Topic: A new tank. What to put in it?

[Boven]

A coworker of my little sister received a small aquarium as a gift.  She really had no place for it, so she offered it to folks at her office.  My sister mentioned it to me and, being foolish, I said I'd gladly take it.

I've not seen the tank yet.  I haven't had a chance to pick it up from sis.  From her description, it's an 8 gallon "half moon shaped"  aquarium that's about 24" tall, 16" wide, and 10" deep.

I've not been able to think of what I should put in there.  Does anyone have any suggestions?

[EmeraldEmpress]

What about a small group of tetra's?  Make it a tiny planted tank and that would be awesome with a small school of tetra's.

[Yipee]

Might want to make it a species tank for the smaller fishes like badis badis or sparkling gourami. Cherry shrimps will be interesting to watch in the tank.

[Lori]

I was thinking cherry shrimp too, until I saw that it was an 8 gal.  It's not impossible, but IME, you really need to stay on top of the water quality with shrimp in a small tank.  They are tiny, but they are also massive waste producers.   

[Boven]

I was thinking of some tetras, but wasn't sure whether the dimensions of the tank would be good for them.  It doesn't seem like they'd have much back-and-forth room to swim around.

Cherry shrimp do sound interesting.  I'll confess to being lazy, though, and would prefer it to be fairly low maintenance.  As it is, I've got a 38, 20, and two 2.5 gal tanks to keep happy.  I don't mind adding one more to the list, but don't really want to go beyond one or two weekly partial changes on it.

[wendyjo]

A bunch of male endlers would be nice.  They swim all over and wouldn't be too fussy about horizontal space, they're colorful, and they don't have much of a bio load. 

[Nic Obscurites]

I second WendyJo

[Boven]

I hadn't even thought about endlers.  I don't think I've ever seen them in my area, though I've never specifically looked for them.  Once I get the tank and am waiting for it to cycle, I'll see if I can find a place that has them in N. VA.

[Mollielover]

Clint used to have some you might give him a pm and see if he has any.

[wendyjo]

I'm in NoVa and the Petco near me has started selling endlers!