85 Gallon Tank Arrived

[kizno1]

didnt go to all the lfs's today but the ones i did pulled a bit of a face when i asked for the ornatus...are they like pictus - best kept in small groups? or is a solo one ok?

i think i prefer the look of them compared to the "traditional" larger plecs. have much more time next weekend to look, but before then feel free to keep the suggestions coming in - kizno you're on a roll!

also, would the addition of a plec take one of the cichlids out of the stocking? or because its not seen competition would it be ok?

They do fine either way. They will probably be more active with 3-4 but since they get 10" i would say 1 is the limit for a 85g if im honest.

Yeah i prefer something a little different aswell there what i was planning on getting for my 150G. Something like a Liosomadoras oncinus but they will hide alot more.

I think you could still have the cichlids you want and a catfish or 2.

Something like
1 Rotkeil severum
1 JD
1 More medium sized cichlid
1 Pimelodus ornatus
3 Hoplo catfish
10 Emperor tetra or Congo tetra

 

[njstockley]

i went and looked at sevs today...flexitime from work meant an early leave. i couldnt work out whether there were two different types, or whether they were showing different colours from stress or something?

anyway one, with long pointed anal and dorsal fins was showing what i kind of expected to see. light stripes and a red under chin etc...but the others in the tank were almost a dark brown/green, and you could barely make out any strpies etc. these ones had a much more rounded dorsal fin, but again a fairly pointed anal fin. does this mean the first was a male and the others female? do males show more colour in general? the guy in the shop was no help..!

nick

 

[hamfist]

i went and looked at sevs today...flexitime from work meant an early leave. i couldnt work out whether there were two different types, or whether they were showing different colours from stress or something?

anyway one, with long pointed anal and dorsal fins was showing what i kind of expected to see. light stripes and a red under chin etc...but the others in the tank were almost a dark brown/green, and you could barely make out any strpies etc. these ones had a much more rounded dorsal fin, but again a fairly pointed anal fin. does this mean the first was a male and the others female? do males show more colour in general? the guy in the shop was no help..!

nick

Green severums (Heros efasciatus) come in a fair range of colour shades, bodyshapes and finnage. As they are such a widespread species, they have developed many different local forms. They are also widely mixed and hybridised in captivity. All this leads to quite a variety of forms.
In general, they get darker as a stress response. However, some are basically much darker than others.

The best way to guess at trying to sex green severums is to look for spots/worms on the face/gillcases ...... indicating a male. However, this method is still not 100% accurate. The only true way is to let sevs live with each other and wait until they pair off and spawn.

 

[Verminator89]

Just throwing out a fish into the works, see what you make of it. Synodontis Brichardi. IMO one of the more fascinating catfish to keep. About the same sort of size as the ornate and equally stunning i find. Again quite an active swimmer as it loves fast flowing water and can do fine as a sole cat in a tank whilst also loving group life.


Going back to how temperamental Jacks can be i've found that normal Jacks are as sturdy as any other fish. Only the electric blue variant i've experienced and read can be very delicate. I lost a female Electric Blue Jack about two years ago, unfortunately its a widespread problem with them...i couldnt tell you why. Regular Jacks you should have a problem with


Geophagus make an exceptional choice. I've recently fell in love with Geos and i'm currently venturing down the Geo path. Steindachneri is a really good suggestion. I recently saw 5 adults for sale in a shop and if i had nothing else in my 300L i would have taken them. They were magnificent. Also Braziliensis and sp 'pindare' are other stunning specimens. Rio Tapajo 'Red Heads' are the pick of the bunch IMO. Albeit some can be more pricey, and others near impossible to find (currently looking for sp pindare with no luck), they are a great addition. I'd seriously concider Geo's You won't be let down!

 

[njstockley]

Just throwing out a fish into the works, see what you make of it. Synodontis Brichardi. IMO one of the more fascinating catfish to keep. About the same sort of size as the ornate and equally stunning i find. Again quite an active swimmer as it loves fast flowing water and can do fine as a sole cat in a tank whilst also loving group life.

saw one for sale, but too far out of london to collect! thanks though, another great suggestion.

as for jacks, i like both the regular and eb's. to be honest, i think i sway towards the regulars anyway, so hopefully will adjust quickly to the tank. are they quick growers (i know there are lots of variants, but in general!).

i've seen a couple of other of your posts about geos recently too, but with a sev, and a jd (my must haves) would getting a small group be too much? other suggestions so far have said one other medium sized cichlid, so really trying to find one that's something special, with loads of colour. nothing as of yet..but spending a lot of time trying!

cant believe i have to wait til the weekend still to fill the tank and get the cycle started!

