What companions go with black widows?

[cheekeyarab]

I need to know what would be good companions for rather brutal black widow tetras. They already attacked my guppies and killed them before I had chance to rehome them (shop won't take them back)

I would like to know what would be safe. Was wondering about Platy's/Neon Tetra's.

No hurry for reply as I will be waiting quite a while to buy more as tank is still new.

Thanx

 

[webcat5]

Those are some pretty mean tetras!

All I know is that in the wild BLACK WIDOWS prefer dead males.

P.S. I know this will not help

 

[pica_nuttalli]

sorry 'bout that... some of us a just a little too fond of caffeine/alcohol...

well, first things first -- build up the school of widows. more of them will reduce nipping of other fish as they'll mostly be interested in each other.

as for any additional species... mostly just avoid other fish with long fins. you'll probably want to get bottom dwellers to further separate the groups. i've told you already about cory cats... so khulii loahes?

khulii (coolie) loaches is a generic term for three or four speceis of similar substrate dwelling fish. they're interesting little worm-shaped fish; very shy if kept singly or with more aggressive fish. they max out at about 5-6 inches long and come in solid black, pink/black stripes, and solid golden-yellow. four or five should do quite well in the bottom of a 20g tank and you should see them hanging out together on a regular basis.

most other common bottom-dwelling loaches get much bigger and would probably be unsuitable for your tank. clown loaches would be a definite no--they can eventually reach over 8 inches in length! pakistani loaches are a possible option, but you could really only support 3 or so of any the botia (missle-shaped) loaches.

perhaps some other people can make other suggestions. you could even make plans to get something a bit more rare than what you just find in the shops, since you have at least a month before you can put anything additional into the tank.

 

[foty89]

Increasing the size of the school is the best thing to do first. I keep tiger barbs, and if you keep them in a decent size group, they are fine with most other fish. You would however, still not want to temp fate by having long fin fish in with them.

 

[cheekeyarab]

Thanx for the advice. The main culprit is the baby widow, only about 2cm long in total but very mean. Will wait a while then add some more widows.

Would I still be able to add some neon tetras, if so how many?

Also local store has Zebra loaches, would these be a good idea, if so how many and would this be instead of neons.

Sorry to be a dunce but have got it wrong once, don't want to do that again!

 

[pica_nuttalli]

the only stupid question is the one that never got asked.

with just a 20g, you're a bit limited on what you can add. i'd say that either you could have either a school of neons or a school of bottom dwellers. neons should only be put into a well-established tank however (6+ months).

from the Fish Index: zebra loach

looks like those could be great! i'd get 3~4, but wait a month or so. (gotta finish that cycle first!)

 

[cheekeyarab]

Yeah, yeah, finish the cycle!

Told you I was the impatient type! Don't worry will finish the cycle first.

At least the black widows sorted the overcrowding issue!

Thanx again for your advice, no doubt will have more questions shortly!

 

[rich]

See my sig for what I keep with my black widows. Cories would be a good choice, they actually push my black widows out of the way.

My smallest balck widow is also the one who nips the others, especially the big one. I think it'd due to him being a male.