Community Planted Tank Recommendations

[darkdep]

Now that my 30gal planted tank is starting to stabilize, it's time to put in some fish.

I want to focus on the plants, so I want small guys that will not damage them.

The thing is, I'm used to the personality and interactiveness of African Cichlids, so I'm wondering if there are any "community" fish recipes that have fish with interesting personalities?  I know there are a million ways to do this but I'm specifically looking for recommendations of high-personality fish that won't damage plants...

[brad]

I'd go with dwarf cichlids like apistos or Kribs. A few tetras would go well with that.

[blueturq]

I'd go with dwarf cichlids like apistos or Kribs. A few tetras would go well with that.

Exactly.  If you want personality, and you've got a 30 gallon with live plants go with dwarf cichlids such as the aforementioned Apistos or Kribs.  Rams are really cool too.  Some tetras thrown into the mix would add some life and more colour to the tank aswell, maybe have a few corydoras on the bottom?

[Julie]

Hey Dark, my 20g is planted and I have an interesting mix in there.
Actually thanks to all the ovas'ers plants, my hub calls it the dream tank(is that like the dream police? :wink: )
While my sw tank is the bs tank so far.  

Not known to go with the flow, I mixed some rams and african butterflies with a lab for effect.  That's his temporary home for now, he's only small.
And yes it is working.  I'd like some nice snails but I think they might get alot of pecking.

Julie

[kennyman]

I hear dwarf puffers are FW and have huge personality.

[Mettle]

I was going to recommend the dwarf puffers, actually. Especially if you're doing a lot of plants and want the tank to be about the plants first. You could easily do 10 in there. (That's what I had in my 29gal.) They have such incredible personality and are really interesting to watch. And you can actually interact with them. Depending on your substrate you could look into kuhli loaches for a bottom feeder and do otos as your algae eater. And voila. Amazing tank.

[darkdep]

I've been doing some reading on the Dwarf Puffers and I think I'm gonna try them for sure, they look to be very interactive.

The tank has a mix of off-white gravel and sand for a substrate.  Would that work for Kuhli's?

[Mettle]

Khuli's like sand a lot. As long as the gravel doesn't have overly sharp edges it shouldn't be an issue. Khulis like to burrow and dig in the substrate, so pure sand would be ideal. But I think you'll be fine.

[darkdep]

If they dig, would they possibly damage plants tho?

[Mettle]

Have you seen a khuli loach before? They're basically like little snakes/worms/eels. They don't dig and move stuff like Africans. They burrow into the substrate to hide and to amuse themselves. As far as I can tell they wouldn't be doing damage to the plants. Or at least I don't see how they could.

[darkdep]

I just looked up some Khuli loach info, they do look cool.  I wasn't really clear with my question, I was thinking that if they dig, maybe they damage plant roots or dig up plants.  I'll check em out.

[Julie]

Is the kuhli the weatherman?

Julie

[mseguin]

No the kuhli is the little striped guy. The weatherman is the dojo or weather loach.

Kuhli loach
http://www.loaches.com/species_pages/kloach.html

[Mettle]

I don't see the khulis being a bother for plants with root systems. Just my opinion on that though.

Fantastic fish. And something neat and interesting to add to the mix.