New 50 gallon stocking ideas

[Byron]

I like the corydoras you named, I didn't know the orange one and also I will try to get cardinal tetras. Also with all the things you listed + what I listed for exemple : 15 cardinal tetra, 15 rasboras, 5 pearl gourami, 5 ottocinclus, 10 corydoras, 1 amano shrimp, one nerite, will I be still able to not do a water change during 2 weeks if I am in vacation? I have and will have more fast growing plants and I have a filter for 40 to 70 gallon. I prefer to understock just to be sure

Temporary things like vacation is not the same as regular week-by-week care for the rest of the year, and if the fish are healthy with the week-by-week largish water changes they can manage through a vacation. Not feeding them during the vacation helps too.

I would like to get bolivian ram or appistograma but I am scared they would be agressive when they would possibly breed. I really like the idea of sparkling gouramis, I didn't think about that

If you have a male/female pair of any cichlid, they will likely spawn (though the "bonding" issue does hold up for most of them). The Bolivian Ram does very well as a solitary fish in a tank of characins, cories, etc. My male Bolivian thrived into his 9th year (normal life expectancy is 4-5 years) on his own in a 5-foot tank of 50+ cories and 120 or more upper characins. He ruled the tank, though, there was never any doubt about that in any of the other fishes' minds. Cichlids will push cories away from "their" food, since both are substrate feeders, but cories are pretty well protected, though a spawning pair of some cichlids could be a different matter.

 

[Meg0000]

I started to scape my tank today, this is how it looks right now but it is still very cloudy. The wood is terrarium wood, is it aquarium safe? The employee told me it would be ok.
I added stem plants at the back but I don't know their name.The employee told me they grow fast so it will probaly soon fill the space better. I would still like if someone could help me to identify them tommorow when the water will be less cloudy. I will also add some java moss on the edges of the wood because the edges have been cut and it does not look natural and I will add jungle vallsineria to fill the back. Last thing, can I cycle my tank with my paradise fish for the moment?

 

[utahfish]

Also forgot to mention RAms apistogram and gourami, excluding the sparkling pygmy gourami will eat shrimp even bigger ones like amanos

 

[Meg0000]

Also forgot to mention RAms apistogram and gourami, excluding the sparkling pygmy gourami will eat shrimp even bigger ones like amanos

so pearl gourami would eat amano shrimps?

 

[JuiceBox52]

so pearl gourami would eat amano shrimps?

Its definitely a possibility

 

[Meg0000]

Its definitely a possibility

ok then no shrimp

 

[utahfish]

so pearl gourami would eat amano shrimps?

Yup absolutely. They get about 4 to 5 inches and dwarf gourami get about 3 inches will eat shrimp. The only gourami that wont eat full grown shrimp are sparkling gourami that get about an inch long.

 

[Meg0000]

Do bristle nose pleco eat plants? I love how they look but that always scare me

 

[utahfish]

Do bristle nose pleco eat plants? I love how they look but that always scare me

Nope bristle nose wont eat plants. But they do need wood to munch on.

 

[Byron]

I started to scape my tank today, this is how it looks right now but it is still very cloudy. The wood is terrarium wood, is it aquarium safe? The employee told me it would be ok.
I added stem plants at the back but I don't know their name.The employee told me they grow fast so it will probaly soon fill the space better. I would still like if someone could help me to identify them tommorow when the water will be less cloudy. I will also add some java moss on the edges of the wood because the edges have been cut and it does not look natural and I will add jungle vallsineria to fill the back. Last thing, can I cycle my tank with my paradise fish for the moment?

Yes on the last question. The one fish to nearly 50 gallons of water is not going to have cycling issues, and the plants once they begin growing will be taking up any ammonia the one fish can produce.

Looking ahead, see if you can find some floating plants though, these make a big difference to water (permanently) and also fish (they do not appreciate overhead light).

At the moment I really cannot make out the plants, but that can wait. On the wood, keep an eye on it. I have always been told not to use terrarium wood in an aquarium, but having said that I would expect much of it to be the same wood species. Watch out for white slime-like fungus on the wood, that can be deadly if it is toxic (I had it).

The aquascape is yours, so I will just mention what I would do here but there is nothing wrong with what you have if that is what you want. I find long tanks easiest to aquascape if I consider individual areas distinct, and then somehow connect them up. And like the advice to never have two flowers but either one or three in a vase, I try for three individual areas, but of differing sizes. This gives the impression the tank is larger than it is, whereas even identically-spaced areas can make it seem smaller, visually. But that is something I always notice, other may not and it doesn't matter otherwise.

 

[Meg0000]

Yes on the last question. The one fish to nearly 50 gallons of water is not going to have cycling issues, and the plants once they begin growing will be taking up any ammonia the one fish can produce.

Looking ahead, see if you can find some floating plants though, these make a big difference to water (permanently) and also fish (they do not appreciate overhead light).

At the moment I really cannot make out the plants, but that can wait. On the wood, keep an eye on it. I have always been told not to use terrarium wood in an aquarium, but having said that I would expect much of it to be the same wood species. Watch out for white slime-like fungus on the wood, that can be deadly if it is toxic (I had it).

