Killis with rainbows & cories?

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Luananeko

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My husband suddenly decided he LOVES cory cats, so to encourage his interest in my hobby I agreed to set up another tank for him... Plus he misses me having a tank that grows plants for selling back to my LFS for store credit to fund my obsession (was getting $20-$30 a week from my 75g trimmings until I raised the temp for Rams) ;) I've also always been curious to try my hand at keeping and potentially breeding killis, so I was hoping to combine the two purposes in one tank! Here's what I was toying around with for plans:

36"x18"x16" tank (roughly 44g):
Heavily planted with the FluVal plant spectrum LED fixture & sponge filters

6-8 Corys (husband is still deciding which he likes best)
2 Gardneri Killis (1M/1F)
2 Gold Lyretail Killis (1M/1F)
12+ Pseudomugil sp. 'red neon' Rainbows

Would this work?

Edit: Updated to one pair each of the killies.
 
I kept gardeneri and they were nasty, not a great community fish..

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Yeah, from what I'm reading it seems to depend on whether the killies are wild or tank bred plus tank conditions for their personality... Do you know which you had? Also how big of a tank did you try them in?
 
I've kept many types of Killi including the ones your asking about and can honestly tell you that multiple males even in a large tank can lead to constant fighting and often time death. If you want to breed them then set up individual breeding tanks. You can however keep cory's with a pair of killi's and then the Pseudomugil species of rainbowfish. Gertrude or Spotted blue eyes are one of my favorites to keep.
 
I've kept many types of Killi including the ones your asking about and can honestly tell you that multiple males even in a large tank can lead to constant fighting and often time death. If you want to breed them then set up individual breeding tanks. You can however keep cory's with a pair of killi's and then the Pseudomugil species of rainbowfish. Gertrude or Spotted blue eyes are one of my favorites to keep.

Oh wow, good to know! Aqadvisor was saying that Gardneri killies needed a school and I saw several breeding accounts of using multiple males, hence the 6 of each I originally was planning. Could I do a pair of each killi type, or would that still cause issues?
 
Oh wow, good to know! Aqadvisor was saying that Gardneri killies needed a school and I saw several breeding accounts of using multiple males, hence the 6 of each I originally was planning. Could I do a pair of each killi type, or would that still cause issues?

I actually once took a 40B fairly heavily planted tank and put a pair of Gardneri's, a pair of both Golden and Chocolate Australe, and I think a pair of Splendid's and over the first month I had a mess. I ended up with the Chocolate Australe male with a female Splendid. That female went after other females and that males was one of the most aggressive little fish I've ever had. So that being said there is no way you can predict if it will work. A few years ago I kept Rachovii males and females in my 220g and they did great but remember they were living in an ocean and males had all the room they needed to keep out of each others way.
 
I actually once took a 40B fairly heavily planted tank and put a pair of Gardneri's, a pair of both Golden and Chocolate Australe, and I think a pair of Splendid's and over the first month I had a mess. I ended up with the Chocolate Australe male with a female Splendid. That female went after other females and that males was one of the most aggressive little fish I've ever had. So that being said there is no way you can predict if it will work. A few years ago I kept Rachovii males and females in my 220g and they did great but remember they were living in an ocean and males had all the room they needed to keep out of each others way.

Hmmm, good to know... I think I'll stick to one pair Gardneri and one pair Gold Australe and keep a close eye on them... If they don't work out I'll rehome one of the pairs. It seems like folks have pretty mixed results on the personalities.
 
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