Best combination of fish for an 8gal planted tank?

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bluerose

Aquarium Advice FINatic
Joined
Aug 27, 2008
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Location
Southern CA
Hi all,

Trying to figure out what combo of fish would work best for my setup.

So far I have had suggestions of a betta, a couple of oto cats and perhaps a few red cherry shrimp.

Does anybody have any other ideas?

The fish would need to be able to be moved a few times a year (back and forth from college).

Thanks!
 
Two Zebra Danios, Two Sunset Dwarf Platys, and Two or three Fancy Guppies. They are really active, beautifully colored, and very fun to watch! An Oto Cat would be good, too!
 
How big is your setup? Tank size determines almost everything else.

If you are talking 5 gallons or less, then what you outlined sounds great. Betta as the centerpiece occupant, shrimp (RCS or even ghost shrimp) to serve as a "cleanup crew" for the substrate, and then (*if* you have algae problems on the glass), otos to clean up the algae.

If you are talking 10+ gallons, then your options expand significantly.
 
It's an 8 gal. So far we have a hitchhiker snail in there who snuck in with the plants.

The fish store here is a little limited on stock but over the weekend I may be able to get to a larger one about an hour and a half away- would fish be able to stay in the bags for that long? what about a very small plastic tank?
 
I would strongly suggest NOT putting the shrimp in with the betta. I tried it with my male and female bettas and they ate them in no time flat! I have three cories with my male betta, but they are in a 10g, I would think putting that combo in an 8g would be pushing it a bit.
 
It's an 8 gal. So far we have a hitchhiker snail in there who snuck in with the plants.

Just a note, if it is a pond snail it will eat your plants, so you probably want to get it out of your tank before you have more of them appearing. If it is a Columbian Ramshorn, same thing--it will eat your plants. If it is a Malaysian Trumpet Snail (MTS), your plants will be safe. And if it is a European Ramshorn, your plants will be safe. Apple snails you hear various reports about, but they are known to eat plants at least sometimes so I would consider them a risk in a planted tank.

The fish store here is a little limited on stock but over the weekend I may be able to get to a larger one about an hour and a half away- would fish be able to stay in the bags for that long? what about a very small plastic tank?

Yes, they should be okay for that distance in their bags. It might be worth asking the pet store if they can fill the bag with pure oxygen rather than just air (some of the better aquarium shops can do that; most chain pet stores can't). You might consider bringing a small cooler with you and putting the bag(s) in that to help insulate them and maintain their temperature during the trip home. If you don't have a cooler, a cardboard box lined with a towel will serve much the same purpose. Either way, ideally you want to keep the fish in darkness during the trip, as they are subjected to less stress when being moved in the dark rather than in daylight.

I would strongly suggest NOT putting the shrimp in with the betta. I tried it with my male and female bettas and they ate them in no time flat! I have three cories with my male betta, but they are in a 10g, I would think putting that combo in an 8g would be pushing it a bit.

This is a perfect example of how individual betta personalities can be. The last two weeks I've kept a female betta with 3 ghost shrimp in a 2.5 gallon tank without any shrimp losses. For the first 24 hours the betta seemed a bit bemused by the shrimp, and there were several times I thought she was about to attack but...she never did, and now it's clear she views the shrimp as neighbors rather than lunch. I have recently moved all of them into a 10 gal and she still noses around and "bumps" them with her snout from time to time but I think that's more playful than anything else. So you never know; shrimps might work or they might not. You can always try with a few ghost shrimp (many pet stores sell them as feeders at a price of like 6 for $1), that way if they do get eaten it's not as big a loss as if you pay several dollars each for Red Cherrys and your bettas make a meal out of them.

P.S. -- Some pics to help you ID snails and such if you aren't familiar with them:

Plant-Eating Snails
Pond Snail (size typically 1/4" or smaller)
Columbian Ramshorn (color can sometimes vary; can get up to 2") (also called Giant Ramshorn)
Apple Snails (coloring can vary; size up to tennis ball sized!) (also called Mystery Snails)

Plant-Safe Snails
MTS (size up to 1/2" or so, maybe 1" for really really big ones)
European Ramshorn (comes in many colors, but mainly brown; size up to 1" or so)
 
There are several different species of snail that have been labeled as either Apple or Mystery Snail. Some are plant eaters and some are perfectly plant safe. The key is to actually ID the snail to determine which one it really is. For instance Brigs are completely plant safe but Canas will treat a planted tank as a buffet to be decimated in a matter of days. Applesnail.net is an excellant resource for IDing snails.

There is quite a bit of debate on whether or not Pond Snails are plant eaters. I suspect that much like Applesnails there are more than one species falling under this common name. Unfotunately there aren't the same resources for identifying these snails as there are the larger snails.

In general Ghost Shrimp are not a 100% test of whether or not Cherry Red Shrimp and other small shrimp will not get eaten. If the Ghost Shrimp don't get eaten the smaller shrimp will have a chance, but may still become dinner. Of course if the Ghost Shrimp do get eaten, you know not to chance the smaller shrimp.

I'd recommend looking at Killies, Micro Rasboras, Gertrude's Rainbowfish, Endlers Livebearers, and Dwarf Cories. Pick your favorite that you can obtain and get a nice sized school.
 
Thanks for the snail lesson JohnPaul. I am happy to report that I have MTS....lots and lots of them.

Bluerose: I love my platy. I used to have more but that is a different topic. I highly recommend getting a few pretty platys as they do not get very big and you can have a couple of them (they like to be in groups). They come in a large assortment of colors, seem to react to humans looking at them (come to the front of the tank instead of hiding), and are pretty resilient. They are peaceful fish. Might be able to convince the LFS person to give you one or two free fry and you can watch them grow (especially since you have plants!).

I have had guppies in the past also but they aren't as resilient as the platys.

About moving them.....I have moved mine a few times and had no problems. JohnPaul mentioned the box, but I would like to mention to watch the corners of the little bags that the LFS will give you with your new fish in them. If the fish gets down in the corner of the bag and you put the bag down the fish is not going to survive the trip home. If you trust the bag you can turn it rubber band end down and then you don't have to worry about the fish getting stuck in the corners. I know this is probably common sense, but I had to learn the hard way and now I pay special attention to it! I have also purchased fish and drove a long distance with them (2 hour was my max) and they did fine (they=glofish).

Hope that helps
 
It's an MTS. He's very little.

I will probably get some more plants today or tomorrow as well as a test kit to see what's going down in the tank before I get fishies.

I filled it with spring water and used a special plant substrate (forgot the name) and added NovAqua+ to condition it- anyone know if I might need to add anything else?
 
Most of the smaller fish are schooling fish which are happier in larger numbers. If I had an 8 gallon planted and I wanted a large number of fish I'd check out this link:
Tropical freshwater aquarium fish: Order fish
sort the fish by size and then get something like the Dario Dario that stay under and inch and get 5-6 of them. That then leaves you with a few gallons for something like a betta or a few otos etc. Or you could do a larger school like 8-10 of the Darios and some shrimp or snails.

Though a lot of people will get a small number of a wide variety of fish, there are arguments that your fish will not act normal and natural if they are schooling fish not in a school. The flip side is that tons of people do it. It's your decision to make, but please do some research and ask questions on the board regarding the species of fish that you are looking to get.

BTW: I have a 6.6 at work with one betta, three Otocinclus, and I'm looking to maybe put a snail or a few small shrimp in the tank.
 
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