Got A Tank To Fill......recommendations Pls

[Ava_Banana]

Haven't posted in a while.....so hello to everyone!!

I made a fishy-type error around 2 months ago. We were redecorating, so we had to move one of our tanks (the hall tank).

Whilst it was being moved, I thought I would take the opportunity to clean the filter (Eheim 2215 Classic). I was VERY careful whilst I cleaned it. I took all the efistrate (or whatever it is called) out and put it into tank water...cleaned the filter, cleaned the pipes.....all as you should.

I then made an error.....I needed a bit of "foam" to act as a mechanical filter....and just used some foam I had around the house. .....really stupid I know.......all went well for a week or so....minor blip in water readings but settled really quickly....then water tests remained OK, but fish started dying (there also seemed to be a bit of an oily look to the surface of the water)...anyhoo...after losing 5 serpea tetras I stripped the tank, moved all my fish into the other two tanks, cleaned the filter, tank, rinsed the sand substrate in the tank a number of times, re-filled it and started again.

I had two Syno Eupterus, one in this tank and one in the Kitchen tank. When the "problem" occurred I ended with two in one tank.....Jeezzz they are territorial...It took me a couple of evenings to get the other tank sorted, but by that time one of the Synos was at death's door, fins bitten, big hole in his side (looked worse than it was, but it looked bad)....had to stop my wife from "putting it out of its misery"...

(sorry for the story....but anyway).

Got the hall tank back in position and pretty much moved the beaten syno over...it was the best I could do for him. He has been in there around a month now.....water parameters are good...I watched the "spike" come and go and he could do with some tank mates.

I am undecided at present what to put with him/her.

The tank is at the bottom of our stairs....it is the first tank you see when you come into the house so it gets a bit of traffic.

I am thinking maybe some smallish colourful Cichlids......and a rocky setting.

Or maybe a little herd of Silver Dollar Tetras........that kind of thing.

Any thoughts....?

Oh...the tank is 24 inches wide, the water is just over 20 inches deep, and the tank is 12 inches front to back. It is fairly "overfiltered" with the Eheim.

Thanks..

p.s.....tank info is out of date in my sig...will update it when I stop moving fish...

 

[Miss Wiggle]

well i'm not familiar with that particular catfish but if he's territorial then you want to avoid othe bottom dwellers or fish that will be competition for his beloved cave (he's got one right?!?)

a lot of cichlids stay close to the ground and like caves so it might not be the best idea.

i'd go for a nice community with maybe 2/3 small groups of tetra/rasbora type things, they should stay well out of his way and it'd be nice and pretty and colourful for your hallway

 

[Ava_Banana]

Thanks for the reply...

..the thing is....the other two tanks are more "community" than anything else....one mostly livebearers and the other more tetra based.


......this fish has some bogwood he likes to live under....


The substrate is sand....the tank is planted....but not heavily.......but that could change either way depending upon fish requirements....

 

[Miss Wiggle]

fair enough i can understand you wanting to do something different.

how many gallons is the tank?

it could work with some cichlids, would definately be risky though. we had a syno in with a tanganayikan cichlid tank for a while and even though there were plenty enough caves and hiding places they fought all the time

 

[Ava_Banana]

.....I think (from memory) it works out to around 27 gallons.......but I will have to check.

I did think that the syno was supposed to be fairly good with Cichlids as they were naturally together....but will now research.


The tank is not huge......but I would rather not have a few fish which hid all the time....

 

[Ava_Banana]

Any other thoughts?

 

[nicelights]

Some rocks and some shell dwellers perhaps? That might work...If the tanks only 27g then it kind of rules out any african cichlids from what I can make out.

Cheers

G

 

[Miss Wiggle]

Some rocks and some shell dwellers perhaps? That might work...If the tanks only 27g then it kind of rules out any african cichlids from what I can make out.

Cheers

G

yeah it rules out malawi's pretty much but shellies could work.

there are some syno's native to places like lake tanganayika..... i'm not sure if yours is one of them..... but you have to remember in a lake there's a hell of a lot more room so much less agression.

by all means try it, but i'd have a back up plan ready for if it doesn't work out.

they've some lovely shellies in our lfs's but they are really agressive and territorial, if your syno is too it could end up in a lot of competition for homes and lots of fighting.

 

[Ava_Banana]

....at the end of the day the Syno could go to a LFS........they are both pretty fine examples.....around 7-8 inches long....really tall fins...but they do cause problems in the tanks.

Small fry dissapears. Sleeping neons tend to get hoovered. I lost two Apple Snails to one of them, just sucked out of their shells.

A group of shellies is beginning to sound interesting.

What would be a good number for that size footprint of tank (24 x 12 inches)?

 

[Miss Wiggle]

if the syno's causing that many problems and your not too attached to it i'd consider re-homing it. you can always try it with a group of shellies and if there's problems then take him to the lfs.

it would certainly open up more options for you if you're prepared to re-home him.

i don't know a massive amount about shellies.... here's what i know

you keep a high ph like malawi's... get some tuffa rock or crushed sea shells to get it up, needs to be around 8 i think.
decor is rocks and you guessed it... lots of shells
stock fairly heavily to dissipate aggression
they've got bags of personality and have a really interesting society you can get involved with

other than that ask in the old world cichlids section, they'll point you in the right direction.