 

[njstockley]

verminator - now just sen your ebjd in the fotm competition...that changes things a bit!

 

[hamfist]

verminator - now just sen your ebjd in the fotm competition...that changes things a bit!

Oh, don't get him started !

 

[Verminator89]

verminator - now just sen your ebjd in the fotm competition...that changes things a bit!

Enough said

 

[njstockley]

well...today i did some hunting for stock. it threw up a couple of questions that i know you guys will be more than able to answer...

- is a red neck severum the same as a rotkeil?
- would a small group of geos compete with a sev as they tend to stay closer to the bottom of the tank? and would this change the type of catfish i could get (think i've found someone selling a syno near me)
- why does no-where in london sell JDs!?

do love thinking about stocking...and now that my new tank is up and running (with filter media from 90L tank) it hopefully wont be too long before i can start buying!

nick

 

[njstockley]

another question which has come up - do blue acara and JD's get on ok? tried to google it and ask in shops, but had some mixed responses..?

thanks

 

[hamfist]

another question which has come up - do blue acara and JD's get on ok? tried to google it and ask in shops, but had some mixed responses..?

thanks

I'm not speaking from personal experience but from what I gather they tend not to get on, as they look fairly similar, therefore tend to recognise each other as con-specifics.

 

[njstockley]

thanks hamfist, thats what i thought the answer would be. seems blue acara are much more available round here than jd's, but from adults i have seen they can become a great looking fish.

if i had one sev (although still not sure if rotkeil=red neck) could i possibly get a small group (maybe 3) of blue acara? or would this be a risk if 2 paired up?
also still pretty interested by the prospect of geos but again will depend on what i can find, and whether they would be ok to replace having catfish, or whether they would just crowd the tank and cause too many issues?

nick

 

[hamfist]

if i had one sev (although still not sure if rotkeil=red neck) could i possibly get a small group (maybe 3) of blue acara? or would this be a risk if 2 paired up?

I'd say a pair (not 3) of BA's with a sev in an 85G should be OK for space. If you got 3 BA's, there's a fair risk that two would pair up and harrass the 3rd to death.
In a tank that size, if the BA's spawned, I would expect a sev to be able to hold it's own.

 

[njstockley]

thats what i thought...went to look at some blue acaras today but they had a pretty severe case of white spot!

also just seen a load of astatheros altifrons for sale - how do these differ from geo altifrons? they look pretty interesting, and as i said on one of my posts above, i think i would like a group of smaller eartheaters rather than catfish (because a good size syno at an affordable price is very tough to find!).

this would make my stocking more like:

group of small geos or a.altifrons if theyre suited
red neck sev
(maybe one other medium cichlid - either pike or blue acara)
shoal of larger tetra

would that work or would that be pushing the size of the tank too far?

nick

 

[Wills]

If you can get them Geophagus Pindare would work brilliantly for this tank But if you like those Astatheros (which are new to me so well done for finding them ) you could look at a group of Geophagus Iporogensis (spelling) which are like a smaller species for this tank.

I believe that a company called Oddballs Express have some Pindare in stock at the moment. They look like the altifrons/surinimensis types but grow the smallest and also stay on average smaller than the red head tapajos. An other alternative is to look at their smaller relatives like Cupid cichlids and Guianacaras But that said any of the Surinimensis Geophagus grow incredibly slow like 18 months or more before their size becomes an issue in a tank of this size IMO. But its upto you if you want to keep the fish for full lifespan.

Your stocking plan looks spot on to me

I would go for

1x Red Neck Severum
1x Dwarf Pike (C.Regiani preferably) - or similar singleton cichlid
4x Geophagus Pindare or Geophagus Iporogenisis
15x Lemon Tetra or Flame Tetra or Emperor Tetra (your choice )

A group of Flagtail Catfish would look nice in there as well Even Cories would work in here.

Your stocking is very similar to mine which are in a 65 gallon at the moment but moving to at least a 5x2x2 soon ish (fingers crossed for bonus ) But I have a group of 4 wild Geophagus Willmenari 5 Annostomus Ternetzi and an Agenisous Catfish and instead of a dwarf pike/blue acara I have a female Nicaraguan and my Sev is a mouthbrooding true Heros Severus so again same size as the Rotties Ive also got a few whiptail catfish as well.

So doing a mix like this is quite a safe bet but it will depend on getting the right Geophagus and also the personalities of the Severum and the Pike/BA.

Wills