Nano fish suggestions

[Mcgolg76]

Just moved all my fish out of my 20g to a larger tank and decided to just have nano fish in my 20 g. Already had 7 pygmy Cory's. As well as a nice colony of cherry shrimp. Tank is planted. Added 6 green neons. 6 cpd. And two licorice gouramis. 5 days later and both licorice are dead. 2 cpds dead and 2 more missing and presumed dead. My parameters are 0 ammonia and nitrite. 10 nitrate. My ph about 7.5 which I know is high for the gouramis and tetras. Any recommendation of more hardy micro fish ? Is the ph which is killing them. Had trouble getting them to eat. Crushed up some high protein flake food. All the fish were skittish.

 

[Mcgolg76]

Urggg! Turned my tank lights on and two dead neons

 

[Fishfur]

That's depressing. CPDs are not usually fragile like that.

Did you test the water the fish came in ? How did you acclimate them to the new tank ? What's the temp ? Do you know the GH or KH ?

pH of itself doesn't usually cause death, but if there is a major change in it suddenly, which often accompanies other changes, maybe low GH or KH, that can cause shock and death.

If the new fish were in much softer or more acidic water before you got them, a fairly sudden switch to hard alkaline water might indeed kill them, and might be the reason for the skittishness and lack of appetite too.

If cherry shrimp are thriving, you likely have fairly hard, alkaline water. I keep CPDs in water like that without issues, but they came in water like that. I don't even try to keep tetras though.

You might consider, maybe, Chili rasboras ? Quite tiny but rasboras are mostly pretty hardy.. bright red colour too, though they can be a bit shy. Look great with plants.. and like plenty of their own company too.

Or maybe Harlequin Rasboras.. aka Lambchop rasbora, due to the chop shape black mark on their sides. Larger than Chilis, but less shy, quite pretty fish. Shades of reddish, can be the colour of a new penny coin.

 

[Mcgolg76]

Temp around 77. Not too sure about my water hardness. Did a slow acclimation.