29 gallon lake Tang set up

wrs

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Im getting my Tangs in March, but I want to have everything planned way before they arrive. I already have some fish in mind, yet not sure what can go together, I know julies can live with some shellies, but not sure about with multies.

I also have,
8 danios, LF Blues, and Zebras
5 tetras, Skirts and Priscillas
1 dwarf pleco
1 whiptail cat fish, fully grown
that i want to go in.

Then I want to add, either
Multies, brevis, ornatipinnis, or wild caught similis for the shellies. Have whale eye shells, muffin shells and turbo shells for them. I want 7 if there will be other cichlids, and maybe a bit more is there will be just them.

Also my brother wants a paair of julies. Maybe transcriptus, ornatus or dickfeldi. Which ever gets along with shellies better.

Or even if possible a brichardi. I do like the tails.

I mostly want shellies, yet I do love the julies, kribs remind me of them, lol.

So I thought I'd ask yall, even though I know that we went through this before, I just want everything to be perfect.

I also want to get some cichlid sand, so that the PH is high, I already have the buffer as well.

If any of the other fish mentioned wont work pleasae tell me.
 
Mixing tangs with community is a very bad idea. First of all tangs want hard water that might not suit the other fish, but more importantly they are VERY territorial. I believe most of your community fish would be killed or driven into some cornor of the tank for the rest of thier (short) lives.

Don't underestimate a pissed of shell dweller, I've seen a female shelldweller (barely 2 inches) drive of fish four times her size. :flex: Multis or similis should work fine with the Julidochromis spicies. I have never kept brevis or ornatipinnis so I cant give you advice on those.

As for Julies any of those you mentioned should be okay. The problem might be to get a pair since it can be hard to seperate males from females. If you are lucky maybe you could get 3-4 from the store and return the others once they pair out.

Keeping one brichardi isn't a very good idea. They live in communities and if you keept it alone either it will be very "depressed" and hide or get super agressive. I'm afraid your tank isnt big enough to support julies, shellies AND brichardi.

Sorry if I sound negative but if you mix all those fish together there will be a lot of trouble....
 
Tang setups work with schoaling fish just fine, the 29 has the height to allow for it, the Tangs stick to the bottom anyway. There are no guarantees with cichlids, but my experience says they'll do fine, especially the danio's. They tend to ignore open water fish, as they are not threats.

A pair of Brichardi will take over the tank, and one would probably work just fine - fish don't have the capacity to get depressed, and while they do live in groups, they've proven to do just fine solo, and generally stick to their own, in my experience.

Any of the shelldwellers will work, so you'll have to choose based on personal preference. The multi's and similis are colony breeders, while the others pair up. In general you'll fit higher numbers of the former then the latter.

I seem to repeat myself on this a lot, but don't worry about the water so much. most fish, including these, have proven to be very versatile with the water. I've kept Tangs in as low as 7.4 without issues, and all of my community and new world fish do just fine even now in ph 8 water. If you can avoid wildcaughts I would, they're more tempermental then aquarium bred, with no noticable difference to the aquarist otherwise.

A pair of Julies and a colony of shellies, along with some open water shoaling fish will make a nice setup. When you decorate the tank, I'm assuming you plan on something like setting up rocks on one side and open sand on the other. Providing a barrier down the middle using decor like rocks or plants or whatever, and blocking the view between the two, tends to reduce aggression and help keep them on their own sides.

Remember, these fish are very territorial, and different people have different experiences. Obviously Snowie has had less luck with this type of setup then me and others that I know.
 
I meant "depressed" in the sense that it hides and doesn't feel safe. I also feel it is a bit cruel to keep a fish that lives in communities alone.
 
thanks for the info.

I am planning to get the tank set upo by the begining of march at the latest.

I do want to get them from cichlidstore.com
but have no idea how much the price will be with shipping and all. I dont have hundreds of dollars to spend on fish. Maybe my parents will pay for it for a birthday pressent, lol.

I really like multies, yet they seem to be weak fish, and I am afraid that somehow ammonia would come and they would all die, even though the tank is cycled and there is no ammonia. Id love to see some colony breeding though.

Also, if I decid to just do shellies, would I be able to keep two types in this tank, or would only 1 type work.

oh, ans in the first post I ment, either shellies and julies or shellies and a brichrdi type. I never said just one.
 

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