Got My First Fish!

[Iron Man]

OK I decided not to do a fishless cycle and go ahead and buy some zebra danios to cycle the 55 gallon. I bought ten danios and a couple bunches of Cabomba plants while I was at it. Everything is really nice accept for the fact there is some kind of leopard danio in there with my zebras. Oh well.....he seems to enjoy the company and thinks he's a zebra anyway.

My plans were to cycle the tank with these for a few weeks and then trade them in on an equal number of say the harlequin rasboras I plan to keep in a community of other fish. Then I'll add a couple fish and live plants every now and then as I go.

IF I plan to keep these danios (I'm a fan of them), I would ditch the idea to get angels (don't think they'd be very happy with the hyper danios) and get neons, rasboras, hatchetfish (maybe) or swordtail/platies, and some cories for the bottom. I'd also have some ghost shrimp, snails, and maybe a couple freshwater clams to see how that goes.

Anyone see a problem with this set up? Would the danios/swordtails pick on the shrimp?

 

[LoachLover]

You know......I've always had bad luck with shrimp, I've had my cories have a fit and go and attack them

 

[SirMinion]

Beware getting clams for your tank:
When freshwater clams breed, which they do readily in the aquarium, the larvea are parasitic and burrow into the skin of fish creating cysts.
In the wild this doesn't cause much of a problem as each fish might only get one or two cysts, but in the confinment of a tank the effect of hundreds of parasitic larvae burrowing into a small handfull of fish is not pretty.

Sorry for the horror story. Don't have nightmares!

 

[LoachLover]

Beware getting clams for your tank:
When freshwater clams breed, which they do readily in the aquarium, the larvea are parasitic and burrow into the skin of fish creating cysts.
In the wild this doesn't cause much of a problem as each fish might only get one or two cysts, but in the confinment of a tank the effect of hundreds of parasitic larvae burrowing into a small handfull of fish is not pretty.

Sorry for the horror story. Don't have nightmares!

Yeah, that is basically why they say it's easier to tank care of a bigger tank (which it is) because it gives you more room for error.

 

[sylvia]

Other than that, the fish would work fine together. However, you could still get the angels - they do fine with danios - just don't mix the angels with any very small tetras such as neons. Oh BTW, the leopard danio IS a zebra danio They are the same species (though they have different scientific names).

 

[LoachLover]

Yeah the angel would probably be ok with the danios. If they angels start getting picked on it won't be the danio to have the last say

 

[rdd1952]

I've had no problems with the shrimp and corys together. the shrimp probably gives the corys more grief than the other way around. When the shrimp are playing, they just walk over the top of the corys like their rocks or something. I would suggest maybe getting algae eating shrimp like amanos or red cherrys though. Ghost shrimp are scavengers like corys so they won't help at all if you start getting algae.

 

[bunjiweb]

Angels and Danios go well together. Just make sure you dont add angels until your tank has been running about a month or so.

You could also go for a school of golden barbs or a medium sized tetra such as columbian or maybe black widow tetras?

Have you thought about bottom feeders? clown Loaches, yoyo loaches and zebra loaches generally go well with angels but be careful as some loaches can be nippy..

Other bottom feeders to consider are Upsidedown cats, Syno petricola or another smaller synodontis, or maybe even a big group of corydoryas.

Ben

 

[LoachLover]

I've had no problems with the shrimp and corys together. the shrimp probably gives the corys more grief than the other way around. When the shrimp are playing, they just walk over the top of the corys like their rocks or something. I would suggest maybe getting algae eating shrimp like amanos or red cherrys though. Ghost shrimp are scavengers like corys so they won't help at all if you start getting algae.

Well I think my one corie cat had issues

He was a little pistol with most the fish.

 

[Iron Man]

OK after reading all of your posts, I've come to realize the flaws in the planned set up. The shrimp and cories might get along (if the angels didn't devour them), but they would be competing for flakes, etc. at the bottom. I like shrimp AND cories but the cories win out on this one! I think I'll try a couple amano shrimp instead, as suggested. Something about them being algae eating shrimp tells me they'd be good at hiding in the plants and they'd help the snails out with eating the algae, without eating my plants. But yea I will definately be getting cories no matter what. They are my favorite catfish of all time!

SirMinion - Thanks for the heads up!! I didn't know anything about that but I'm glad you told me! I have scratched the freshwater clam idea.

Glad to hear the danios are the same....he sure doesn't mind being with the others so far. It is too early to tell whether I'll be keeping the danios or not, as less danios means more rasboras or whatever. Time will tell how attached to them I get.

Thanks for all the help!!