Community Tank

[turnnidge]

2 Apistogramma cacatuoides
2 Sailfin Mollies
2 Balloon Mollies
8 Neon Tetras
1 Queen Arabesque Pleco L260
2 Albino Corys
2 Peppered Corys

Can anyone build on this? What do you think?

I have a 125litre tank

Thanks all

 

[Colin_T]

maybe a couple more neons but that would pretty much do it for that size tank

 

[Duck and Dive]

As colin said add a few more neons. Neons are shoaling fish and should be kept in groups. Otherwise that is fine.

 

[turnnidge]

Ok cool, Its ashame that there aint many bright colourful fish like marine types for tropical!! lol But hey never mind

Would they all be ok together those fish? and what would they eat?

 

[Duck and Dive]

They will eat tropical flake food for their main diet and you should offer them live or frozen food such as daphnia ( you can ask your local fish store) for them to thrive.

Yes all the fish would be ok together.

 

[turnnidge]

Fantastic, would they look good though? or would they be a bit of a bland community as in colour?

 

[angel-al]

Rummy nose tetras would look good
And some shrimps maybe (but not tiny ones)

 

[waterdrop]

Ok cool, Its ashame that there aint many bright colourful fish like marine types for tropical!! lol But hey never mind

<...>

Its a funny thing, the contrast between "salt colorful" and "fresh colorful" I think... Many people cruising a fish shop who have never owned a tank are quite taken with the extremely colorful salt water fish that are so striking. When I was a very young child, my father set up a freshwater community tank for our family and I quickly learned that many, many freshwater fish have a subtle beauty all their own. I remember quietly watching the tank at night with only the tank light on in the room and seeing great beauty in the various colored sparkling scales of the different fish - and of course its not just the fish but the entire natural scene with plants and rocks and water. This is one of the very great pleasures of this hobby and a wonderful thing to pass on to each new generation. In our new world of media saturation and immediate gratification, the bright salt water fish announces its place loudly but the quiet, beautiful deep freshwater aquarium is a discovery place of lasting relaxation and peace.

my 2cents, ~~waterdrop~~

 

[turnnidge]

cool thanks guys would a siamese fighter be ok in there if I took out another type of fish?

 

[vinylman]

Don't add the Neons until the tank has been running for a good 3-4 months; they're not particularly hardy, unfortunately.

 

[murphyk32]

I have heard neons are hardy, but I dont know that for sure so most likely take the advice above there, as for te betta (siamese fighter), id say dont add it. They tend to bully and in my experience EAT smaller fish like neons, I couldnt see there being a problem with it and the other fish listed (i kno nothing on the Apistogramma cacatuoides tho), but personally id say add the neons over the betta. You could try both, or another option is to look at another relatively smaller fish to centerpiece like the betta would. Google it up, check the species index on this page, check out the gallary on timstropicals.com, it lets you click on most of the fish for info, plus gives an idea of some fish.

Gdluck

Murph

 

[waterdrop]

Don't add the Neons until the tank has been running for a good 3-4 months; they're not particularly hardy, unfortunately.

I agree turnnidge should get some more neons at some point - they look so great! As far as their hardiness, I don't know how to judge any consensus anymore. Long time ago I experienced neons seeming to be very fragile and definately not very hardy. In contrast, cardinals were much more hardy. When I asked about that here (years later) I got a surprised response from people, many saying it was now the other way around and cardinals were not very hardy and neons were, in their opinion, now very hardy! Of course its all just individual observations or perhaps a few LFS folks and I guess it could be due to different breeding sources or disease situations changing over time - or maybe its just that some fishkeepers really know the trick to keeping these little fellows.

 

[vinylman]

I've always found Cardinals easy to keep (contrary to many guides), but I think the secret in their case is to acclimatise them slowly (I usually take 60-90 minutes and never had any trouble with them). As you say, it may just come down to luck, but you can improve the odds of survival. I'd never be without any.

 

[turnnidge]

Had a re-think would these be ok:

3 Balloon Rams
5 Congo Tetra
3 Clown Loach
5 Red Platties*
2 Sailfin Mollies*
1 Ballon Mollie*
2 Cories*


*I already have these in my tank!

 

[murphyk32]

clown loaches get too big, so unless you plan on upgrading to a much bigger tank in the future (they grow somewhat slowly) I wouldnt recommend them. Try to find some other fish to replace the clowns.

Murph