New 50Gal Stocking

[Luna0341]

Anybody know anything about Orange Chromide? Or how common these fish are to come by? Another one I found that seems to like harder water was the Cobalt Goby. Any body got info on these two?

 

[Colin_T]

Orange Chromides are small peaceful fish that do best in a single species tank with plants. They tend to ignore dry foods and prefer frozen or live foods, but sometimes they can be encouraged to take dry foods.

Orange and green chromides are normally wild caught but some places do breed the orange ones. They normally appear on the market for 1 or 2 months a year but most shops don't order them in because they aren't big sellers.

One of the members on here was breeding them a little while ago. Maybe do a search for orange chromides and see if they are still around.

No idea about the cobalt goby (Stiphodon semoni) apart from seeing pictures of them in books. They are usually from New Guinea and never seen in captivity. If people do have them, they usually collect them from the wild and bring them back to their tanks.

Gary Lange in the American Rainbowfish Association (ARA) might know someone who has the gobies but he might not. Last I heard he had a Facebook page for the ARA. Gary used to go to New Guinea each year and collect rainbowfish to bring back into America. he might have brought gobies back too but you would have to check with him.

 

[Essjay]

In the UK there are a couple of species of stiphodon readily available - S. semoni and and S. atropurpureus. However, shops here tend to invent common names for these fish, so one might use cobalt goby for one species, another shop may use that name for another. Both species are OK in hardness up to 215 ppm, though nearer the middle of the range is better. They need well oxygenated water though, which usually means faster flowing water so they are not really compatible with sedate fish which prefer a slow water flow.

Stiphodon semoni – Cobalt Blue Goby — Seriously Fish

www.seriouslyfish.com

Stiphodon atropurpureus – Blue Neon Goby (Microsicydium atropurpureum, Microsicydium formosum) — Seriously Fish

www.seriouslyfish.com

 

[Wills]

HI missed this thread looks like you are in an interesting place Along with your Bosemani Rainbows you could look at some of the smaller rainbows like Kamaka or Dwarf Neon Lazer - bit rarer than something like Dwarf Neon but better quality - Dwarf Neons are nice but are a bit over bred at the moment so prone to disease. The other option would be Forktail Rainbows or an other option for a schooling fish would be Ricefish or Medeka.

As youve mentioned livebearers are a good option for hardwater and really under rated in tanks like this IMO some beautiful strains of Swordtails and Platies - I really like Kohaku and Coral Reds of both species. Golden Wonder Killifish are a good hard water species, quite interesting shape and a surface dweller and they are really brightly coloured.

Instead of your cories you could look at Synodontis catfish from Lake Tanganyika like S.Polli, S.Lucipinis or S.Petricola keep them in a group of 5 and they all grow between 3 and 5 inches - 5 inches is rare though.

The Chromide could be an option but I prefer Central American Cichlids, in a tank this size something like a Sajica or an Ellioti could do well. Rainbow Cichlids are a really nice fish too. Most of the smaller Amatitlania, Cryptoheros or Thoricthys species will do well in this sized tank - but I would knock off a few of the smaller species I mentioned from the list.

A lot of people view hard water as a negative and I did for a long time too (I have hardwater) but there are loads of great options for us to keep. Even at the nano end of the scale Dwarf Puffers do great, Emerald and Galaxy Rasboras, Rosy Loaches, Endlers etc plenty of great options! And if you have really hard water and a big tank you can always go down the rift lake route with Mbuna or Peacocks - though not with the other fish I've mentioned.

Wills

 

[Luna0341]

Very cool! Thanks. I think y'all have given me some good options and things to think about. It'll be a long while before I get it going but I'll post a pic when I get it done.

 

[Luna0341]

My family may be moving this year, and I want to wait till we in new house before I start this project. Moving my 10gal to new place will be stressful enough, I'm not going to start a 50 if I'm gonna be moving. But I've been looking into fish that will work with my hard water. I think I'm going to do just a straight species tank of Rainbows.

 

[Colin_T]

If you're interested in rainbowfish, the following link might be worth a look. It has all the known rainbowfishes from Australia and New Guinea.

Melanotaeniidae and Pseudomugilidae

A website dedicated to Rainbowfishes of Australia and New Guinea

rainbowfish.angfaqld.org.au

If you get a few species of rainbowfish, they can live together in a community tank and you can move the pairs into a breeding tank or pond for a few weeks to reproduce. Then move the adults back into the main display tank and grow up the babies. Sell the young fish and use the money to pay for the hobby.

 

[Wills]

Great choice Like Colin said if you get a mix they will look stunning! If you can use Aquabid look out for a guy called Gary Lang, he breeds and collects the best Rainbows and sells them through Aquabid in the US.

Wills

 

[Colin_T]

As Wills said, if you want rainbowfish, try to get them from Gary or one of his customers because they should be free of disease (fish TB) and be true species.