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Hi im just starting out and im plaining on buying 3 dainos for my cycling stage. I just want small fish with a wide arrangement of color any suggestions noting thats can grow over 2,3 inches. also I want a fiddler crab but i dont know if they will get along with bottom dwellers. I heard that a crab will eat the dead fish in your tank saving you the mess of cleaning it. If I do get a crab can i cycle it with my dainos? Also will different speices of dainos/tetra school together? I have so many questions....also will an dwarf frog eat the fish?


This is what i evenually want,
3 groups of3 different colored tetra
3 groups of 3 different colored dainos
1 or 2 bottom dwellers with a crab
and if i can add a frog that wouldnt hurt
If im overstocked tell me

Fiddler crabs will eat any small fish they catch. It really isn't hard to fish out a dead fish, and if you're doing it all right, you shouldn't have that many dead fish anyways! No, different types of danios and tetras will not school together. African Dwarf Frogs will not eat your fish. Danios and tetras are schooling, so you need to get at least 6 of each. That is 6 of ONE kind. When you say bottom dwellers, what do you mean? If you mean cories, they are schooling too, so you should get at least 6 of them as well. How about:

8 danios
8 tetras
6 small cories (hastatus, hasborsus, pygmaeus, panda, skunk)
1 ADF (African Dwarf Frog)

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They shade the glow of it with their mossy-misty costumes,
They wear masks of silk, porcelain, brass, and silver,
So as not to mislead with their own, ordinary faces.

Do you know any small fish that i dont have to school i really want a wide arangements of color maybe livebearers? 3 of each small ones or any other small fish

Janna hit the nail on the head.
Guppies do not need to school and come in a wide variety of colors, as do plattys and mollies. You could get two very different types in terms of coloration of danios and tetras, and then that way you could have a lot of color. Or if you set up your tank so it was compatible with a male betta, you could have a lot of color from there. *shrug* HTH

-Formerly known as the Ferretfish

I wouldn't get the fiddler crab; an ADF won't eat fish.

Do you want to keep the danios you plan to cycle the tank with? You'll eventually need at least six, not only for a proper school size but to keep down nippiness.

There are some very small (~1" schooling fish you could get, such as least rasbora, emerald dwarf rasbora, ember tetra...depends on what's available in your area.

You could also just get male guppies or platies, both are available in a wide variety of colors, patterns & such.

Pygmy cories are small but definitely need to be in a school of at least six.

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There is water at the bottom of the ocean