stocking campatibility

[Paul_MTS]

I'm searching for a 5ft tank which willbe atleast 300litres and wondering how my plans sound.

3-4 bala sharks
3-4 clown loach
2 angels
lots of plecs including, para's, sailfin, common(maybe) golden nugget)
and a red tailed black shark
cory's
and was thinking of a knife fish or some a largish odd ball.

not sure if i'm going to plant it yet but it will have th same substrate as my over tnaks which is a course sand/fine gravel.

I'm thinking of making it a double sided veiwing so make the background each end rather than the back as it's going to be plonked in the middle of my bedroom!! Would it work having it set up like that?

 

[bunjiweb]

Backgrounds arent necessary at all, as long as there are plants etc. in the middle of the tank.

If you plan on getting plecs, loaches and corys they will love you for going with sand.

As for the stocking, bala sharks can grow quite big. Why not get something like silver sharks or more RTB Sharks.

Clown loaches are always good!

I think personally though you should forget the angels, they will just become targets if you plan on getting sharks and oddballs.

Ben

 

[Paul_MTS]

Yer so I could plant the back gorund plants in the middle then foregorunds on each side....

I'll have to post a close up of the substrate, I really like it as it won't compress up like sand and it's not your usually pebble gravel!! Not sure if things like khuli loach will like to to burrow in though.

Bala sharks and silver shakrs are the same just different common names, (grow to about 1 ft, jump well!)

I aksed about how mnay RTB i could keep in the cypranid section, how many would live togther?

I suppose with that tank being a big community I could make my 110 litre into a tank for angels? as I really like them, but would happiliy buy lots of sharks and plecs over them!

 

[bunjiweb]

I've seen silver sharks and bala sharks labelled differently? Silver sharks only grow to 20cm I have read.

I may be wrong though

Ben

 

[Cheese Specialist]

I think you'd be overcrowding a 300l tank if you got what you said initially. Common and Gibby plecs get very large and create a lot of waste, as I am sure you are aware. Add to that 4 clown loaches which also get big and the RTBS and the bottom is way too occupied IMO.

I also would not put balas in less than 6ft and silver shark, here at elast, is another name for bala.

 

[ryan]

I'd agree with Cheese. The Gibbiceps/Salfin Pleco and Common Pleco will produce alot of waste and as they become larger become aggressive with other fish like the smaller Plecs and large Disc shaped Angels which they may take a liking to because of their slime coating. Bala or Silver Sharks need 75g minimum but they do take time to grow but will require plenty of open water for swimming as they are an active shoaling species.

What species of Knife are you looking at, a African Brown Knife Xenomystus nigri would work well but others like a Clown Knife wouldn't. You may want to try the two sharks together if the bottom is quite lightly stocked however, IME they tend to go for anything of a slightly similar shape and will occupy large territories.

 

[Paul_MTS]

damn, plans floored again!!

Wel I don't think I can fit a 6ft in my room, If I can I probable won't beable to see round it to watch tv!!

Well scrap the common then, but I'ved already bought a 2 inch sailfin which is currently in my 3ft community, I'ved planned on moving him into the new tank after a while then adding a bristle nose to my 3ft instead.

If I can't have me balas what over largish schoaling fish could I have?

If I kit it out with large bladed plants lots of rocks and bogwood then surefly there will be enough sucking space for all!!

I though the clown loach are considered more as mid level swimmers?

Have you got some pictures on the african knife? I like the black ghost knife fish alot out of the eones I'ved seen.

 

[Cavafish]

I have a 5ft 400 litre (88 UK gallons) tank with some of the fish you've mentioned.

Bala (silver is the same thing as far as I am aware) sharks are great but you do need to get a group as you are suggesting. The y are definately mid-watre fish IME. The clown loaches will swim all over the tank but do tend to stop and 'rest' a lot which invariably means sitting on the bottom of the tank.

I dont have cories but I believe that the substrate is their area as well as the plecs. You could be overloading the bottom area of the tank as well as the prevously mentioned waste issue with the plecs.

I would get furthre advice on a RTB shark before you go for one - I believe that they get quite grumpy towards other fish as they get older especially those of the same type as themselves i.e. other sharks and therefore wouldn't mix with the balas too well. Like I said though, get some other advice on them as I am not 100% on this but am sure this is what we were advised when we got our Balas.

As for the oddball, I am one so people say but I dont know anything about them!

