Community or Species Tanks

[bakerboi]

whats peoples preferences personally it is a community because it adds more variety and usually more colour


bakerbOi

 

[OohFeeshy]

Species. I only do communities with maybe one or two species, say, zebra danios and a batik loach. I really hate trying to work out whether certain fish will go together, on paper it may work fine but in practice, it doen't work out. In species tanks you can best tailor the tank to the individual needs of each species.

 

[Kopix Nation]

I can't help getting into a community. There are just to many fish I can't refuse!!!

claire

 

[pseud]

Community. I don't like being too limited.

 

[jkrekord]

community you have a wider variety of choice although there are some fish i would love to keep in a species tank

 

[rixy]

i have 2 tanks and they are both community.if i had more then i could have species as well.

 

[Kopix Nation]

I have oscars in a species tank and a community tank with alot of fish in it.

claire

 

[Ethos]

Species. I had a Gourami tank, and now I have a Mbuna Cichlid in my -new- 55G.
I like the looks of a community setup, but theres just too many choices, it always seems like you might be making a mistake. I dont like planning out my inhabatents to intense detail, but I usually know what I want.

 

[Fish_Mike]

I have to admit that i'm with oohfeeshy and i mostly set up species tanks with very few other fish as accents. (although i do have one community)

 

[freddyk]

I love the planning - it builds up excitement for the tank, and the idea of needing to take care in mixing fish means there's a challange involved, which to me results in a more rewarding setup. When an endless stream of people assured me that an 8" cichlid with a 1" community fish could not work I was eager to prove that with the right knowlege it can certainly be done. A small challenge that resulted in the most enjoyable community I've ever kept.

On the other hand many types of fish simply shine best if they're kept as a species tank (and some will outright kill anything else anyway).

 

[Paul_MTS]

how are we definning species here?

I have species down as 1 fish in a tank maybe with a plec as a cleaner. EDIT- or breeding pairs.

personally i prefer doing communites but if there's a fish I want to keep then I'm prepared to go species.

Species. I had a Gourami tank, and now I have a Mbuna Cichlid in my -new- 55G.

I would say these are communites as in each case you have several different species in the same tank which may be in the same family but never-the-less difference species.

 

[CFC]

You can have a species community tank, for instance a colony of shell dwelling Cichlids or a male Appistogramma with a hareem of females would quallify for being a community but are all of the same species.

I have 3 species tanks all of which contain fish that will not tollerate any tankmates but personally i preffer to create biotopes using fish and materials found from a certain area to stock and decorate the tank. At the moment my tanks are all a bit of a mix and match more according to size rather than anything else but soon i will be sorting them back into S.American, Asian and W.African tanks.

 

[BigC]

Because I keep Killifish I have to err on the side of species tanks because they are what suits that particular type of fish. (Some are too delicate for a robust or fast moving community aquaria and on the other side of the coin some killifish species are boisterious and predatory. They also need the correct water conditions in order for them to breed and produce viable eggs.) Therefore species tanks are a must (and lots of them).

 

[lljdma06]

I used to keep community tanks, but now I enjoy keeping either species tanks or communities that only feature a few species at the most, and only from similar regions.

 

[xamdarb]

does kepping new world cichlids qualify as a species tank since they are the same species or would it be community if its a species then species if not well you get the idea