The aquascape is yours, so I will just mention what I would do here but there is nothing wrong with what you have if that is what you want. I find long tanks easiest to aquascape if I consider individual areas distinct, and then somehow connect them up. And like the advice to never have two flowers but either one or three in a vase, I try for three individual areas, but of differing sizes. This gives the impression the tank is larger than it is, whereas even identically-spaced areas can make it seem smaller, visually. But that is something I always notice, other may not and it doesn't matter otherwise.

I agree with you for the aquascape but I was on a budget and I will for sure add other elements later. I personnaly think it is also fun to build a tank slowly during a long period of time so there is always something new. What should I do if there is fungus?

 

[Byron]

What should I do if there is fungus?

Let's hope there is none. But the white fungus that appears from inside the wood has many species, and some are safe while others are highly toxic. It seems to be more prevalent with the blond branchy woods like spiderwood, grapewood, though I have no idea how "accurate" these names might be. After I had an issue with a piece of whatever it was, I stopped buying any wood except the dark brown Malaysian Driftwood; I have never had fungus with this (and I have a lot of it) nor heard of fungus with it.

In my case, within a day of adding the wood to the tank the water became a bit hazy, much like a bacterial bloom, so I though t little of it. But then I spotted that all of the cories were respirating very rapidly. And the wood has this sort of slime on parts of it. I did a 75% water change and took out the wood and scrubbed it under the tap. Fish seemed OK, cloudiness was gone, so next day I put the wood back, and by the end of the day, same issues. This time I did the same but took the wood out and let it completely dry for a few months, then put it in another aquarium. It took about a week before I noticed respiration problems, and patches of this fungus on the rear side of the wood where I couldn't see it. Tossed the wood.

I happened to know a microbiologist thrugh another forum at the time, and I mentioned this and also posted about it. Other members reported similar experiences with "grapewood" and the microbiolgist said this was common with some types of wood but it would take analysis by a microbiologist to identify the fungus species. Her advice was to not use the wood or any similar type.

A couple weeks after this, I happened to be in one of my local stores where the owner knew me very well, and I overheard another customer describing similar problems. I caught the owner's eye and she asked me to join the conversation, and it turned out this customer lost all his cories overnight to similar cloudiness and patches of fungus.

 

[Austin Burgess]

Temporary things like vacation is not the same as regular week-by-week care for the rest of the year, and if the fish are healthy with the week-by-week largish water changes they can manage through a vacation. Not feeding them during the vacation helps too.



If you have a male/female pair of any cichlid, they will likely spawn (though the "bonding" issue does hold up for most of them). The Bolivian Ram does very well as a solitary fish in a tank of characins, cories, etc. My male Bolivian thrived into his 9th year (normal life expectancy is 4-5 years) on his own in a 5-foot tank of 50+ cories and 120 or more upper characins. He ruled the tank, though, there was never any doubt about that in any of the other fishes' minds. Cichlids will push cories away from "their" food, since both are substrate feeders, but cories are pretty well protected, though a spawning pair of some cichlids could be a different matter.

Reading this and I have a curious thought.

Is the Bolivian ram the only one comfortable as a solo "centerpiece" type fish? Apisto, GBRs, Angels, Gouramis, most of them prefer either a pair or school right?

 

[JuiceBox52]

Reading this and I have a curious thought.

Is the Bolivian ram the only one comfortable as a solo "centerpiece" type fish? Apisto, GBRs, Angels, Gouramis, most of them prefer either a pair or school right?

Yes I believe so

 

[Byron]

Reading this and I have a curious thought.

Is the Bolivian ram the only one comfortable as a solo "centerpiece" type fish? Apisto, GBRs, Angels, Gouramis, most of them prefer either a pair or school right?

Angelfish (whichever species) is a shoaling fish and is always found in groups in their habitats. The groups are not that large compared to other shoaling fish like Corydoras, the characins, etc. I have noticed shoals of a dozen or so in videos of habitats, but that does not mean they may not have larger shoals elsewhere. This fish should either be maintained in a group of at least five (recognizing the likely issues as the fish mature) or a bonded mated pair. Some do keep it as a lone individual, and I cannot say how the fish feels about this, but keeping in mind their inherent nature which is in the fish's DNA programming, and Dr. Loiselle's comment in green in my signature block, I must assume the fish is not very happy. The same applies to discus, which is similarly a shoaling species.

Other cichlids vary depending upon species. The common or blue ran, Mikrogeophagus ramirezi, occurs in the oases that dot the savannas in the catchment area of the central Orinoco in Venezuela and Colombia. Linke & Staeck (1994) report the fish found in small streams in the oases, but only where overhanging vegetation and branchwork and leaf litter within the streams along the banks provides shelter from predators; a local fisherman said such areas hold "few" ramirezi, whereas more southern areas have more such zones and thus larger groups. This however is not a shoaling species; the fish just happen to live in proximity to one another, governed it would seem by the landscape. The same authors reported the solitary nature of the Mikrogeophagus altispinosus.

As for other dwarf cichlids such as Apistogramma, this depends upon the species. Some are harem species. None are shoaling in the strict sense of the term.

Gourami vary depending upon species. This group is very close to the cichlids in behaviours and temperament. I would have to research individual species, but there are some that do very well in small groups (though this is not "shoaling") in the aquarium, while others clearly do not.