# Best fish (besides livebearers) for 40 gallon npt cube



## Kaleidoscope (Jun 10, 2013)

Hi everyone I'm new on the forum. I chose this one because miss walstad is on this forum, and I learned all the best info I know about planted tanks from her amazing book. Thanks!

Anyways I have a service tank I'm wondering about. I do tanks for a living specializing with cichlids, but this one is going to be a planted tank.

It is a 40 gallon cube 2 foot square, will have two T5 lights one 100 watt heater and an eheim canister.
It will be a natural planted tank using plants I have had good luck doing this with in my water- sword plants (the crinkly leaf ones), small leaf ludwigia, java ferns, anubias nana, some moss, etc.
The substrate will be dirt, crushed coral/gravel, and some sand for accent (in the front corner, not above the dirt). The ph will be over 7, around 7.3 and hardness around 12 german degrees.

Anyways the question I have is to do with the fish stocking. Given that the ph is high and there is hard water, I'm probably going to do a variety of livebearers for the upper levels, I have platies, swordtails, and am ordering some japanese blue guppies, red swordtails, rtb variatus, and will experiment with them to get a good stock and good color. 

However, for the bottom of the tank, I would like to try a pair of small cichlids. This tank is in a doctors office that deals with lots of elderly people. In this situation i usually use a school of parrot cichlids and have had good luck with this, they are big and bright and interact with the people in the waiting room well- I have had lots of good feedback with parrot cichlids and the elderly.

So I am looking for this effect, in a smaller fish, that can take hard water and most importantly DOES NOT DIG. I could use parrots but they dig occasionally. 

So thats my question - what is the best small cichlid for a hard water tank that does not dig?
Or, if cichlids are not a good option, what else would be bright and interact with the guests in the waiting room well?

The livebearers are negotiable, but I'm not going to go with tetras or rainbowfish, as I'm looking for a good impression from across the room or to people that can't nessecarially see well. I like the bright red and orange you can get with the swordtails.


So what are your thoughts? I can get lots of domestic ram variants, which would be good choices I believe except for the hardness? but I have heard they can go either way.
I have jewel cichlids on hand, but they may eat the smaller livebearers?
I know kribensis would work, but wouldn't they dig a pit?
What about bolivan rams?

Thanks everyone.


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