Brain In A Blender

[kisin]

Hi All,

How do you all manage to pick the species you buy for your aquarium?

I thought I had a nice stocking list, until I found another stockist with a great variety of fish.

Just looking for ideas of what you would stock my 110L tank with out of the following;

Amano Shrimp
Red Spotted Nerite
Sulawesi Spotted-Face Unicorn Snail
Sulawesi Golden-Face Unicorn Snail
Golden Sunset Shrimp
Algae Eating Candy Snail ( Nerite )

Dwarf Chain Loach
Gold Ring Butterfly Sucker
Vietnamese Hovering Zebra Loach
Kuhli Loach
Panda Garra

Red Cheek Dwarf Pangasius
Shadow Catfish / Yellow Pygmy Catfish

Red Honey Gourami

Hengel's Rasbora
Magnificent Black-Line Rasbora
Galaxy Rasbora
Chilli Rasbora
Neon Yellow Rasbora
Red-Fire Rasbora

The gourami are the only fish I am certainly going to get, and will be 1 male and 2 females.

 

[kisin]

Right, well after much thought provoking web searches, I have come up with, what could be my final, stocking list.

Just wanted to make sure these would be compatible with each other;

3 x Honey Gourami (Trichogaster chuna)
3 x Blue Ram (Mikrogeophagus ramirezi)
7 x Kuhli Loach (Pangio kuhlii)
10 x Chilli Rasbora (Boraras brigittae)
8 x Amano Shrimp (Cardina multidentata)
3 x Nerite Snail (Nerita sp.)

Any obvious problems with these?

 

[meguro]

ud do better to get only 2 rams, 1m1f

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

Golden Sulawesi snails
Panda Garra... No question on this one from that group... Peaceful, interactive, inquistive, playful, algae eating machines! Kuhlis often hide away and those hillstream loaches need specialist setups (high oxygen, high current).
Red Cheek pangasius if you can find them and know for sure they are not the common species that can reach over a metre!
I don't know all those Rasbora species listed, but I would avoid the "micro" ones like Chilli, as the catfish may snack on them as the catfish get bigger mouths and bigger bodies.

 

[scotty]

check temps for other fish,as blue rams need higher temps

cheers

scott

 

[kisin]

Thanks people,

I will do some research when I have a free day and will check out the compatibility

 

[kisin]

Right, I have now come up with yet another stocking idea which is as follows;

3 x Honey Gourami (Trichogaster chuna)
7 x Panda Garra (Garra flavatra)
6 x Checker barb (Puntius oligolepis)

Also with a few Golden Sulawesi snails thrown in for comfort , As long as they leave my plants alone

I also want some small but colourful fish, approx 4-5cm each full grown. I just can't find any that I like and are from Asia. I juat can't find any that are available but might see if I can get some Long-Fin White Cloud Mountain Minnow in a group of about 8

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

I'm glad that you are seriously considering Panda Garras, my trio have become my favourite entertainment fish by a long way, now that all but my newly aquired Indian red Tail Squirrel Loaches (Aborichthys elongatus, http/www.loaches.com/species-index/aborichthys-elongatus ) are in the Rio240. I would be very cautious about a group of 7 though, unless your supplier was very sure of males and females in the shop tank, as the males get quite feisty with each other over territory! After two days in the Rio, the larger two of my trio have gained a pastel red colour on their dorsal and cordial fins, which they "flare" to each other often followed by a brief scrap. The smaller one, presumeably a female, has not coloured up in the Rio and has also not got involved in territory displays with the other two. However, until yesterday (24 hours after entering the Rio), I had no clues as to the mix of males and females in my trio. For a group of 7, for which I'm guessing you would need a tank ~48"x12" footprint, I think you need to have 5 females and no more than 2 males.

I have "Chocolate Orange Spotted" and "Yellow Antennae" Rabbit snails, both of which are not doing any noticeable damage to my water forest (almost becoming a water jungle and needs some attention soon, EEK!). I believe the diet of different Rabbit Snails varies, mine enjoy a mix of "crab cuisine pellets" and algae wafers, sometimes managing to find a hidden defrosted bloodworm or alike!

Odessa Barbs (not from Ukraine as name suggests, but from former Burma, Myanmar) grow to ~5cm as "stocky" adults, which have beautiful colouring when they settle into a planted tank (red background, with bits of black, yellow/orange fins depending on sex). I would say a minimum of six, again twice as many females than males (4/2 split) to "keep harmony."

"VickiandKev" from this forum got me the Indian Red Tail Squirrel Loaches from http/www.wholesale-tropical-fish.co.uk/price_list.htm yesterday, where I met them in the industrial estate. Nice couple(?), very enthusiastic about their self-built 8 foot (EEK!

) tank for a huge schoal of adult Clown Loaches amongst other fish tanks, who are happy to get fish for other forum users at great prices (eg. I paid £10 for my six Squirrels, to cover VAT on top of website prices and then a small thanks for getting me some rare specimens).

