Community Cichlids

[ANIM4L]

thank you, that was one of the most helpful posts i have ever gotten! I love rams, and i love my syno I was thinking of getting a few coolie loaches, they only get to 3.5 inches, and they are bottom cleaners, but i havent totally decided I have lots of caves and rockwork and droftwood and LOTS of plants. are the rainbows really colorful? At my work thye arent, but the pics of them as adults they are. I want a few angels, but i dont knwo if i can, because i ant a pair of them, so they stick together, but i dont know how to tell male from female, i heard you could look at the anal fin, the males are pointed, i was actually going to make a post about it, i am really interested in having a pair Thank you so much for your help, anyone else have any ideas?

 

[abstract]

generally rainbowfish color up much more nicely in a planted tank with plenty of frozen/live foods...bosemani rainbows are by far my favorite...

as for the angels, you want to be careful - you don't exactly want a pair to form since they may terrorize the rest of the tank when they want to spawn...generally once angels pair up, they do best moved to a tank by themselves...as for sexing, i've heard it is virtually impossible to tell until they are full adults and ready to spawn

glad i could help you out!

EDIT: oh yea, and as for the khuli loaches, they are very slender fish so the 1" per gallon guideline doesn't exactly apply...you should have no problem adding a school of 4-6 to your tank

 

[ANIM4L]

i might add like 3 of them, i dont want to take up too much room i will just get one angel and let him or her grow up happy i havent seen any bosemia rainbows, at my work we have lots of ausi rainbows tho. any other ideas people?

 

[abstract]

good idea with the one lone angelfish..

as for the khulis i would still get 5 or 6...as i said they are very minimal on bioload and you will see a LOT more of them in a larger school..otherwise they will be very "nervous" all of the time...not to mention if you have a sand substrate they will burrow in it a lot of the time, so they aren't REALLY taking up too much physical space

 

[ANIM4L]

o ok then, i will go get 5 or 6, probably 6 cuz an even number sounds good to me Anything else you can suggest for my tank, for top middle bottom? tahnks a lot for all your help abstract!

 

[abstract]

well i tell you what...i'm leaving from work now and don't have internet at my new apartment yet, but i will think about it....post an updated list of what exactly you plan on having in the tank (of the fish that you currently own), and then make a list of fish that you would like (after visiting some stores and doing some research)...i'll come back monday and tell you what i think is best and add/subtract to your list as necessary..

just remember, there is no need to rush into things, so just sit back and think about what type of tank you would like and the fish that catch your attention the most...that way you end up with exactly the tank you'd like..

i have no problems helping out people as much as they need as long as they take it slow and make the right choices the 2nd time around assuming they didn't make the right choices first...so take your time and listen to the advice of others and i have a feeling you will have a great looking tank in a couple weeks!

 

[ANIM4L]

ok right now i have this:

60g - Fully Planted with Real Mopani Driftwood
1 Honey Gourami (Banana)
1 Powder Blue Gourami (Dori)
1 Red Fire Dwarf Gourami (Nemo)
1 Marbled Angel (Spaz)
1 Silver Tip Shark (Bruce)
1 Clown Pleco (Stripes)
1 Rubbernose Pleco (Pucker)
3 Ghost Shrimp (3 Stooges)

and the silver tip will move when older, i dont want him to get sick

I took out the pearl gourami, it died a week and i was looking to replace it, but i know they are such fragile fish that it can be hard to take care of them, they are extremely overbred, making thier life spans short and thier internal organs weak (ive been doing my research ) and i took out the only dwarf gourami that has been kinda aggressive. These are the fish i have looke dup and researched that i like, there are a lot of other out ther ei like and dont remember seeing them, but i mainly got these out of abook and at my store:

Possible fish:
5-6 Kuhli Loaches (some sites say clown loaches get to 6 inches, but i wont take that chance anymore
German Blue Ram (found some at a responsible store )
Bolivian Ram (way better, but i cant find them )
Striped Raphael (these are so cool, thier bodies are like tanks!)
Rainbow Shark (they are supposed to be the most peaceful of sharks, but i have to wait for my custom glass top to come in first, since they jump )
Tiger barbs (2 green 2 albino 2 tiger, but i am still scared, i will say 50 percent of sites say they are ok in groups of 6-9, but others say they still have problems )(i will research more about them if i can)

that is all i can think of off the top of my head. If i do a small community tank (small fish imean), then that will be easy lol, but i cant decide wha ti want I will post mroe if i see or think of anything

 

[Barracuda518]

Striped Raphael (these are so cool, thier bodies are like tanks!)


If i do a small community tank (small fish imean), then that will be easy lol, but i cant decide wha ti want I will post mroe if i see or think of anything

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It wont stay small for too long...I know the ones I had didnt

 

[fish_r_great]

Or you could get rid of all your fish except the plecs, syno, and shrimp and turn your tank into a mbuna tank!!! Just get rid of your plantys and wood add lots of rocks from outside and some mbuna.

Rams are very nice though

 

[ANIM4L]

i cant get rid of my plants and wood, they are so nice lol. the raphael i meant was really cool, and i knwo they get to like 6-8 inches the spotted get 4-6 though, i havent seen one tho

 

[ANIM4L]

I HAVE DECIDED!!!!
I will be doing a 60 gallon full of small schooling fish!!! YAY!
I think it will look awesome, especially seeing tanks like that and hearing what others have been saying and i have decided, but NOW, what to put in the tank???

 

[fish_r_great]

I don't know but, maybe you should just wait a while and really think about what you want because you seem to change your mind alot, which is fine i used to too.

 

[ANIM4L]

i was deciding between those three tanks, the community samll fish, community large fish, and cichlid tank, but i knwo the small woudl be cool, i can fit more safely, and i think it would be cool to see all those colros everywhere! any ideas on what to add woudl be appreciated, i will be posting possible thoughts of fish later wheni think of some too. Would a striped raphael eat anything around 2 inches? what about rams? cuz i know they might owrk

 

[fish_r_great]

IME Rams won't eat anything around 2". I had 2 1" shrimp with mine. They should be fine in your tank depending on whats in it. Thre has been a lot of speculation about Gouramis and Rams together but, you could always try it out and if it doesn't work rehome one of the fish. There is a lot of times where some peope have different experiences and sometimes you need to just try it for yourself.

 

[ANIM4L]

ya ive noticed that because some peopel say some fish i kept before are mean, NEVER A problem, but i rehomed them to be safe