New freshwater tank - would love help choosing fish

[Kduluth]

We had a male betta in a teeny 1 gallon. He got sick and died after a few months so we decided to try again and do it right.

We have a 16g bowfront tank and we are about to start a fishless cycle (just trying to find pure ammonia without surfactant).

We were thinking another betta or a male dwarf gourami as a "feature fish" and we would love something that schools and maybe bottom feeder/dwellers (corydoras?).

I was also thinking an African dwarf frog would be fun.

I know both bettas and gourami can fight with other fish so wear want to be careful and choose fish where that won't be an issue. We also don't want to overstock!

Any advice would be great. It'll still be awhile before we stock but we would love to have a plan.

 

[Newman]

5 corydoras would be fun along with one betta or gourami.
list some other fish you are interested in keeping.
Congrads on the new tank

 

[CAPSLOCK]

I second Newman - cories are great fish. If you are looking for little guys, there are also a few species of dwarf cories that only get up to around an inch and you could have a pretty good school of them (8-12 or so, depending on other fish).

I've had dwarf frogs with a betta and they do pretty well, but you do have to target feed frogs (tweezers work well).

 

[AddyGirl21]

Bettas and ADFs can go together but it depends on the betta and the frog. One of my frogs would actually chase my male betta which I thought was really weird and ended up separating them. As for feeding the frogs I use a soft mesh net to catch them and feed them that way. They don't like it at first but after awhile they get used to it and that way you avoid putting any extra food into the tank.

If you really like bettas you could always get 2-3 females. Although not as pretty they are just as fun and hardy. If you decide on females I would stick with 3 min. because they develop a hierarchy of sorts and getting just 2 could result in one getting bullied by the more dominate one.

Fish personalities vary as well as opinions so I would do as much research as possible.

Hope this helped

 

[FreshyFresh]

kd, A male betta or dwarf gourami and 6-7 corys would be nice. It's said that corys do best with sand substrate. It's easier on their barbles (sp?) and allows them to root around and filter the sand through their gills like they would in the real world.

Or 3 female bettas and a group of corys.

Or you could do a colorful platty or two (same sex to prevent breeding) and a group of danios or tetras.

I believe a 16g is the about the same footprint of a 10g, but taller, so you'd stock is similar to a 10g.

 

[HMarcks]

I think the smaller loaches are really cute as bottom dwellers too. I love watching my zebra loaches. But Cory's are just as adorable.