Fluval Osaka 155 - Any Suggestions As To What I Can Put In?!?!

[2010emma]

Hi All,

I'm new to this forum and am getting my Fluval Osaka 155 delivered next week. Due to the fact that it doesn't have a lid, I am hoping for some suggesting as to what I can put in it.

As you maybe aware, this tank has no lid so I can't have any 'jumpers' in there.

I really like Cichlids but I am aware that they can only kept with the same species and with no greenary.

I would like my fish to be colourful and be able to live in a community. I have a BiUbe at the moment, which houses Guppiues and Tetra but I was hoping to have slightly larger fish in my new tank.

Any help would be gratefully received

 

[chrisbassist]

not sure about the jumping thing, people say it but i've not yet seen it in my set-up...

but at that size, what about a few dwarf cichlids? i've now got a few cockatoo dwarf cichlids in with my neons and guppies and cories. and they on fine.

as for larger ones i don't know much about them. but i'm sure there are few that you can't do same species, and other which are fine if kept with other fish of a similar temperament. maybe figure out what you'd LIKE to put in, and post a stocking topic somewhere either in new freshwater tank section, or in one of the cichlid section?

wills is a good one to help, he gave me a few ideas, and helped me with what would fit in my tank nicely.

but first things first, have you heard about cycling? your tank will need to be cycled properly before you put lots of fish in there. there are two main methods, fish-in and fishless.

have a look through the topics here: http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?/topic/277264-beginners-resource-center/

 

[Wills]

Hi welcome to the forum

I love the osaka tanks and the way they look just always been a bit expensive for me Okay first things first, when you set up the tank you will want to seed the filter with some media from your biube just like a piece of the foam or sponge etc but not so much it will upset your filter in the biube. I would then do whats called a seeded fishless cycle so on the day you move the media over start adding pure ammonia like you would for a regular fishless cycle but due to the presence of the bacteria on the biube sponges it will be a lot faster than a regular fishless cycle.

If your not sure what a fishless cycle with ammonia please tell us and someone can explain it further

Right as for stocking this tank, you say you like cichlids. Now cichlids are split between two sections Africans and Americans, Africans are the ones in the rocky tanks with similar species where as Americans are suitable to mix with a carefully considered community, there are actually a few african cichlids that are suitable for community tanks as well things like kribs or african butterfly cichlids. Personally I prefer American cichlids as these are often quite easy to predict their behavior, in particular the South Americans. So your tank is about 40 gallons and due to the dimensions of this tank I would perhaps do a mix of dwarfs and mid sized cichlids with some catfish of some kind and a nice school of tetras. So a few names for you to google that could work in this tank : Blue Acara, Cupid cichlid, Festivum, Angelfish, Bolivian Rams, Keyhole cichlid..... there are more but thats probs a good start.

I think if it were my tank I would do something like this
2 x Festivum Cichlids
4 x Cupid Cichlids
15 x Von Rio Tetras
3 x Spotted Headstanders
8 x Panda Cories
3 x Whiptail Catfish

Id have that in a tank with grey/black sand and black background, lots of spindly wood and reedy plants like valis and then grow bits of anubias off the wood.

Hope thats helped some
Wills

ps - thanks for the mention Chris

 

[chrisbassist]

ps - thanks for the mention Chris

no problem

I knew Wills would sort you out... with his suggestions to me I think i'm going to end up with ALMOST exactly what he suggested. so if there are things ou're not keen on in his list, say so, and i'm sure replacements can be suggested...

 

[2010emma]

Thanks for the help

 

[2010emma]

Just wondering if I could fit a pair of discus in or if my tank will be too small?

 

[chrisbassist]

Smply... No

discus are schooling fish will need 5 of them. So minimum size would be a 200 litre or 50usg tank.i