 

[kisin]

I'm glad that you are seriously considering Panda Garras, my trio have become my favourite entertainment fish by a long way, now that all but my newly aquired Indian red Tail Squirrel Loaches (Aborichthys elongatus, http/www.loaches.com/species-index/aborichthys-elongatus ) are in the Rio240. I would be very cautious about a group of 7 though, unless your supplier was very sure of males and females in the shop tank, as the males get quite feisty with each other over territory! After two days in the Rio, the larger two of my trio have gained a pastel red colour on their dorsal and cordial fins, which they "flare" to each other often followed by a brief scrap. The smaller one, presumeably a female, has not coloured up in the Rio and has also not got involved in territory displays with the other two. However, until yesterday (24 hours after entering the Rio), I had no clues as to the mix of males and females in my trio. For a group of 7, for which I'm guessing you would need a tank ~48"x12" footprint, I think you need to have 5 females and no more than 2 males.

I have "Chocolate Orange Spotted" and "Yellow Antennae" Rabbit snails, both of which are not doing any noticeable damage to my water forest (almost becoming a water jungle and needs some attention soon, EEK!). I believe the diet of different Rabbit Snails varies, mine enjoy a mix of "crab cuisine pellets" and algae wafers, sometimes managing to find a hidden defrosted bloodworm or alike!

Odessa Barbs (not from Ukraine as name suggests, but from former Burma, Myanmar) grow to ~5cm as "stocky" adults, which have beautiful colouring when they settle into a planted tank (red background, with bits of black, yellow/orange fins depending on sex). I would say a minimum of six, again twice as many females than males (4/2 split) to "keep harmony."

"VickiandKev" from this forum got me the Indian Red Tail Squirrel Loaches from http/www.wholesale-tropical-fish.co.uk/price_list.htm yesterday, where I met them in the industrial estate. Nice couple(?), very enthusiastic about their self-built 8 foot (EEK!

) tank for a huge schoal of adult Clown Loaches amongst other fish tanks, who are happy to get fish for other forum users at great prices (eg. I paid £10 for my six Squirrels, to cover VAT on top of website prices and then a small thanks for getting me some rare specimens).

Thanks very much for your reply.

Due to having no LFS near me I am going to have to order species online and have them shipped to me ( which doesn't give me a huge choice )

I'll look into just getting a trio of the pandas with 1 male and 2 female, thus sparing some room for a dif species

____________________EDIT________________

Right, Hopefully this will work, I'm just not sure if the Hengel's Rasboras will be too small to go with the pandas?

3 x Honey Gourami (Trichogaster chuna)
3 x Panda Garra (Garra flavatra)
6 x Checker barb (Puntius oligolepis)
6 x Hangel Rasbora (Trigonostigma hengeli)
6 x Chinese Barb (Puntius semifasciolatus)

Also 3 Golden Sulawesi Snails

Any opinions? Have I hit the winning combination yet?

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

Once your tank is fully cycled and a little more mature (~2 months), perhaps you could consider the "Asian Rummynose" or Sawbwa Barb as a colourful fish, they have lovely red faces when happy, along with a red spot in each half of their sissortail. I saw ~6 mixed in with Rummynose Tetras at Titchfield's branch of Maidenhead Aquatics and they are stunning little fish, but sadly a little borderline for my tank due to their smallish adult size and fish like Ctenopoma; African Butterfly; Opsarius in my 240.

I've not used any online stores for fish, but I've came across some interesting newer species (especially loaches; barbs; danios if I recall rightly) from places like Myanmar at http/shop.sweetknowleaquatics.co.uk/epages/246260.sf/en_GB/?ObjectPath=/Shops/246260/Categories/1
Other ones I have in my favourites, again with no actual buying experience are...
http/www.aquaticstoyourdoor.co.uk/tropical-fish/
http/www.directtropicals.co.uk/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=1
http/www.tropicalfishfinder.co.uk/stores.asp

 

[kisin]

Sweet Knowle Aquatics are the suppliers I'm currently looking at using.

I Will check out the other suppliers as well

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

The balance in the tank looks preety decent to my novice eye, but a couple of things to maybe consider are

• Increasing the number of the Hengels to 10. These fish will feel more secure in a bigger group, you a re likely to see them school more... which will look stunning!
• Golden/Chinese barb (Puntius semifasciolatus) seem to have a mixed reputation. Usually a 7+ group will behave, but "Nick16" tried that and still had problems (and is trying to find them a home in the classified). Perhaps a group of 6+ Odessa Barbs may work better (make sure there are is ~2:1 ratio females to males)

I'm still wondering if you could have room for something else that stays down low, like a group of Badis (needs research) or some smaller bioload Loaches eg. Kuhli 6+ group; Indian Red Tail Squirrel Loaches.

As you strongly looking into ordering online, I would be wary of getting this stock in one hit, even if you "fishless cycled" with a qualifying week, even though you would save on postage. "VickiandKev" are planning to do more regularly visits to a tropical wholesaler, so prehaps this could split up your stocking and save you money? There's also the question of what fish you would put in first, as nothing jumps out to me as being relatively hardy, maybe the Chinese Barb or Honey Gourami (I think your trio would need to be two females, by the way).

 

[kisin]

Cheers Steve,

Will look into removing the Chinese Barbs, upping the Hengel's and introducing another bottom dweller in place of the Chinese Barbs. Will also look into maybe a pair of Badis if suitability allows.

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

The Chineese Barbs are supposed to be non-nippy barbs. Perhaps put out a call for owners in the specialist section here, plus perhaps at other sites?

 

[kisin]

OK, I Have PM'ed "VickiandKev" and will see what the reply is.

I will also just continue researching until I know what I want lol.