Restocking My Planted Rio 240

[scouse_andy]

Having just got back off my long Summer holidays, I am now in a position to finish stocking all my tanks and am rejigging a few things. Basically, I am moving some of the smaller fish in my main tank (Cherry barbs, Honey Gourami and Black phantom tetras) into a smaller community tank. This will leave me with plenty of space in my main tank for some slightly bigger fish.

It is a Juwel Rio 240, 4 foot, 65 gallon tank. The water is quite hard like most of Southern England and pH is between 7.6 and 7.8. I will keep my zebra danio in there (I have 20 juveniles in there now but may sell some on so I have about ten left to create some more stocking space) The only other fish that I plan to keep in there are 6 swordtails (currently too young to sex but hoping for a greater number of females than males) and a female bristlenose plec.

My plans are to buy an extra male bristlenose to hopefully pair up with my female, I'll try to find an adult from somewhere. Any suggestions? Three Siamese Algae Eaters (my LFS has these in at the moment with some adult fish in the display tank so I'm convinced they're the real deal and not going to turn nasty like the fake ones).

I am also keen on some ticto/odessa barbs, I'm thinking of a shoal of 6, three of each sex. I'd like to finish the tank off with a shoal of Congo tetra (6 minimum but maybe 8 or 9 and I'll try to sex them to avoid aggression).

My tank is quite heavily planted with a sand substrate and I would really appreciate any comments about my plans.

1. Are there any other fish which anybody could recommend me to check out for this type of setup? If I sell on some of the danio I may well have a bit of space left. I was considering Lake Kutubu rainbowfish - anybody know much about these?

2. Can anyone see any obvious compatability problems with my stocking?

Thanks in advance, Andy.

 

[Biulu]

Seen the pH of your water the rainbowfish and congo tetras seem a better choice than the odessa barbs.

 

[scouse_andy]

I thought Odessa Barbs weren't too fussy when it came to pH.

 

[BigC]

Congo's are excellent, go for more than 6 though for a better effect.
Boesmani rainbows are another good choice for schooling.
I breed killifish and IMHO light sand washes out the colours of the fish. A darker substrate is more advisable (from experience) You can get some nice dark hobby gravels these days that have a fine particles that are just slightly larger than sand. A surface plant such as Salvinia natans would also help. The colours of the fish will be greatly enhanced.
Regards
BigC

 

[scouse_andy]

Yes I've seen Boesemani's and they look nice, a bit similar to the Congos in terms of behaviour and area they occupy so may well go for a larger shoal of congos as you suggest, maybe 10.

 

[Biulu]

Congo's are excellent, go for more than 6 though for a better effect.
Boesmani rainbows are another good choice for schooling.
I breed killifish and IMHO light sand washes out the colours of the fish. A darker substrate is more advisable (from experience) You can get some nice dark hobby gravels these days that have a fine particles that are just slightly larger than sand. A surface plant such as Salvinia natans would also help. The colours of the fish will be greatly enhanced.
Regards
BigC

Do you have picture of these hobby gravels? Where do you buy them? In an aquarium shop or somewhere else?

 

[BigC]

Do you have picture of these hobby gravels? Where do you buy them? In an aquarium shop or somewhere else?

http/www.estesco.com/aqua.html
http/www.estesco.com/pdf/aqua.pdf

 

[Biulu]

Those look very good BigC! Thanks very much! Now I need to find a dealer around here......