Poll: which new fish for my nano tank?

[LuminousAphid]

Hello,
I have what I would call a "nano" tank (3 gallons or so) that I got at a thrift store, and have recently set it up in my room (because the 10 gallon which was there sprung a leak). I have been slowly setting it up with a few fishes, but I think it would still use something to give it a little more interest.

Right now, in this tank:
1 large blue mystery snail (might take him out)
9 Corydoras pygmaeus
1 longfin albino bristlenose pleco (s/he's a baby, I will move him whenever needed)

Here are the Cories having fun


I would like to add one more species to this tank, preferably something which could inhabit the middle parts of the tank and add a little more interest. Something colorful would be ideal. I'm leaning toward something shrimpy, who could crawl around on the manzanita wood, but the prices for many of those are a bit steep for me at the moment. I'm also considering neon greeen raspboras, as Aquarium Co-Op has them right now, but I just came across the "mosquito rasbora" which is absolutely stunning. I have seen some awesome killies around, so if anyone knows a good source of some small, colorful killies, that would be the best.

I wouldn't be opposed to doing a little planting either, if a species really needed/liked it, although that would further limit the space.

are pea puffers agressive? Those might be cool, and I could move the cories to my 20gal

Also, any suggestions for PAIRS of larger fish that would do ok in a small aquarium (killies again?)

Take the poll, and respond with your suggestions. Properly stocking a smaller tank is much harder than I thought it would be

 

[lloyd378]

I'd go puffers all the way. I have always wanted one. I love the way the scoot around the tank.

 

[Madness]

I think a beautiful pair of Killies in that tank would look amazing once all the plants and grass grow. (assuming you have the plants and grass in your plans. )

 

[LuminousAphid]

I think a beautiful pair of Killies in that tank would look amazing once all the plants and grass grow. (assuming you have the plants and grass in your plans. )

I don't know, I have recently gotten into the planted tank, but there is something to be said for the simplicity of hardscape....

I think what I will do, is cut a runner off my greenhouse val and stick it in here, see if it actually grows. I don't have a great light for this tank, it's just a little display LED that came with it, so I don't know how well plants will do.

I'd go puffers all the way. I have always wanted one. I love the way the scoot around the tank.

They would be awesome, but I need to look into whether they would be aggressive to my little cories

 

[Madness]

OK, I have an idea. Bag the Killies and the Puffers. Add some nice looking tetra, something small and active like that, and then pick yourself up say 6 rarer Corys, and try and breed them. I have always wanted to get me a colony of the Lazer Greens or Lazer Orange.

 

[LuminousAphid]

This is only a 3 gallon tank, about 1ft cube... That's why I'm looking for extremely small species to add. Not that I don't appreciate the feedback, I do. But I'm not really at the stage where I'm looking into breeding yet, still mastering the basics pretty much. Plus, I think I would need a much bigger area for full-sized cories to breed.

The ones I have in there are corydoras pygmaeus, and these are only about 5/8 of an inch long. That pic may have made you think those were normal sized cories, but they are tiny

 

[Madness]

Thanks for bursting my bubble. Then what are you waiting for, get a larger tank, and do that. :joker:  Do you need some MTS injections? Your not moving fast enough.... :joker: 

 

[LuminousAphid]

Well, I'm in slow-mo right now because I am out of a job, but once I fix that I shall be getting at least one more tank.

I do have a way to earn store credit, so that's mostly how I have been surviving lately

 

[DMD123]

I voted pea puffer. They are so cool!

 

[LuminousAphid]

I voted pea puffer. They are so cool!

Do you know if they are aggressive toward lots of other fish? i heard somewhere you want a species tank for them, not sure why...

 

[DMD123]

They can nip fins and they may eat other small inhabitants. Best as species only from my research.

 

[Anonymous]

I voted pea puffer. They are so cool!

Do you know if they are aggressive toward lots of other fish? i heard somewhere you want a species tank for them, not sure why...

That only depends on the individual puffer. I have had 4 all in 35 gal planted. No nips only food aggression towards each other. Not enough snails. One died got suck in the inlet of canister filter and gave one to Gryphon. Now only have 2. Still having issues with food (snails). Good luck.

 

[DMD123]

With a 35g there would be tons of room. I just realized the OP was talking 3 gallons, so really only one puffer and then lots of work to keep water parameters up to snuff. (Should be a bit bigger....)

 

[LuminousAphid]

So, I have decided to do a little bit of planting in this tank, I have some vallisneria which has been chaining off babies like crazy so I cut 3 off and put them in here. I will see how they grow under low light.

I think I am going to take the big mystery snail out of this tank and put it in my 10 or 20 gallon, it is just too big and needs too much food (and makes too much poop, it's like a dumptruck when it *****) for that tiny tank.

I can't decide which to put him in, but that leaves me with just the 9 pygmy cories now. I'm leaning toward a pair of killies if I can find them, since the cories seem to be a decent cleanup crew... I dunno

 

[pbmax]

I'm going to be the wet rag again. :|  I think 9 pygmy corys have your 3g tank absolutely slammed. They may be 5/8" right now, but they'll grow to 1" and that's a lot of fish for such a small tank.

I think it was an excellent decision to remove the mystery snail - they're a lot of bio load and are tough to keep in tanks smaller than 10g (in my experience).

If you add anything at all, add shrimp. They'll keep the tank clean and they don't require additional food.

Definitely keep an eye on PH in a tank that small and keep the feeding minimal (or remove uneaten food promptly).

 

[LuminousAphid]

Yeah, I have been feeding as little as I can, and the snail keeps eating most of it... I will take him out today.

Yeah, I know I will eventually have to move them out into a bigger tank, and probably it will be my 20 gallon... but for now they look so cool in there, swimming around in their little school.

I have been doing daily ~20% water changes due to the load in there, and since I'm sure there was a mini-cycle when I brought it inside and changed everything, but surprisingly everyone seems happy.

I might try today to net the cories and put them in the 20gallon, I just re-did the layout and I'm much happier with it now. Maybe I will be able to enjoy the cories in there, and just have the snail in the small tank.

I dunno, lots of options but I will keep you posted.

 

[LuminousAphid]

Ok, so new development... I though I posted a thread about this yesterday, but apparently forgot to actually post it. Or it got deleted?

Anyway, I have tubifex worms in the substrate in here! At least that's what I think they are...

Are there any small critters which would root around in the substrate and make a meal out of these? I have tried gravel vac and they are really good at sucking themselves back down under the substrate. I have gotten a few of them and fed them to my guppies, but I'm afraid I will have a bunch of them dying and rotting if I don't get something to eat them. The cories don't seem interested.

Are there any micro loaches or anything like that?

 

[pbmax]

I wouldn't worry about them, personally. They're probably not big enough or in decent enough numbers to do any damage to the tank if they die. Did the gravel come from an established tank, or was it added dry?

 

[LuminousAphid]

It's from my 20 gallon, which isn't really that established, but I think they got in there with some live blackworms or on some plants. For the first couple months of this tank, I had it in the greenhouse and didn't clean it much at all, had ghost shrimp and that snail in there, so I think it got pretty gunked up and these were able to multiply

Maybe I will just use it as my own little tubifex farm I just noticed some in the 20 gallon as well, just a couple. I know I overfeed a lot, so I should really try to control my feeding. I always feel like someone in the tank isn't getting enough though, you know what I mean?

 

[pbmax]

They do thrive on over-feeding.

That's where plants come in for me - every handful of floating plants pulled out of the tank is a ton of processed fish waste.