"Feeder" community tank plans

I was thinking about set up an used 30gal from the garage sale few months ago with the "feeder" fishes as community because its cheaper than tropical fish. So I could add some caves (pot), the boulders and fake plants. The "feeder" fishes may not be colorful but they are so cheaper and a little hardy than tropical fishes. I do have native fishes but i dont want mixing them with the feeder fishes. I realized the diseases that the feeder fishes carried but I'm not in hurry for anything.

The "feeder" fishes and other shipment contaminants i was thinking about add to the tank:

Red Rosy Minnow -3............already have
Fathead Minnow -3
Gambusia -4.......................already have
Ghost shrimp -4
Different species of snails......already have
Feeder guppies -?.................already have
Seminole Killifish -2?
Swamp darter -2

total fish= 18 fish with the feeder guppies.

Other possibly fish:
Zebra danio (no longfins)
White cloud mountain minnow........already have


What is the best live plants for that tank? I never had a live aquatic plant in my aquarium before expect in the ponds. But i want my tank to be heavily planted but leave few space for swimming.

I want your opition about the stocking of these species. I know the gambusia are fin nipper so Im more worried about what if the seminole killifish and gambusia are not getting along each other since they are surface dwellers. But i never owned seminole killifish before but i was thinking about getting them from the vendor or if im lucky, the feeder shipments.

i have lots of empty tanks laying around in my basement in case the plan failed.

I can't answer you about the fish compatability, but might be able to help with the plants.

The first question is - how much light will you be able to provide? Think in terms of fluorescent bulbs. 1? 2? 3 bulbs? Or, sunshine?
The second question is - what kind of substrate do you want to use? Do you want to stick with plain gravel, or do you feel comfortable trying out a little soil underneath? At 30 gallons, you might be interested in trying soil since if you don't like it, it isn't too hard to start over. It's not like tearing down a 55-gallon tank.

After you have decided on these things, we can move on to selecting plants.

I was thinking about set up an used 30gal from the garage sale few months ago with the "feeder" fishes as community because its cheaper than tropical fish. So I could add some caves (pot), the boulders and fake plants. The "feeder" fishes may not be colorful but they are so cheaper and a little hardy than tropical fishes. I do have native fishes but i dont want mixing them with the feeder fishes. I realized the diseases that the feeder fishes carried but I'm not in hurry for anything.

The "feeder" fishes and other shipment contaminants i was thinking about add to the tank:

Red Rosy Minnow -3............already have
Fathead Minnow -3
Gambusia -4.......................already have
Ghost shrimp -4
Different species of snails......already have
Feeder guppies -?.................already have
Seminole Killifish -2?
Swamp darter -2

total fish= 18 fish with the feeder guppies.

Other possibly fish:
Zebra danio (no longfins)
White cloud mountain minnow........already have
What is the best live plants for that tank? I never had a live aquatic plant in my aquarium before expect in the ponds. But i want my tank to be heavily planted but leave few space for swimming.

I want your opition about the stocking of these species. I know the gambusia are fin nipper so Im more worried about what if the seminole killifish and gambusia are not getting along each other since they are surface dwellers. But i never owned seminole killifish before but i was thinking about getting them from the vendor or if im lucky, the feeder shipments.

i have lots of empty tanks laying around in my basement in case the plan failed.

Gambusia are pretty agressive; you might want to keep them in a separate tank. They can and will harass all of the tank inhabitants; if anything the killis would be the least bothered because they're much bigger than the Gambusias. My Seminole killifish does not particularly stay at the top; he spends more time near the bottom or at midlevel, where the cover is densest (I have hornwort in the tank). He might stay at the top more if there were floating plants there.

My lights would be 2 but I do have a spot that has sunlight so the plant can get what they need from. I only have plain gravel.

So the gambusia are removed from the stocking list. They will go with the parrot cichlids and african kenyi cichlid's tank, can't make promises for the smaller gambusias....