Help me set up a tank with hardy "transparent" fish!

Happy Friday everyone! Now that our fist aquarium is up and running, I'd like to get a second one. (How many of you said that would happen?! lol) Anyway, I'll lay out my thoughts and hopefully people will have suggestions for us that meet our criteria!

My son (9) is fascinated by what he calls "clear" fish that he has seen at the store. We have seen scissor tail raspboras, pearl danios, diamond & pristella tetras, glow light tetras, and glass bloodfin tetras. I am not sure which ones you can actually see through, vs which ones may just be pale with darker markings that make them look like you are seeing organs inside. (We saw some glass catfish that were definitely see through, but I don't think they are quite as hardy.)

We are open to a 10 or 20 gallon tank, wanting a "transparent-ish" schooling fish that will be lively for him to study and good for beginners because we still are!

In an IDEAL world I would also love something that didn't need a heater and that liked hard water too. (In my 2 months of having fish, we have already experienced major heater woes and our tap water has a gh of 22.) Likely not possible, just throwing it out there!

Thoughts, ideas or suggestions?! Can't wait to hear your input!

 

Hatchet fish maybe in a 20. Diamond tetras in a group are very active. I have a dozen or more in a 75.

Not sure of your heater issues but recently I've been switching over to Hygger heaters. I have a 100W Tiny Titan in a couple 10's and they're rated up to a 20. I have a larger 300W one in a 55. Very nice units with built in thermometers.

I've also had decent luck with Eheim Jager, Aquatop, and Marineland adjustable heaters. I've lost several Aqueon preset heaters - lasted under 2 years which to me is very poor performance....I still have a couple original glass heaters from the 80's that work perfectly fine so that's my benchmark for good.

 

Happy Friday everyone! Now that our fist aquarium is up and running, I'd like to get a second one. (How many of you said that would happen?! lol) Anyway, I'll lay out my thoughts and hopefully people will have suggestions for us that meet our criteria!

My son (9) is fascinated by what he calls "clear" fish that he has seen at the store. We have seen scissor tail raspboras, pearl danios, diamond & pristella tetras, glow light tetras, and glass bloodfin tetras. I am not sure which ones you can actually see through, vs which ones may just be pale with darker markings that make them look like you are seeing organs inside. (We saw some glass catfish that were definitely see through, but I don't think they are quite as hardy.)

We are open to a 10 or 20 gallon tank, wanting a "transparent-ish" schooling fish that will be lively for him to study and good for beginners because we still are!

In an IDEAL world I would also love something that didn't need a heater and that liked hard water too. (In my 2 months of having fish, we have already experienced major heater woes and our tap water has a gh of 22.) Likely not possible, just throwing it out there!

Thoughts, ideas or suggestions?! Can't wait to hear your input!

The glow-lights are probably the least transparent of all those fish. Pristellas definitely a more trabsparent one, also called x-ray tetras for that reason.

 

Pristella would be great! I have very hard water and have kept that at room temperature. We keep generally keep our house at 73, but it fluctuates in summer and winter from 68 to 80. The pristella did fine. They are more of loose shaker once they are settled in, but very fun to watch. Go with the 20 gallon and get 6-8 of those and 6-8 Panda corys.

*Err, I guess I should probably ask what temp you keep the house though.
Shoaler not shaker, autocorrect messed that one up. Lol!
From what I have heard about hatchet fish, they are avid jumpers and are easily startled. They can and will jump out of the tiniest of wholes in the lid. I wouldn't recommend them to child who probably will like to have the lid open and slowly feed his fish. It's devastating to loose a fish...even more so for a child when his fishy sails out when he opens the lid. They also aren't as forgiving as many other fish to unstable parameters, and are more prone to ick than other species. Just my opinion, but I wouldn't recommend to a newbie or child. The pristella are far less skittish and mine would come right up to the front of the tank to check me out.
I forgot to mention ghost shrimp might work and even a white mystery snail. If the lighting is right, i can see my white snail's heart beat and see it's digestive tract when I give it algae pellets or blood worms.

 

Hatchet fish maybe in a 20. Diamond tetras in a group are very active. I have a dozen or more in a 75.

Not sure of your heater issues but recently I've been switching over to Hygger heaters. I have a 100W Tiny Titan in a couple 10's and they're rated up to a 20. I have a larger 300W one in a 55. Very nice units with built in thermometers.

I've also had decent luck with Eheim Jager, Aquatop, and Marineland adjustable heaters. I've lost several Aqueon preset heaters - lasted under 2 years which to me is very poor performance....I still have a couple original glass heaters from the 80's that work perfectly fine so that's my benchmark for good.

Thanks for the heater advice, I might try the Hygger... just had a look and they do look very nice indeed. My worst issue so far was a 76-78F preset by Fluval that didn't shut off and kept heating well into the 80's. Caught it in time, and the company replaced it, but now I'm paranoid and have an inkbird external controller in place. Ironically, the replacement that they sent wouldn't even get the tank up to 75. I've been searching for good heaters, but every one I find on Amazon...even ones with good ratings...seem to have pictures of them exploding or melting... hoping those exceptions are in large part user error! Interesting that your trouble was with presets too, definitely think adjustable must be better.

