Stocking Ideas For 240L

[tracyw]

Just wondering if anyone can point me in the direction of some good community fish to go into my 240

I will be having a good look around at the weekend at LFS but want to have an idea in my head of whats good community before I end up in the same situation again!

Colour wise I love Pinks Purples and Blues and anything unusual aswell!

Plant Ideas would be great too especially as the only reason I couldn't have plants before was because the cons destroyed them!

 

[Wills]

Hi again shame about the cons and all but I know the feeling I have restocked a tank many a time. It always gives you chance to find fish that really excite you all over the tank and a well planned tank makes it best for you to enjoy it through the time you have it.

How about a tank of Pearl Gourami, Black Ruby Barbs, Cherry Barbs, Zebra Loaches and a Rainbow Shark. Or a group of Cupid Cichlids with some Emperor Tetras, Panda Corydoras, Spotted Headstanders and a few twig/whiptail catfish - the red lizard whiptail is nice.

Wills

 

[Verminator89]

If you like the weird and wonderfull you could have a peacock eel as an unusual addition to a community set-up, certainly in this tank. As for shoaling fish in a tank thats 240L you could have some great shoaling fish. Depending how big you want the fish to be you could have a pretty big shoal of harlequins which look and shoal really well in big tanks. If you want some bigger centre piece fish such as gouramis/angels/cichlids ect then perhaps bigger shoaling fish such as some of the bigger tetras, or even dwarf neon rainbows. With a 240L tank you could probably house boesemani rainbows in a tank of this size without any problems. I'd go with dwarf neons personally. In my opinion in a tank this big don't let it go to waste with mollies/platys Just my two cents...

 

[tracyw]

Thanks for the ideas!!

I can now go and have a look at some of them and see whats available near me!

I just didn't want to make the same mistake again as what I did with the Cons.
Its a shame to let them go as they are fun to watch in their new tank but I can't justify the 240 just for them.

Will keep them until I have a definate stocking idea though

 

[meguro]

there are a lot of options for a tank like this. here are some more ideas of peaceful community tanks for u to consider.

4-8 angelfish. would need to remove pairs once they form (or the other way around and keep a pair)
12+ rummynose tetra
12+ blackneon tetra
2 bolivian rams or 3 apistogramma baenschi (or similar). 1m/1f or 1m/2f
8+ bronze catfish
1 bristlenose plec

40+ neon tetra or cardinal tetra or green neon tetra
10+ rummynose tetra
8 peppered catfish
5 otocinclus

6+ melanotaenia rainbowfish such as boesemani, splendida inornata, australis, trifasciata, lacustris. a minimum of 3 for each species
5+ loaches of same species. botia almorhae, botia kubotai, botia striata, botia rostrata.
1+ siamese algae eater

2 blue acara. 1m/1f
8+ flame tetra
8+ black widow tetra
8+ x-ray tetra
1 bristlenose plec

 

[ChilliPepper]

If you like purples, blues, reds, yellows then you'd love the Praecox Rainbowfish/Dwarf Rainbowfish/Neon Blue Rainbowfish. They generally look pretty dull in the LFS, but once you get them home under some good light and they are well looked after, they will reward you with some fantastic colours.
I have a group of 12 in my 50g, and I thoroughly recommend them

 

[tracyw]

So after an hour of removing rocks etc I managed to catch the cons and took them to a LFS.
He already had a tank full of cons so these fitted right in with his!

I then went to another larger LFS and saw some lovely fish.

I came away with a bristlenose plec.

Anyone have any information on Elephant Nose fish and Black Knife Fish?
I'm really liking the Elephant nose and have read up a little on them but just wondering if anyone on here has owned them?

 

[ChilliPepper]

The BGK will get too big for your tank, ideally they want a 5ft tank as they get up to 20", but I'm not sure how fast growing they are.

Elephant Noses also get big at 13" and need to be in a group.

 

[tracyw]

Thanks for that,
The guy at LFS said that I would be able to get 3 of each and when they have grown too big for my tank he will buy them back from me,

would they be ok with other smaller fish? I have read that they are bottom/middle swimmers so would ideally like them and some other middle/top swimmers

When they have grown too big for my tank I will take them back and get something else to replace them. Would that be an option?

I was also told that as long as there are plenty of hiding places and some plants for them to hide in that they wouldn't be a problem and would probably hide when the lights are on but become active after lights out and thats when they like to feed. have been told they eat live blood worms - they will eat frozen but do better on live,

How do you feed live worms? just tip them into the tank?

Obviously I'm trying to answer all the questions in my head before I manage another visit to LFS at the weekend!

 

[karin]

I would get the buy-back policy in writing.

 

[ChilliPepper]

Yeah, I also wouldn't trust the LFS sales persons word on buying them back when they get too big. Nothing to say that person will still be working there anyway.

Regarding the small fish, BGK are predatory fish who use a mild electrical current to locate prey. I think you would find your numbers diminish overnight. I wouldn't keep anything small enough to fit in its mouth.

Feeding live worms: wash them thoroughly under the tap, then hold the worm over the tank, cutting it into pieces with a pair of scissors.

I think nutritionally live and frozen are much the same, though predatory fish do like the added interest live food provides.

 

[Wills]

Yeah also to add multiple BGKs in that tank would end badly, because they are electric fishes their currents get jammed in small tanks ie tanks not big enough to give each its own current space and this jamming can stress and kill them. So I would not recommend getting these.

As said get the buy and return thing in writing because if he does not take them back you are buggered. Elephant noses are quite nasty at times especially to each other and Im not actually sure if Morymyds (spelling) are electric fish as well in a similar way to the BGKs with similar issues arising from what I mentioned before.

If you want knife fish have a look at the african brown knife or glass knives, depending on the species glass knives are actually gregarious (like to be in groups) and your tank can handle them due to them growing smaller, the african knife also grows smaller and would be okay in a 240 liter tank. If you went for the african knife you could team it up with some congo tetras, denison barbs and blockhead cichlids.

Wills