Small CA suggestion

[duanes]

I suppose when young, cutteri and sajica would work, although when I kept both those 2 species, the males became way to massive to really fit that size tank.
I consider a 40 gal only large enough for 4" fish as adults.
My male cutteri easily hit 7", and the sajica about the same, and along with that length, they both had height and girth to match. I also believe the smaller size of females in such a small tank would put them at a serious disadvantage.
cutteri male
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sajica male
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[MonsterFishCreeper]

I really like the c. nanoluteus I am growing out they are super active and fun to watch and will likely be very colorful adults. If this were my tank I would tear it down and sanitize it without question. As far as shopping for fish at a big box store or a bad LFS why even bother? You're interested enough in doing things right that you're on an internet forum and doing research just take the next step and order some fish. You will get whatever you want and be starting with healthy stock will make your life much easier. Also, are you certain that your tank was properly cycled? Are you certain that your heater didn't break and over heat or under heat your tank? Because you lost a whole tank worth of fish it is certainly worth looking into all the possibilities before losing more fish that will ultimately bum you out.

 

[MC4RKiller]

Heater is new and still going fine, I used established media and checked parms daily for 2 weeks to ensure there were no issues.

I buy most of my stock online, dithers and really common fish I don't because it isn't worth the shipping fees. I've also gotten some pretty sickly fish from reputable online sources, seems like domestic stock anywhere is at a quality ready for the toilet in most cases. I normally would tear the tank down but I'd like to try not to given my colony of snails and algae I don't want to kill. I've got some impressive algae on the rocks I would rather not disturb. I will try a few platies, I've got 3 in my tank at work and see how they do. If they also die then I'll do the tear down for sure.