New 15g tank, looking for ideas

[Deep Seven]

I picked up a 15 gallon tank for a great price. Nothing fancy, it's empty atm, hob filter, not sure about heater, no substrate. (I bought it sight unseen on brothers recommendation). I'm going to fishless cycle it once I have it put together.

I'm looking for ideas for stocking it. I'm looking for fish with personality. That have fun and enjoy the aquarium. I'm thinking of a school of small fish, a few cleaners, and maybe a solo fish with nice colours. I'll have to upgrade lights to do plants, but I'm willing to do it. (hate fake plants, they look too... well plastic)

I'm also interested in fish that can thrive off of aquarium grown plants, even if they have to be grown in a refugium or seperate tank.

I'm stalking LFSs observing fish and getting ideas, looking for some recommendations from the experts at AA

 

[skenny]

Get some dwarf puffers, there fun, interesting and have lots of personality.

 

[skenny]

you can also put some otos in there as a cleaner

 

[BigJim]

A betta, a group of small tetras/rasboras, and a nerite snail. I've had bettas in with neons and it's a lot of fun to watch the betta chase the neons. He was too slow to catch the neons and he'd lose interest after a little bit. Just be sure to have adequate cover.

I'm not sure there's any herbivorous fish that you could keep in a 15g except for otos. Any reason why you're looking for this type of fish?

 

[JohnPaul]

Bettas tend to have a lot of personality when they aren't crammed into tiny 1 gallon bowls, so a betta in a 15g tank is a good suggestion. A tank of dwarf puffers is another option, they have TONS and tons of personality but (in general) don't tolerate tankmakes all that well. (A DP who decides he's pissed off can easily kill a fish 3-4 times its own size, and that is true whether you are talking about a male or a female DP.) I have kept ottos with DP's and, surprisingly, ghost shrimp with them as the cleanup crew and that worked remarkably well. You could also have a 1 or 2 LARGE (and I mean, large) snails in there to add some color and cleanup ability as well. 2 of 3 DP's, along with "support staff" (ottos/shrimp/snails) in a 15g would be a great tank. If the ghost shrimp are too small the DPs might make a meal of them, so get large ones or else something like amano shrimp.

Another option for color, especially if you have a fair amount of live plants, would to be to get 1 or perhaps 2 species of killifish. They are basically the most colorful freshwater fish in existence, though their behaviors are pretty much typical of you average freshwater aquarium fish. They also tend to be extremely hardy. The only downside is that very few pet stores carry them (some of your higher quality mom & pop stores sometimes will, especially if there are local breeders) but in almost any aquarium club there will be killi breeders, or else you can get them easily and relatively cheaply online from other breeders at Aquabid.com. I've kept a number of different species of killies over the last few years, I'll append a few pictures of them to this post. My apologies in advance for the poor quality of the pics, I was just a beginning photographer at the time!

EDIT: Just in case you are wondering...

Top Left - Orange Lyretail Killifish (Aphyosemion australe var. orange). Usually just called Australes (or Orange Australes) for short. One of the most common in the hobby.
Top Right - Red-Lined Killifish (Aphyosemion striatum)
Bottom Left - Fundulopanchax gardneri "N'Sukka". The N'Sukka is one of about a dozen color variants of the Fp. gardneri species. Almost all are super colorful, incredibly hardy, and among the easiest to find on Aquabid or from other hobbyists. A great "first" killie.

 

[Deep Seven]

Thanks for all the replies so far .

This is why I posted.

I would have never given much thought to bettas. I always seem to see them in tiny tanks that look like solitary confinement. And when they're in a big tank, they're locked away in a small cage inside the tank. It just seemed so wrong and cruel that I didn't even consider them.

I wouldn't have considered puffers either I don't think. They're not reef safe. Yeah I know, this is a freshwater tank, but I've heard "not reef safe" so many times I think I unconsciously assumed I wouldn't want them.

I like both these ideas, I'm going to be reading up on them.

I'm not sure there's any herbivorous fish that you could keep in a 15g except for otos. Any reason why you're looking for this type of fish?

I like the idea of creating a complete eco-system. Growing the food the fish need in the same tank/fuge setup appeals to me. For a little while I was considering growing aiptasia, yes I said grow aiptasia, to feed bergia nudibranchs. But I learned bergia are nocturnal and I was hoping for more of a display animal.

 

[BigJim]

Bettas can make spectacular community fish. The trick is to keep them with fish that don't have long, flashy tails. Some people have had bad luck trying to keep bettas in community tanks, but I haven't.

Puffers don't get along well with most other fish. They can really be nasty when they decide they don't like something. I really like the look of puffers, but I'm not too thrilled at the idea of devoting a tank to one fish. Saying a puffer isn't reef-safe just means they'll eat the invertebrates (shrimp, snails, crabs, etc.) that are needed in a reef aquarium.

I too like the ecosystem idea, but I'm not sure it's feasible in an average aquarium. At Brookfield Zoo by me, there's a sign near the tiger exhibit that shows the food chain needed to support a single tiger. Each tiger needs X number of prey animals and X number of prey animals need Y acres of greenery. Basically, it spelled out that tigers need huge areas of land to survive. You'd have to recreate the same thing in an aquarium. If you went without a predator, you could do it more easily, but it'd still be a challenge.

I had a self-sustaining tank running for a few years when I was in college, but it wasn't pretty. The filter and the heater died because no one would refill the tank for me like I asked. The tank also caught a bit of sun, so it turned green quickly. The guppies in the tank ate the algae and the raphael cat ate the guppies. I was pretty disheartened with the whole scenario, so I pretty much gave up on the tank. I'd refill it with water once every month or two when I'd come home, maybe throw in a few flakes, but that was about it. The tank ran like that for about five years. I only had a vague idea of the chemistry that goes on in an aquarium then. Now, I hate to think of what I put those fish through.

I've heard of others attempting to create maintenance-free aquariums by creating an ecosystem. The tricks there are lots of careful planning, lots of live plants, and very low population density.

If I were to attempt it, I'd think I'd go the puffer route. You can raise ramshorn or MTS in a small tank very easily, then feed the snails to the puffer.

 

[Deep Seven]

Maybe it's because I'm doing a lot more research on puffers then bettas, but I'm leaning towards puffers right now. In my reading I'm getting mixed advice on sexing them, some people say it's almost impossible to tell males and females apart until they get close to sexual maturity. Other people say if you know what to look for sexing dwarf puffers is relatively easy. (Easy compared to other puffers)

Can dwarf puffers be sexed as juveniles? I'd like to start with 1 male and 2 females and let them grow up together in the tank. Which leads to my next question.

Should I try and get the male and 2 females from different stock for breeding potential? or does it not really matter?

I'm thinking of trying a heavily planted 30g for the puffer tank, with ghost shrimp and otos. Possibly trying a small fast schooling fish as tankmates, like maybe tetras? I'll have a refugium or 15g available in case I need to move them, and growing feeder snails in the refugium.

And about the "complete eco-system" comments. I'm looking at it more as a journey rather then a destination. I'm not trying to set up something I can plug in and leave. But the more self sufficient I can make my aquariums the happier I'll be.