Advice On Substrate And Additional Unusual Tankmates

[ethem007]

Hi, I'm a bit of a newbie, had the tank about 9 months.

Firstly the tank....

I have a 240 Litre, 4ft tank gravel substrate with bogwood and slate.
Undergravel filter and a stingray internal filter, will soon be upgrading to either fluval 405 or tetratec ex700.

I have got an adonis pleco, bristlenose, 1 gourami (his tankmate died), 6 zebra danios, 10 neons, 6 serpae tetra, 10 guppies and 4 albino corys.

Firstly, I'm deciding whether to change from gravel to sand?

Secondly I had an elephant nose fish who lasted about 7 months and then died, not sure why as my water seemed fine.
I've just moved house and the water had a very high Ph (8.6+) although this is dropping with time (now at 8.2), anyway, I digress....

I'm looking for ideas for new additions to my tank that are interesting to look at but friendly, not barbs!

Any advice would be welcome!!

Many thanks,
Mike )

 

[Wills]

Hi welcome to the forum! First thing that leaped out at me was the adonis plec aka the largest growing plec around basically its going to get to 3 foot long - if you want a black plec with white spots all over go for the L102 inspector plec.

What are your water readings like? I suspect that an undergravel filter and the stingray filter will not cope with a stock list like that....

Also your going to have problems when you move from an undergravel to an external as you wont have anything to seed the external with but I would just get the external asap and start it running alongside the other filters but it should be able to take over by its self in about 6-8 weeks.

Wills

 

[Assaye]

Definitely rehome that adonis before worrying about new stock. A full grown adonis needs a tank the size of a room - no exaggeration. Plus get get boisterous and may fight with the bristlenose. The best home for the adonis is a public aquarium or monster fish keeper. Sending it back to the shop will probably mean it ends up in another small tank. I would also call the shop, inform them of how big the plec gets (3 foot) and ask them why you were told you could keep it in your tank.

If you like sand, get sand. The corys and plecs will appreciate it. What do you want to know?

What about a school of congo tetra or rainbow fish? Lovely colours and the congos have interesting fins when adult.

 

[OldMan47]

Welcome to the forum Ethem007.
I do not recognize your pleco but am sure people who feel it gets to big for your tank are probably right. Most plecos do get far too big for a home aquarium. Once you get that part sorted out, I would start looking at common livebearers or African rift lake fish with your pH. Chances are that your water is quite high in mineral content which would work with those fish. The typical South American fish would have a difficult tine thriving in high mineral content water so keep an eye on the fish you already have for signs of distress.