I've researched a bunch on different small active fish with real personalities. Even though I love my schoolers, I like having personable fish in tanks as well. Hard to name every neon in a group of 20, but all of my goldfish and bettas have names. Next requirement is mid-bottom dwelling. The rainbows take up the entire top level of the tank, so I want something that will liven up the bottom. Shrimp are a no-go...even cherries wont breed in my water (~8.2-8.4 pH and 200+ppm hardness straight out of the tap). Scarlet Badis looked neat, but they need acidic softer water, as do the gudgeons, and dwarf chain loaches, and cockatoo cichlids, etc. I really dont want to keep soft acidic fish in my water if I can avoid it, even if they look like they are doing ok, the stress can still shorten their lifespans and that isnt something I would be ok with doing just for my amusement.
It is only the female CPO that seems to think she's a hunter. She's the only one that climbs the plants and she only does it at night, so I'm assuming she's going after them while they sleep. I dont really understand it, she gets plenty of food.
I have also read that rainbows are decent tankmates for shellies and I am considering attempting the setup and then just carefully watching the behavior. If it looks like they cant coexist, I'll move my CPO's from my 20L to the 10 laying around in my basement and put the shellies in the 20L.
