Compatibility Check / Fish Advice Please

[eaglesaquarium]

Ok so one thought is that the stocking might be:

10 x Five Banded Barb (5cm)
10 x Flame Tail Guppy (4cm)
10 x Cardinal Tetra (4cm)

Which will give 51” of fish in a 52 USG tank.

Does this give a spread of top, mid, bottom feeders etc??

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I agree wholeheartedly with Wills... your bottom will be VERY bare looking.

The absolute best thing you could do for your own enjoyment, IMHO, is to get a nice shoal of corydoras. The specific species is less important than just getting some. I would recommend a small number - about 8 or so. My favorite are dwarf corys (C. habrosus), but some other great ones are panda (C. pandas), peppered (C. paleatus), bronze (C. aeneus).

You could lower the number of guppies a bit (maybe only 6-8) and not really impact anything in your stocking plan. Guppies aren't schooling fish, but you will want some extra males to spread out the aggression towards each other. (They won't bother any others, just each other.) If you are going with mixed gender guppies, be sure to have AT LEAST 2 F for every 1 M.

 

[This Old Spouse]

Really? My barbs and guppies were all over the place. Especially my guppies.

 

[eaglesaquarium]

Guppies tend to stay towards the top, but certainly won't shoal much. So, they will be "all over the place" but I think that they spend 90+% of the time in the top 50% of the tank.

 

[Wills]

Yeah guppies are a more of an upper water species, their mouths turn upwards and so do their eyes (slightly) they are looking for bugs on the surface

Personally I would stick to just males, in a tank that size aggression is not going to be an issue between such small fish and the lack of females removes the problems babies can cause. But if the OP wants the babies not a problem either way really

Wills

 

[Miles_hot]

Eagle / Wills

Thanks for the replies and the suggestions. Great that you've helped me avoid a beginner's error and some very interesting suggestions.

Of the suggested fish I really like the flag cichlid - googling it brought up one particular image of a very blue fish but many rather plainer ones; do they come in different colours etc or is this just a mis-identified fish? If so the Cockatoo Cichlid is a riot! The site Fishkeeping.co.uk talks of keeping a ratio of 1M to 3F to keep aggression down - will 2m/2f be an issue or will I get away with it because it's not a Cichlid tank? Or is it better to play safe and have 3 girls and one lucky lad?

Of the bottom dwellers the dwarf chain loach is very interesting, though the zebra is also an interesting looking fish. The sand requirement will not be an issue as we've already bought the play sand and will be putting that into the tank.

I can do with out the Red Lizard or Whip tail catfish as they don't seem to float our boat however in the original hit list we did have some glass (or better Ghost as they're smaller I think) cat fish - would these fit or will they be too big? If so how many am I going to need of these for their comfort?

One possible issue is that our water is a consistent 8.0 and most information I've found so gives the Cichlid and Loach range as up to 7.0. Is this going to be a problem?

Thanks - this is a big help!

Miles

 

[eaglesaquarium]

Do not go 2m/2f with the cockatoo cichlids. Apistogrammas are harem breeders. Each female will take a territory of the tank, and the male will claim a larger territory that encompasses the female's. Two males in a smaller tank will get aggressive with each other. The females might be a bit aggressive to each other at first to create a hierarchy. Once they do that though, things will be calm. (Apistogrammas almost never show aggression to any fish outside of their species.)


As far as the pH value goes... I can't comment. Many fish can live happily outside of their "recommended" range, if properly acclimated. Whether or not the cichlids fall into that group, I can't say.

 

[Wills]

Yeah agree with above, 1 Male per tank makes like a lot easier

The Flag Cichlids, when you see them in shops they will be washed out but in a lush planted set up they do go very vivid! A lot of this gets washed out or not picked up in photographs as a lot of their colour comes from irridecance and the way the light hits it.

I have to admit though a Ph of 8 does change things quite a lot actually. It kind of changes quite a bit in your tank as to what you can keep.

Its the perfect Ph for an African set up if you fancy that? Like Mbuna tanks and in a 55 you could manage it quite well

Wills

 

[Miles_hot]

being a total beginner can you give me some clues on the "african" set up?

Does the ph8 mean that any of the other fish can't be kept (barbs. tetras and neons)?

Many thanks

Miles

 

[Miles_hot]

If the desired fish can't cope is my only option to mix in RO water to lower the ph - what measurements do i need to take to assess how much / if this is feasible?

 

[Wills]

Here are some profiles for African Cichlids, a bit of reading for you
http/www.seriouslyfish.com/kb.php?t=pv&s=1.13

(MOD's hope this links okay, if not please edit and delete it)

Not all of those in there would be able to go in your tank but if you like the look of some of them it would be a good route for you given your Ph. But it would mean no tetras etc but a few catfish will work like Cuckoo Cats and a few others.

If you like this might be worth posting a thread in the Old World Cichlid section

I found this article written by our own Neale Monks which is well worth a read and gives you quite a few options

http/wetwebmedia.com/fwsubwebindex/fwhardness.htm

Wills

 

[Miles_hot]

My goodness - another worl opens up thanks to Neale Monk's article. How do I find a shop selling these fish so that I can go and see them? Is there a designation for this type of fish to look out for?

Many Cichlid tanks I see are pure rock - is there a reason why they don't tend to have plants in or am I just missing the planted ones?

many thanks

Miles

 

[Wills]

Where abouts do you live? Good fish ships are all over the place and none of those on the list are particularly rare.

With the cichlid tanks, I believe some plants are sometimes possible but only stuff that wont get dug up easily. The rocks in the tank are there to raise the Ph but with your naturally high Ph you would have more freedom when it came to decor - though with African cichlids caves and holes to hide in are important for them.

Wills

 

[Miles_hot]

We live near Swindon however we also have family in Banbury and Leicester and I work in Alyesbury so we have quite a wide "hit range"

Miles

 

[Wills]

Hmmm quite far South for me I know of a few good ones in Central London if thats an option but i know there are others around you but not sure which they are?

Just off a quick google I can see you have a World of Water which are meant to be a good chain and also you have a Maidenhead which are usually pretty good. If your not opposed to going to Oxford there is a shop called Coxwell Aquatics which is good from what I have heard, I have talked to them over the phone about mail ordering some fish when I was trying to decide what I wanted in my tank and they seemed knowledgeable

If you go to google maps and find your area then search for aquatics it will pop up with all the outlets near you, have a search online first to see what reviews are like etc and maybe plan a trip out to have a look at a few?

Wills

 

[Miles_hot]

Wills

Fantastic recommendation in Coxwell Aquatics. Went there yesterday on a scouting mission before taking the family across and ended up stopping for 45 mins talking to a chap (Matt? - God I'm bad at names) who certainly knew his stuff. We homed in on the hard water fish and they've got some good looking fish and a lovely pair of display tanks. Then he dropped a bomb shell - they think that fishless cycling is the way to go!

Of course they have some products which can help with it but that's inevitable. Wo hoo We will certainly be going back there. Initially when I walked in I was a bit disappointed with the number of tanks however when I looked closely they had quite a variety of fish so that was good.

Nice centre they're in - impulse purchase of a couple of boxes of strawberries on the way out turned out to be delicious too

Going back tomorrow assuming they're open on a Sunday.

Miles