I've also noticed that both my snail and betta go on the heater we have now, safely because it has a protective plastic cover and I am worried that if I go to a glass exposed model, they'll burn themselves. They aren't the brightest lol!

The glow-lights are probably the least transparent of all those fish. Pristellas definitely a more trabsparent one, also called x-ray tetras for that reason.

Ahhh!! I didn't realize they were also called x-rays! That's awesome! And perfect for us!

Pristella would be great! I have very hard water and have kept that at room temperature. We keep generally keep our house at 73, but it fluctuates in summer and winter from 68 to 80. The pristella did fine. They are more of loose shaker once they are settled in, but very fun to watch. Go with the 20 gallon and get 6-8 of those and 6-8 Panda corys.

*Err, I guess I should probably ask what temp you keep the house though.
Shoaler not shaker, autocorrect messed that one up. Lol!
From what I have heard about hatchet fish, they are avid jumpers and are easily startled. They can and will jump out of the tiniest of wholes in the lid. I wouldn't recommend them to child who probably will like to have the lid open and slowly feed his fish. It's devastating to loose a fish...even more so for a child when his fishy sails out when he opens the lid. They also aren't as forgiving as many other fish to unstable parameters, and are more prone to ick than other species. Just my opinion, but I wouldn't recommend to a newbie or child. The pristella are far less skittish and mine would come right up to the front of the tank to check me out.
I forgot to mention ghost shrimp might work and even a white mystery snail. If the lighting is right, i can see my white snail's heart beat and see it's digestive tract when I give it algae pellets or blood worms.

Hi Janice1979! That's just amazing about the white snail!! We have to find one for sure!! We kept garden/land snails for several years in a makeshift terrarium, so already really love snails.

Our house temp... we live in Ontario and the house can go down to 62 overnight in the dead of winter, and up to 75 in the summer, but we do tend to try and keep it around 68 during the day in the winter.

Jumping would be bad for sure... thanks for pointing that out. I think the Pristella is sounding like the right choice for us!!

 

Glass catfish are a great addition to the tank, actually to my surprise they are quite hardy i have a some in my 65-gal aquarium and do they good with other fish they are quite skittish though around bigger fish but do pretty good. They need to be kept in groups though and most of the time they will be near the surface of the water and like to stay in a current usually all in a group.

 

There's Danionella Dracula (Dracula fish) stay small at a half inch, do well with Microdevario kubotai (green neon rasboras) and Trochilocharax ornatus (hummingbird tetra) all of which are "transparent" fish and under 1" in length.

Something like this can work like in a 20g and small groups of each, the green neon (greenish) and hummingbird tetra (purplish and yellow) have some color and still see thru while the Dracula fish is basically clear.
All like lower light and kind of heavy planted tanks with hidey spots in the shadows to retreat to.

 

An ideal transparent fish would be the mountain crystal tetra also called pi tetra, it’s pi shaped swim bladder is completely visible. They are apparently quite hardy and easy to keep, though like many tetras, would prefer softer water.

 

Danionella dracula, hummingbird tetras, and pi tetras are all pretty uncommon in the hobby, unless I'm mistaken. Probably not fish that would be easy to source. Also, IME fish that are more skittish and like to hide aren't going to be any fun for a younger child. Kids are great at sudden movements that scare your fish into hiding...and their favorite thing is watching the fish come right up to the top when they feed them.
My nephew (9 yrs old at that time) begged me to get kuhlis because he loves eels and thought they looked like them. He was really upset when he found out that they would hide whenever he came bouncing up to the tank and they wouldn't come back out. He wasn't so interested in slipping in slowly and being still near the tank so he could see them either.

 

Pi tetras crop up fairly often here, not hummingbird tetras though. Pi tetras don't seem to be particularly shy, but my main concern would be the hard water. Parambassis ranga, the Indian glass fish is another transparent one that might do better in rather harder water, but I have never seen it for sale and it probably gets too big for the tank in question

 

My newest addition to one of my 30 gallon tanks are glass catfish. My tank is heavily planted which a must with them. I have a large school of them as they are the only fish species in the tank but I would not really recommend them because they are extremely skiddish and I am not sure a child would have enjoyment from them because of that. I recommend X-ray tetras (pristella tetras).

 

I would go straight for the Glass Catfish. Nothing else comes close.

I also kept Three Striped African Glass Catfish Pareutropius buffei and I really enjoyed keeping those. They are transparent with three dark lines.

I'd recommend not forcing them to compete with more boisterous fish. I kept them with Corydoras, Whiptails and other relatively gentle species. But I altered the tank for their specific needs.

 

That ticks all the boxes.

 

That ticks all the boxes.

It sure does! We used to have a lovely dog named Casper too, so it seems quite appropos! Is that some sort of a fish/aquatics magazine?

 

Laboratory supply co. Carolina Science.

 

The Casper fish does look really neat it reminds me of the blushing tetra which I see often at big box stores and local fish stores alike