Centre Peice For Tank

[trav&em]

Hi Everyone,
we are new to having fish but we are enjoying our new hobbie.
we have a 90ltr tank, good supply of plants and wood.
we started off with a few cichlids- oscars, convicts, angels and a few others, but we soon found out that they would not live all happily together. we rehomed most and kept the oscar and angel and bristlenose catfish. they all grew huge and got along fine but the food we had to keep up to the oscar to stop him from devouring the angel was incredable.
we found the oscar made the tank very dirty cos of his size and the amount of food, so we decided to start fresh and have smaller fish that we can have a few differnt sorts that will live well together, so we got away from cichlids.

we now have two pregnant orange guppies, one male leopard guppie, M & F sword fish, four bristlenose catfish, and one tetris.
we love the colour our tank has now with all these pretty fish and its great to see them all getting along. (we are very excited for our babies to come.)

We think all we need now is a fish that will be a centre peice for our tank. something we can buy little and watch it grow and hopefully have pretty colours, ofcourse it needs to be able to live in a community. if anyone has any suggestions of a type of fish that isnt aggressive and you think that would get along with our others we would love to hear about it. the help would be appreciated.
Thanks

 

[minnnt]

Welcome to the forum! It would be very hard to have a centrepiece fish in a 90 litre tank with the fish you already have. 90 litres simply isn't big enough for an Angel, so this is out for a start. Can't believe you had an Oscar, Angelfish and convict in a 90 litre tank!

Your centrepiece fish could be a pair of Dwarf Gourami's or Honey Gourami's. What Tetra do you have? Most Tetra's need to be in a group, so depending on what variety it is i would suggest adding at least another 5.

 

[trav&em]

Thanks!!!
oh ok well i think it may be a 95ltr but the ppl at the fish shop said it would have been big enough for oscars and angels. doesnt matter anyway, as i said we are just starting out and learning.

Thanks for the suggestion i think we will get some more tetris (we originaly got two and one died)
i suppose once the two guppies have babies this will fill up our tank more, but i will check out the Dwarf Gourami's or Honey Gourami's!!!
thanks very much for your input and help

 

[minnnt]

You're very welcome!

Oscars grow to 12" plus so would need a minimum of a 5ft tank.

Your Local Fish Shop (lfs) sounds poor mate to be honest, what Tetra's have you got? Assuming they're something like Neons or Cardinals? They need to be in a group of 6+ to feel safe and be seen at their best. Ideally the bigger the better. You may want to get another female swordtail too as one male will stress the female out too much by always wanting to breed. If there are two then he can divide his attentions between them both.

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

I'd love to know which Tetris shape block you have in your tank and whether it repeatedly falls from the water surface to the sand/gravel!

While I'm glad you have rehomed the original fish, which would have needed a tank about five times bigger, your "fresh start" has issues that need sorting out ASAP...

• Bristlenose Catfish are "poop machines" and four of them in a 90l tank is going to put a massive (read "unrealistic") strain on a typical filtration system for such a size tank. If you have more than one male, they could well get nasty with each other in such a small space. If you have males and females in that group, they will in all likelihood breed and put further strain on your bacterial colony in the filter... Personally, I think you need to rehome three of them ASAP, unless you can buy a 4-foot tank in the next couple of weeks. There are an awful lot of BN catfish species, but there is every possibility that you have a type that should reach 10-15cm and in your 90l, a single one is your "centrepiece" fish.
• The pair of Swordtails should normally reach about 10cm and are much more active than Bristlenose Catfish, plus being livebearers they will readily breed... Unless you can provide them with a longer tank in the imminent future, you need to rehome them, but if you keep them you need to have a plan of action for dealing with all the fry or keep a single sex group.
• The mixed group of guppies will breed like rabbits, again tipping your filtration system over the edge. Rehoming the many fry could be a major problem and if you don't move on the youngsters, you will get inbreeding that will bring out horrible genetic mutations... You need to chose either a group of males (more colourful) or females for your 90l.
• A single tetra is not a "happy" tetra, they need groups, usually 6+ of the same type is the standard advice but in larger tanks they look great in larger numbers. Depending upon which type you have, it could need a much longer tank than a 90l, for instance Blind Cave Tetra should reach ~10cm and need at least a 4-foot tank.

In conclusion, if you are sticking to the 90l, a far better stocking would be...
6 Tetras (depending upon what type you have)
3 male Guppies
1 Bristlenose Catfish
6 miniture corydoras catfish of one species (C. pygmaeus, hastatus, habrosus)

 

[Gilli]

Your baby guppies will all be eaten unless you have a tank to keep the fry in until they are too big to fit into the other fishes mouths!

It might be a good idea to do some 'Googling' and do some research before you buy any more fish.

 

[trav&em]

Thanks for everyones advice, we have got another tank ready for when our fry come along. hopefully we can rehome or the pet shop said they would take them.

sorry about the tetris mistake. We have a Neon Tetra and i think i will definatly get some more.

I have found that with my BN catfish they are getting pretty big and eat alot so yes keep the tank pretty dirty so i will have to rehome some. I have noticed when they go near eachother they attack and fly away from everyother very quick.
thanks for that advice!!!

i think with some more tetras, our babies on the way and keeping our big BN catfish as our centre peice that will be enough for our tank.

Thanks for everyones help. i didnt realize our 90ltr tank was that small. we are really enjoying having fish so a bigger tank in the future is probably a good idea. All this advice has really helped!

 

[trav&em]

I think we should have researched abit and came on here and asked questions first rather then just relying on the petshops advice!!

 

[minnnt]

I think we should have researched abit and came on here and asked questions first rather then just relying on the petshops advice!!

This is what alot of people say mate. Don't be too hard on yourself, you expect a service and advice from your lfs which quite clearly hasn't been given properly.

You're in safe hands now!

If you do decide to rehome the BN's then they're pretty easy to shift on so i don't see this being an issue really. Ensure that your Tetra's are Neons and not Cardinals so that you get the correct fish. Cardinals have red and blue nearly the whole length of the body, the neons have red half way down the body to the tail.

You could also look at 2 or 3 Apple Snails for your tank!