Rescape And New Fish

[m1lky12]

Hey guys, was just going to share with you my plans for my new set up I'm thinking about and also would welcome some advice on a couple of things as well. I currently have an 80 liter corner tank which I set up back in the summer which I stocked with 2 Syondontis Catfish and a Zebra Loach which I had in my old 70 liter tank for years, I added some more Loaches as well as some Ruby Barbs and a Banjo Catfish. After loosing a loach and the banjo catfish I'm now not too happy with the mish mash of fish I've got in there, some of which aren't really suitable for the tank in the long term and want to go towards more of a biotope set up.

So I've found someone who will take the catfish off of my hands and I'm going to take my remaining fish back to my LFS hoping for some store credit and completely redo my tank as an Amazon biotope. I've also got a 175 liter corner tank sitting empty, waiting for me to convince my parents it won't be too heavy for my bedroom upstairs, so I'm stocking in anticipation a month or two down the line I can get this set up and move it all over, I'll also be buying a external filter (APS 1400EF) to free up some room in my current tank but will also be good enough for my (hopeful) upgrade. So here's my planned stock:

6+ Rummy Nose Tetras
6+ Corys (thinking panda or sterbai)
Banjo Cat/Whiptail/male Bristlenose/Clown Plec

Now here's where I could do with some advice and some opinions,

How many tetras and corys could I get away with in my 80 liter set up?
Also any advice as to which corys would be best suited?
Which combination of catfish or plecs would work? (I know ideally the bristlenose is too big for an 80 liter)
I know I'm pushing my stocking limits but any thoughts of a potential centerpiece?

Another thing is there's loads of tank journals out there that go through how to set up a Amazon Biotope, but I've not been able to find any which do so in a corner aquarium. It would be awesome if anyone could point me in the direction of one.

Any thoughts or advice would be much appreciated.

 

[kylealastairlove]

sounds like a good plan to me, amazon biotope would be great, id love to do one myself although im currently working on an asian biotope. i think stocking wise, you could add a few more rummy nose/corys in there, the more the merrier obviously to a sensible point though, if your willing to keep up with tank maintenence and water changes then it wouldnt be that bad if you are slightly over stocked as long as you keep your water parameters in check i dont really know much about plecs so i cant really reccomend anything about that, but for a centerpiece why dont you go with some kind of apistogramma dwarf cichlid, there are some fantastic looking apisto's out there

 

[Questions?]

i would do
8 rummynose
6 sterbai corys
1 BN pleco
1 male GBR or 1 female kribensis (brighter then males) or 1 male apistogramma
reason i suggest male or female of the last option is that the gender of that species is more colorful, therefore (in my opinion) they make a better center piece fish

 

[m1lky12]

sounds like a good plan to me, amazon biotope would be great, id love to do one myself although im currently working on an asian biotope. i think stocking wise, you could add a few more rummy nose/corys in there, the more the merrier

obviously to a sensible point though, if your willing to keep up with tank maintenence and water changes then it wouldnt be that bad if you are slightly over stocked as long as you keep your water parameters in check i dont really know much about plecs so i cant really reccomend anything about that, but for a centerpiece why dont you go with some kind of apistogramma dwarf cichlid, there are some fantastic looking apisto's out there

i would do
8 rummynose
6 sterbai corys
1 BN pleco
1 male GBR or 1 female kribensis (brighter then males) or 1 male apistogramma
reason i suggest male or female of the last option is that the gender of that species is more colorful, therefore (in my opinion) they make a better center piece fish

Hey guys thanks for the great advice! Taken what you've said on board so I'm looking at 8 Rummy Noses and 6 Corys, personally I prefer the Sterbai so that's what I'm thinking. The tank will be over filtered as it'll have a filter which in theory should be good for a 175 liter, however I have read Rummy Noses are pretty sensitive when it comes to water quality but generally I'm pretty good with keeping up to date with water changes so hopefully that won't be a problem.

In regards the the catfish/pleco question it's worth mentioning that if I manage to upgrade I'd like to have all 4 types in the tank as, to my knowledge, there shouldn't be any problems. Also there's only one shop locally I've seen whiptails and banjos in so I may not be able to help myself if I see one in there!

And as for the centerpiece I was thinking rams, but a thought to consider that if I get my upgrade I'd ideally like an angel so whatever I get would need to be compatible with that!

 

[Questions?]

rummynose, sterbai, bn plecos and rams are compatible with angels, but you would have to lower the rummynose to 6 and corys to 4 and you would probaly have to get rid of the ram, since angels think that the whole tank is thier territory and so unless the angel is put in last and grew up with the ram, then you would have to ditck the ram

 

[m1lky12]

rummynose, sterbai, bn plecos and rams are compatible with angels, but you would have to lower the rummynose to 6 and corys to 4 and you would probaly have to get rid of the ram, since angels think that the whole tank is thier territory and so unless the angel is put in last and grew up with the ram, then you would have to ditck the ram

Everything but the angel would be brought for my current 80 liter tank, I'd only get an angel if I got my 175 liter set up so it would be the last in anyway after adding to the cory and tetra numbers

 

[Questions?]

how big would it be? you would need to make sure it couldnt eat the rummynose, before they have a chance to grow to big (approx. 2.5 inches)

 

[m1lky12]

how big would it be? you would need to make sure it couldnt eat the rummynose, before they have a chance to grow to big (approx. 2.5 inches)

 

[m1lky12]

how big would it be? you would need to make sure it couldnt eat the rummynose, before they have a chance to grow to big (approx. 2.5 inches)

Realistically the first batch of Rummy Noses will have been with me for a month or two before hand, and the Angel will more than likely be a juvenile anyway so shouldn't be a problem there.

 

[Questions?]

ok, sounds good.

 

[m1lky12]

Just an update that my tank is 100 liters and not 80 liters as I previously assumed. It's the same Aqua One UFO 550 that another member made a thread about and ended up emailing Aqua One who confirmed this.

How would this affect my current planned stocking limits?

 

[Questions?]

you could make it 8 sterbais