[thekoimaiden]

Welcome to the hobby and the forum! Quick tidbit about the forum: when you see a name (plant or fish) highlighted, you can click on that to take you to our profiles. It'll bring up things like pictures, size, tank info, and the like.

Glad you recognize the clown loaches will outgrow your tank. There are some species of loaches that don't if you'd be interested in them.

As for the tank size, it does limit you (and angelfish are out unless they are a proven pair), but I'm glad you like shoaling fish because they are perfect for a tank like that. In my 29 I have a single shoal of cardinal tetra, but two shoals is possible if you don't have a centerpiece fish like I do. If you do go with glass catfish, you'll want to increase their numbers a bit to 7 or 8. Six is the bare minimum that shoaling fish should be in. The more of their species around, the more colorful the fish will be!

Before we suggest fish for your tank, we need to know a bit more about your tap water. Not all fish can live in all water and some fish like the swordtails and glass cats have opposite needs. We need to know pH, GH and KH. You can test for pH yourself but will need to find your GH and KH elsewhere. Sometimes your local pet store will know, and other times you will need to call your water treatment plant or look the information up online in a local water quality report.

 

[thekoimaiden]

It's sometimes hard to decipher those reports. They don't make them user friendly. The only thing of use they have posted there is your carbonate hardness or KH which is about 6. Generally speaking GH is close to that so we'll assume you have decently soft water. If you are on a well system, the company that maintains it should have a water quality report which would be able to give you more accurate results. But for the time being we'll assume you have moderately soft water.

This is perfect for your plan. Glass cats like soft water. So I'd certainly say go with 7 or 8 glass catfish. These guys will occupy the middle upper portion of your tank. For the lower portion of your tank, I'd go with 12 neon tetras. Black skirts would work in your tank but not with the glass cats, tho. Black skirts are active and boisterous fish while the glass cats aren't.

If you still want a loach in your tank, you should look at the kuhli loaches. They are have similar colors to the clown loach but don't get nearly as large.

 

[thekoimaiden]

If I got 7 Glass Catsfish and 7-8 Cardinal Tetra, A) would that work out ok? & B) Is there room for 1 more species of fish? Even if it is a single fish?

Also, The water Sprite wont block my other plants from getting enough light will it? What size should I keep it trimmed too?

Byron mentioned some good fishes for your tank. Personally I like the look of a single large shoal of fish, but others like a bit more variety. If you got rid of the glass cats (reason to set up another tank lol) then the black skirts would be a possibility, but tiger barbs would still not be a possibility because while they are also boisterous they need more room than a 29 if you want to keep them with other fish.

Since you are planning to return the clown loaches, have you thought any more about fishes for the substrate? Have a school of interesting fish like kuhli loaches or corydoras on the substrate give the whole tank movement instead of just the water column. These guys don't bother plants at all.

I have a moderately planted 29 with a canopy of water sprite. It doesn't affect the plants below at all because I chose low-light plants like anubias, crypts, and java ferns. I've attached a picture of my tank. Those long roots dangling down are the water sprite. My gourami like to pick at the roots for food.