Hmm.... Predicament

[jkrekord]

Hello all, well i havent posted in a while, been busy. As some of you may know i have been saveing up to buy a bigger tank and switch marine, however down to a veryyyy high phone bill, i can no longer afford to do so. I have realized im going to have to stick with my current tank and stay tropical.
Now for the fun part lol. Theres a few fish im interested in but sadly i dont actually know all that much about them. My tank is 96 litres, but can round it up and class it as 100 litres B)
Im really rather fascinated by predatory fish. Heres a small list of fish im interested in, would they all be ok in my tank? Are they compatible? What are their main requiremnts? Any additional info? Also if you have any other reccomendations then list them.
Rainbow Wolffish
African Butterflyfish
African Bush Fish

Regards, James

 

[nmonks]

Rainbow Wolffish

Hoplias malabaricus. Maximum size over 60 cm, so no, not even remotely suitable for your tank. Also territorial and best kept one to a tank.

African Butterflyfish

Pantodon buchholzi. Maximum size around 8-10 cm in aquaria. Territorial towards one another, and your tank is probably suitable for just the one. Good community fish (assuming the tankmates aren't so small they'd be eaten).

African Bush Fish

Ctenopoma acutirostre. Maximum size about 15 cm in aquaria. Quite sociable provided not overcrowded, very peaceful towards fish too large to eat. Does not thrive when kept in cramped conditions (hides a lot). Also easily bullied when kept with aggressive fish. These are basically African versions of the South American angelfish in terms of behaviour and diet. Your tank is borderline for this species, and I'd actually encourage a smaller species of Ctenopoma or Microctenopoma if climbing perch are your thing. Microctenopoma fasciolatum for example.

Cheers, Neale

 

[jkrekord]

Thanks for that info. I will assume there are no other suitable wolffish for that tank then. Any other good suitabe predatory fish? Preferably that look monstrous like wolffish

 

[CFC]

The rainbow wolf fish is Erythrinus erythrinus, a much smaller species than Hoplias malabaricus and usually doesnt grow much more than 8 inches in captivity, you could keep one as a solitary specimin in a 100 litre tank but like all wolf fish they can be very aggressive and will kill tankmates quite easily if they should feel like it.

 

[jkrekord]

Alright i've narrowed it down to 2 options. Either im going to keep a solitary Erythrinus erythrinus or im going to keep a rainbow snakehead.
Would an african butterflyfish be compataible with the snakehead? Any other good compatible fish for the snakehead?
In both setup ideas i am planning to try a bristlenose plec, i would take the risk with the wolffish.
I am definetley leaning more towards the wolffish everytime i see a picture of them im just in absolute awe, it would be a spectacular fish to keep.

 

[CFC]

Dwarf snakeheads tend to not be aggressive to other fish provided they are too large to be eaten and are not of a similar shape to the snakehead.

 

[Rubix]

I always round down, not up. When you consider the displacement of substrate and rocks it would be accurate to round down. Then again, if you don't have rocks and minimal amount of substrate you're probably ok.

 

[nmonks]

Hah! Why I hate common names and would ban them from the hobby if I could. So much easier to remember Latin names and make sure we're all talking about the same fish!

Cheers, Neale

The rainbow wolf fish is Erythrinus erythrinus...

 

[jkrekord]

Well i woke up this morning feeling even more undecided lol. A new idea came to me last night... shell dweller cichlids. And i cant help but wonder if there are any cool oddballs that would be compatible? Maybe the dwarf rainbow snakehead? or african butterflyfish? However i reckon the cichlids would just beat on the butterflyfish.
Im sorry about this people lol. Just wanna look carefully at my options and make the decision i'll be most happy with.

 

[nmonks]

Dwarf shell-dwellers are an awesome way to use a medium-sized tank. They mix perfectly with livebearers too, so you can easily add some unusual livebearers like Limia or halfbeaks, and have a busy, interesting tank that produces lots of baby fish you can sell! Best of all, the livebearers act as dither fish, so the little Lamprologus don't hide all the time.

Decorating these tanks is fun. You obviously need lots of shells, but floating plants such as Indian Fern will help a lot, too.

Cheers, Neale

 

[jkrekord]

AWESOME!!! That is now most likely what im going to do. In your expert opinion what would you say the best species of halfbeak to go for would be? What sized group of halfbeaks should i aim for? Filtration i will be useing will be a normal juwel internal filter, however if i need to i can add additional filtration from a hang on Aqua One Clear View filter, rated as 500 litres per hour.

 

[nmonks]

There's no question in my mind that any of the Dermogenys spp. halfbeaks would be the way to go. They thrive in hard, alkaline water and are small enough that you could keep a fair number without too many fights.* Nomorhamphus ebrardtii would be a good alternative, but (in my experience) the males are incredibly aggressive and chase everything, even midwater fish.

The Juwel filters are pretty good, at least in terms of biological filtration. So provided you were keeping small fish, there's no real need to supplement them. That said, I have a Fluval external filter added to my Juwel tank to produce a bit more water current and to increase the turnover to levels I consider appropriate. For small fish, any filtration system that gets you 4x the volume of the tank in turnover per hour is a good baseline. Look at the powerhead at the top of the Juwel filter to see what its turnover is. The one on my tank is 600 litres per hour, I think. Upgrading that to 6x the volume of the tank would be beneficial though, because Tanganyikan cichlids enjoy water current so much. The shell-dwellers are zooplankton feeders, and watching them flutter about in a strong water current will be a real treat.

Halfbeaks thrive in strong water currents, being river fishes, though they do like having one or two lower current spots in the tank to rest in.

Cheers, Neale

* I'd go with three males and at least five females. The males are tiny, and add nothing to the bioload. The females are bigger, and in my experience, much nicer fish. They are easy to tame -- I hand feed my female wrestling halfbeaks all the time!

AWESOME!!! That is now most likely what im going to do. In your expert opinion what would you say the best species of halfbeak to go for would be? What sized group of halfbeaks should i aim for? Filtration i will be useing will be a normal juwel internal filter, however if i need to i can add additional filtration from a hang on Aqua One Clear View filter, rated as 500 litres per hour.