 

[Pointy_kitty]

even in a large tank i would be catious about RTBS as they don't take kindly to anything of simular species or even shape
and they tend to be territory hogs patrolling large spaces in search for intruders
the larger the tank, the more dosile the shark
but i have seen them in a 75 gallon where people had 2 and they would always find each other
they were both determined to dominate and would scrap until one of them was injured then it would flee and the other would give chase until it hid
nasty business
beautiful sharks but i myself wouldn't be that brave
considering you should only keep one, the question is, do you have enough territory to satisfy these VERY greedy fish?

 

[Paul_MTS]

Well on my much wanted list includes.

clown loach
RTBS
and various plecs.

The rest I'm not sure about.

As I said I'm yet to find a tank so will still be a couple of weeks before I can start stocking anyways so have plenty of time to figure it out!!

I'm not really interested in Cichilids so have to work out a nice community!!

 

[rvm]

I've read so many different reports on Balas as I'm looking at getting some for my tank as well. I've seen max sizes rated at anything between 9"-16"!!! I would take 12" to be the common ground!!! they do need a lot of room to swim, but with 5ft I'd think you'd be OK, as long as it is wider than 12"!!
As for the RTBS, nice fish, but it probably means you can't get the Balas, so personally I'd avoid it.
Silver Dollars would also be a good large schoaling fish.
And careful with those Plecs, as Cheese advised, most get big, and they are filth machines!!! I have one in my 140g, and it's staying that way until my Royal is big enough to go in there. 2 Plecs in that tank is more than enough IMO!!!

 

[ryan]

rvm is talking along the same lines as me. I think the Balas would be fine in a group of three or you could try another large shoaling species maybe a Characin like Silver Dollars although your plants will be in serious trouble then. I keep an Red Finned Shark (here) that is more mild tempered than the RTBS, mine lives happily in a community set-up with various Botias and smaller fish like White Cloud Moutain Minnows with no problems except the odd chase which hurts no one. From my experience with Salfin Plecs they start to turn quite nasty at about 8-10" and although mine had plenty of room it went after my L177 Golden Nugget and L066 King Tiger Plecs with some aggression so it had to be re-homed.

 

[Pointy_kitty]

rvm is talking along the same lines as me. I think the Balas would be fine in a group of three or you could try another large shoaling species maybe a Characin like Silver Dollars although your plants will be in serious trouble then. I keep an Red Finned Shark (here) that is more mild tempered than the RTBS, mine lives happily in a community set-up with various Botias and smaller fish like White Cloud Moutain Minnows with no problems except the odd chase which hurts no one. From my experience with Salfin Plecs they start to turn quite nasty at about 8-10" and although mine had plenty of room it went after my L177 Golden Nugget and L066 King Tiger Plecs with some aggression so it had to be re-homed.

but he is still limited to one shark per tank even with the rainbow species
something commonly overlooked
both RTBS and Rainbow sharks can be found in albino form
do not mistake them for another fish
neither of these should be kept with simular looking ciprids like flying foxes either

 

[Paul_MTS]

hmmmm didn't know it would be such hard work stocking a large tank!!

I'm currently looking into a tank thats already stocked so will have to see how things go and it's a 6ft one instead.

Not too keen on the silver dollars look a bit plain to me!!

If my sailfin does get nasty I'm sure my LFS has a display tank he would like or might be able to sell.

Also I know it's gernally a no no but on a tank so big how much would a radiator affect the tank if I got a heat reducing board to put between them, as for a such a large tank i'm goingto run out of options to put it.

This guy has it stocked with a few large plec and i mean big like 1ft long 1 is thats on the glass in the picture (danio has seen it) 2 RTBS, 3 bala sharks and lots of gouramai.

 

[Cavafish]

I think from what people are saying here that you need to shift RTBS off of your 'most wanted' list and keep the balas on. They are very peaceful and very graceful fish. They will also fill your mid-water area well. See this link for more info or the current thread in the Cyprinids and Charachins forum. LINK

Silver Dollars are great fish too (I have no personal experience of them, friends of mine keep them though), although as already mentioned they will munch your plants faster than you can go

If you go for the clown loaches, balas and the plecs think about their potential full size. I was told that Balas can go up to 14" but in aquariums the most seen is 10-11".
There was a thread on here about the size of clown loaches LOACHES

Check out the other pinned articles in the Fish Index forum.

HTH

Cava