed, should have mentioned that, sorry!

 

[Cody]

I have not personally owned chili rasboras. Green neons and embers have been active in my experience especially in a bigger school. I think both the green neons and the embers may drown out a little with the white background. The embers you will see but there won’t be as huge of a contrast. The green neons I find you only really notice the bright bluish green streak, I think the rest of them would drown out in the background.

At least with the Chili’s you would have the black coloration that would pop a little. Galaxy Rasbora/celestial Pear Danio. Would be a cool option too for the light background!

 

[Cole23]

I have not personally owned chili rasboras. Green neons and embers have been active in my experience especially in a bigger school. I think both the green neons and the embers may drown out a little with the white background. The embers you will see but there won’t be as huge of a contrast. The green neons I find you only really notice the bright bluish green streak, I think the rest of them would drown out in the background.

At least with the Chili’s you would have the black coloration that would pop a little. Galaxy Rasbora/celestial Pear Danio. Would be a cool option too for the light background!

Good to know! I considered CPD’s but I read they were really shy, also I have a preset 78 degree heater in my tank right now because I planned on having a betta and I thought that would be a little warm for CPD’s. I have a couple other adjustable heaters somewhere I could use but they’ve been sitting for a year and I didn’t know if that affected their reliability.
Can anyone tell me the differences in bioload between fish like the ember tetra, chili rasbora, green neon tetra, and endlers? Or are their bioloads all very similar?

 

[AP1]

Just reading this, but how did no one else comment on this whole amano shrimp killing a Betta thing? I'm guessing those are not actually amano shrimp?

 

[CrackerboxPalace]

Just reading this, but how did no one else comment on this whole amano shrimp killing a Betta thing? I'm guessing those are not actually amano shrimp?

That’s true. my guess would be that the betta died and the amano shrimp was having a snack afterwards. Amano shrimp can’t and don’t need to take down a betta.

Still, it’s strange that the betta died within three hours.

 

[AP1]

Yes, you are probably right about the Amanos only going at it after it had died, makes more sense then the Amanos being something else...