15 gallon stocking help

[NamelessPharaoh]

Hello everyone, first post here.

I'm not new to fishkeeping (been doing it about 10 years now) but admittedly, I am new to small tanks. I've only ever had experience with medium sized freshwater fish in my 55 gallon, and our dream to keep the small fish that we could just never have due to bad water is finally coming true.

We now own a store and are setting up a 15 gallon fish tank with RO water! The pH here is 8.6 which really has made it impossible to keep any of our favorites (RIP my angelfish). Now that we have a smaller tank, we can manage RO water and are able to keep neon tetras and rummynose tetras! Because of my lack of experience with these fish, we are trying to figure out stocking levels. We are experienced enough with general fishkeeping that we don't mind being overstocked, but we also don't want to overdo it and stress the fish. Since this tank will be a "prize" to show to the customers, we really want it to pop!

The tank is a Fluval Flex 15 gallon, heavily decorated with fake plants, a bubbler, decor, and 3 small marimo moss balls. The current stock idea is this:

8x neon tetras
8x rummynose tetras
3x male guppy
1x female betta
4x otos
4x Juli corys
6x ghost shrimp

We already have a few of the fish and everyone seems to be doing fine. Any recommendations would be fantastic!

TIA!

 

[tlindsey]

Welcome aboard
I suggest not adding the Rummynose tetra because of size and their shoaling behavior.

 

[NamelessPharaoh]

Welcome aboard
I suggest not adding the Rummynose tetra because of size and their shoaling behavior.

Rummynose tetras are our favorites [emoji853] 15 gallons is really too small? We had read that anywhere between 10-20 gallons is minimum so we thought a 15 would be okay.

 

[tlindsey]

Rummynose tetras are our favorites [emoji853] 15 gallons is really too small? We had read that anywhere between 10-20 gallons is minimum so we thought a 15 would be okay.

I've seen 10 gallons but for me personally it's about dimension's more than anything if the aquarium was a 20 long then I would say doable because if the Rummynose got spooked they would have the length not to swim into the glass side.

 

[Fogodechao]

How about gold white cloud minnows instead of rummy nose tetras? I dont have any experience with them but i know they are smaller.

 

[NamelessPharaoh]

So if we were to replace the rummynoses with 8 other small schooling fish, that stock would be fine?

 

[Fogodechao]

I'm no expert, but according to Aquarium Advisor's stocking calculator you're over 114% and thats not including the rummynose tetras. So the tank might be a little crowded?... But like I said I'm pretty much a newbie so I can be wrong ��

I've seen on some other forums where people said their stock is over 100% and their fish are fine. Maybe add the fish in little by little and see how they get along with each other? I would suggest adding the betta last in case it doesn't work out.

 

[NamelessPharaoh]

We've got the Betta already but she's a female and she's very docile. We used her because she's hardy and we're doing an in-fish cycle. Will definitely be taking it slowly!