Anyone know fish?

[madagascariensis]

Does anyone know of a small, peaceful fish
that is similar to an apistogramma but tolerates harder water?

I was wanting to get some trifasciata but then I realized that they would not do
well in my hard water.

Ideally it should stay under 6cm maximum and stay close to the mid-bottom levels of a tank.

any suggestions will be greatly appreciated!

[bignellm]

Depending on how hard, you might be able to stock Blue Rams or Dwarf Flag Cichild. I have both with my Ph on the hard side. Mine's anywhere from 7.5-8.

Of course if you have a store using the same water as you, then assimilation to your tank will be way faster.

[FinalJenemba]

How peaceful? Is it going into a community? All your hardwater fish are going to be your Rift Lake Cichlids, its hard to find allot of peace there but allot of awesome fish!

[madagascariensis]

my water hardness is about 8dh and my ph is at 7.8.
since my tank is kept at at 22°C I really can't have rams, although
they sure are stunning fish. laetacara may get a bit big (my tank is 33 gallons but I like the look of smaller fish in larger tanks).

And yes, it should be able to coexist in a community setting with corydoras, nerites, otocinclus, white clouds and a honey gourami.

[escamosa]

If you would concider raisng the temperature of your water to 24 degrees Keyhole Cichlids would probably be ok. They're really peaceful and like the harder waters and your White Clouds will be fine in that temperature too. They grow to about 4 inches.

[madagascariensis]

Has anyone ever had experience with badis badis?
I just stumbled upon them and they seem to fit the
bill quite well. Unfortunately
they're very rare, eat live foods solely and imports are virtually all male.

[FinalJenemba]

All those things are true, cool fish. They are allot smaller then they look in pictures though, think a little smaller than a neon tetra. I would be really worried about the honey gourami.

[bignellm]

No exp with them sorry, but got the inhouse page link below to their information.

http://www.aquaticcommunity.com/fish/badisbadis.php

They do look cool.

[madagascariensis]

I have thought about the gourami too, but the fish we are talking about
is the type that dashes to hide when I put a mirror against the glass.
besides that, I also have a spare 20 gallon and 10 gallon in case things go wrong =)

[FinalJenemba]

They may work then as long as you have a backup plan. Cause I don't mean the Gourami will get territorial or aggressive, I think there's a good chance he will simply see them as food and eat them, depending on how big they are when you get them. I don't think you'll have much luck finding them local, I never have, and most fish you order online are Juvie's. You'll get a good idea when you first float them if he tries to eat them through the bag lol.