Skirt Tetra Community Tank

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Reido Dorito

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Jun 6, 2017
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Yesterday, I found that my 20g standard was finished cycling and ready to house fish, so I went and got two white skirts (a longfin and a regular) from my LFS. (The only reason I only purchased two was to ensure that the bioload didn't outweigh the amount of bb in the tank. Will purchase more within a week or so.)
As far as the tank itself goes, I currently have two anubias congensis, a tropica fern, a three java ferns, and two argentine swords. I'd like to add more varieties of fish, once I have about seven or so skirts in there. Do you have any recommendations? Thanks.
 

fishorama

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Jun 28, 2006
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Well, skirt tetras get to 3 inches or almost. So, you're pretty much maxed out at that point with no more animals .

This is much better than your skirt tetras in a 10g :)...but still not a great stocking option.

Aren't there any other smaller fish you like & can reasonably keep? Harlequin rasboras? Furcata rainbowfish? Anything else?!?

Skirt tetras are 1 of the most boring fish I've ever kept, even in a 55g...but they were "gift" fish, so we did, until we fortunately had to move & rehome...
 
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Skirts are very nice looking then young. Nice black and sliver color, but will become a dull grayish-silver when older. Ugly=No. Dull=Maybe, depending on your taste.
 

Reido Dorito

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Jun 6, 2017
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Aw, dang. Looking at the tank and imagining seven skirts at adult size, I see where you're coming from. I just thought this would be a nice opportunity for a/some bottom feeder(s). I really love ottos, but that might just need to wait for a different tank.

Yeah, I know. I'm glad you were arguing against that so hard; it'll be much, much better for the fish.

There are tons of fish I'd like to keep! But, the whole reason I started setting up for skirt tetras in the first place was to give a decent home to my GloTetra that I've had in the 2g since last year. I kind of like the species, to be honest. Very active fish. And longfins are beautiful. So I guess what I'm saying is, there are plenty I'd like to get as well, but these guys have the priority right now.
 

Reido Dorito

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Jun 6, 2017
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Hey, hey, ugly fish need a place, too. What's not considered "pretty" can be "cool". ;) Take the bristlenose pleco, for example. Cute? Absolutely not. But they're pretty dang awesome.

I mean, it's nice to have brightly-colored fish, but dull colors aren't so bad. As long as they're healthy and happy, I'm good.
 

DefJ123

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Jun 24, 2018
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You could look into shrimp or snails ;)
 

Reido Dorito

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Jun 6, 2017
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Yeah, that's true. There are some pretty cool invertebrates out there, and I've been wanting to get a cherry shrimp setup going! Thanks for the idea!
 

DefJ123

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Shrimp are awesome. I have a skittles tank (mix of diffierent colored shrimp , mine are neocaridinas) with a betta and some cpds and it is an awesome little tank. The shrimp are so cool to watch. They breed easy, eat anything and beyond funny to watch. I have almost 40 in my 10g.

You could look into amanos as well, theyre interesting. Lots of snail options too like mystery , nerite and rabbit snails.
 

fishorama

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I'm sorry I said they're boring, lol. I think it's from the time a co-worker was moving & insisted we take his fish & tank since we seemed to keep them well. It was a mash up of species. I think the skirts were intimidated by the big angels, gourami, shark etc. They mostly swam a short distance back & forth in a 55g, there were too few of them but we didn't want more of an aging species we hadn't chosen. I think our friend had them all for ~5 years at that point.

We did have to rehome an 7 inch bala shark soonish (we never told). There's a difference between inappropriate, less good & impossible stocking & fish that get to 12+ inches belong in the impossible category in a 4ft x 1ft tank.

The skirts seemed quite hardy though. We eventually had to rehome the sole survivor when we moved. He must have been well over 11 years old.

I like the idea of shrimp but they'll need some plants, wood or plants to hide in; the skirts WILL eat any they can catch, any fish will. Amanos are larger but don't breed like neos do. I really enjoyed cherry shrimp & their breeding; it won't matter if the tetras eat some.

Mystery snails or nerites are cool too but I don't know if the fish will pick at them or not. Either may lay eggs that can be a PITA. Nerites' won't hatch but leave little hard eggs all over. Mystery snails lay a large egg mass above the waterline; they will try to escape if female.
 

Reido Dorito

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Jun 6, 2017
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No no no, you're fine. It's your opinion; no need to apologize for that, lol. The whole bala shark situation sounds like a fun time, lol. Based on some information gleaned from a quick Google search, I'm not sure I'd even want to risk keeping those guys in a tank with such small fish. It would be awesome to have a single-species bala tank, though! Maybe a community, but... that would have to be a pretty darn big tank, huh?

Yeah, I've heard that tetras are suuuuuper hardy. I'm amazed at their wide tolerance range as far as pH goes. I believe one website said anywhere from 6.0 to 8.0 or something crazy like that.

That's crazy! Of course, if you provide outstanding, on-top-of-things, meticulous care, I suppose any fish can outlive the average lifespan by a considerable amount.

Almost immediately after Defj talked about the shrimp, I started looking for good options for carpet plants (I particularly have my eye on Eleocharis parvula) to put next to a barrel decoration I have in there. It was originally for the fish, but I'm not so sure, being mid to top-dwellers, that they'll get so much use out of it. Might serve nicely as a hiding spot for something else, though.

I know. I really love cherry shrimp, but the poor things shouldn't have to live in hiding constantly. Probably a better project for a nano tank. Speaking of, what would you say is the minimum tank size for RCS? Everything I've seen says something different.

I'm not so sure about keeping snails in there, only because
a) I don't want a population explosion,
and
b) I know that they don't exactly have fish-length lifespans.
 
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