Mid-Upper Level Center Piece Fish

[karin]

Hi all.

I have a 36 gallon bow front tank with sand substrate and about 30% planted with two chunks of mopani wood.
I have two filters running, an aquaclear 50 and an aquaclear 30.
There is a pair of bolivian rams, 2 golden weather loaches, 6 Von Rio flame tetras, and a long-finned albino bristlenose pleco.

I'm planning to increase the tetras to 10. Any ideas for a mid-upper level center piece fish?

I don't want another lower level dwarf cichlid in there. I'm not that fond of swords or platies. Thinking gourami or a betta? Bring on the ideas.

 

[-FighterFishh]

Hi all.

I have a 36 gallon bow front tank with sand substrate and about 30% planted with two chunks of mopani wood.
I have two filters running, an aquaclear 50 and an aquaclear 30.
There is a pair of bolivian rams, 2 golden weather loaches, 6 Von Rio flame tetras, and a long-finned albino bristlenose pleco.

I'm planning to increase the tetras to 10. Any ideas for a mid-upper level center piece fish?

I don't want another lower level dwarf cichlid in there. I'm not that fond of swords or platies. Thinking gourami or a betta? Bring on the ideas.

I would probably say a paradise gourami would be nice, since I don't think that bettas mix well with bolivian rams

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

Presumeably you have the tank temp set at ~25/26C for the Bolivian Rams, in which case those two Weather Loaches need new homes on several accounts...

• They are sub-tropical fish that need a regular temp closer to the 20-22C ballpark
• They are extremely social fish, my eight are regularly interacting with each other, often buried in very uncomfortable looking positions in the sand under the bodwood islands in their tank.
• They should reach something in the 25-30cm ballpark, so they need a 5-foot tank and good filtration.

 

[KittyKat]

Gourami, definitely. A group of honey, or a trio of dwarf, or a single three-stop or a single lace gourami.

I would probably say a paradise gourami would be nice, since I don't think that bettas mix well with bolivian rams

I would advise against because paradise fish do better in cooler water (same as the loaches, cf above).

 

[karin]

In my research, there is an overlap in temperatures at 24 to 25 C. The tank is at 24C right now and all fish are active. Just a note, it is the German Blue Rams that need higher temps. Not true of the Bolivian rams. The golden weather loaches in the wild get to 10 inches.... rather the regular weather loaches as I think the golden are not a wild occurance (not certain on that) but plenty of sources say they stay around 6 inches in tanks. Nevertheless, I'm a pretty conscientious fishkeeper so all fish will be taken care of. And I have a bigger tank and am keen on a bigger tank even still.

I do watch everything carefully.

Sounds like gourami are getting the vote.

 

[KittyKat]

The golden weather loaches in the wild get to 10 inches.... rather the regular weather loaches as I think the golden are not a wild occurance (not certain on that) but plenty of sources say they stay around 6 inches in tanks. Nevertheless, I'm a pretty conscientious fishkeeper so all fish will be taken care of. And I have a bigger tank and am keen on a bigger tank even still.

I personally believe that many captive bred fish have a similar potential as their wild counterparts, and I have seen gold coloured weather loaches which were in the 10 inch region.. and at least in my experience, weather loaches they did much better at 15-18 C than at tropical temperatures (the ranges at which fish will flourish are usually smaller than those at which they will live, which in turn are smaller than those at which they will survive).

It is, of course, possible that aquarium bred strains could prefer higher temperatures and not grow as large. But as you, I can not remember now if the gold colour morph is aquarium bred or not.. but I am edging toward not.

Fish in home aquaria rarely reach their full potential as (I estimate) the vast majority of aquarists do not give their fish the best care possible. I mean, there are times even when I know that I am neglecting my fish by, for example going on holiday or forgetting to do something specific which I should be doing, or not giving them enough variety in food, or feeding predominantly dry food, or whatever.

(Please note, I am not trying to pick on you in any way, just some observations I have made over the years.)

For example, Bolivian rams are often listed at 3-4 inch adult size, yet I have often seen them at 5-6 inches when kept in large aquaria. Apisto. cacatuoides, listed often as 2 inches, in practice males can get up to 3.5 inches easily. Harlequin rasboras: 1.5 inches, in practice I have seen 2.5 on some occasions and just over 2 inches very often.