restocking my 33 gallon

[talldutchie]

I think I'm just about on top of whatever the hatchets brought in that wiped out my little boraras so I'm thinking about restocking already.

My aquarium is a juwel rio 125. 80cm wide, looks like this:

In imperial that's about 33 gallons. It's 32 inches wide.

PH at 7.4, reasonably soft. Survivors:
6 marbled hatchets
5 T. Espei
1 gold tetra
3 golden marble bristlenose.
unknown number of shrimp

That gold tetra hangs out with the espei. At 6, almost 7 years now I don't expect it to survive for very long. I'm not keen on adding more of those.

What I want to add is something that schools well in mid-water and is mildly tempered. I also want them to be quite visible from a distance.

On my list so far:
- neons
- blue tetra (Knodus borki)
- Purple Emperor Tetra (Inpaichthys kerri)
- green neons (Paracheirodon simulans)
- bloodfin tetra (Aphyocharax anisitsi )

For some reason I find myself wanting the colour blue in my aquarium, not sure why. I'm inclined to go for neons since I've not kept them this century, they're affordable and the farmed fish are very adaptable.
I've put neons on the list and not cardinals because cardinals get bigger and I like smaller fish since they make the tank look bigger

An outside option is to add some more Espei and leave it at that. I'm also toying with the idea of a pair of rams of some kind but I'm a bit worried that they will wipe out my shrimp and start terrorizing the rest of the tank.

I'd welcome any feedback or other suggestions.

[steeler1]

I've kept them all and love them all; but my picks would be bloodfins and Green Neons, I just discovered Green Neons last year and realy like them much more than regular neons. Their blue is much brighter and they get a little bigger than most articles state. They are also hardier than you read about them.

The only drawback is they are always sold so small.

The Bloodfins get bigger than Cardinals so you might not want them. For that matter so do Blue tetras.

[talldutchie]

Thanks steeler! How are the green neons in behaviour?

[steeler1]

They are tighter schoolers than regular neons and don't seem shy at all, I keep them with Columbians and they are not afraid of them at all.

[talldutchie]

And probably mild mannered. Sounds good, I'm getting tempted!

[steeler1]

It's good to find somebdy that appreciates smaller fish.

[talldutchie]

I've never had the space for one of those big tanks some people here seem to have. A 55gallon was always out of the question for me so I automatically ended up with small fish.

[Honey Badger 1]

Personally I would fill out that school of T. Espei and get a nice size group of bloodfins to go in the tank. Other than the blue color bloodfin tetra fit your criteria as mild mannered smaller tetra that school tightly together. My daughter had a group of these in her tank and I always enjoyed watching them.

[talldutchie]

Thanks mom (first time I ever typed that on a forum. )

Someone told me bloodfins get quite big, bigger even than cardinals. Is that true in your experience?

[Indian Woods Angels]

Look up Oryzias Woware. Blue Neon Rice fish. They would go nicely in that tank. As would many of the other rice fish species.