Stocking My 260L With Angels And Community

[GShorty1981]

Hi i have a empty 260l (fraction under 70 us gallons) bowfront tank with a mature over 6 years Fluval 305 external.
 
I was thinking of having this....
 
Heavily Planted tank with 3 decent sized pieces of bog wood and pebbles, natural or white silica sand or pea gravel, blue background.
 
I plan to use easy low light plants like Java Fern, Anubus and easy to grow plants like Cabomba, Vallis and Amazon Swords.
 
Fish stock I'm looking at is...
 
Scalare Angels (how many? i plan to get one colour type, what colour do you think...Koi, Black Marble, Natural etc, not interested in Altums)
Neons or Cardinals or Rummynose (how many, yes i know Angels sometimes eat them when they get bigger, but going to try it anyway)
Corydoras (how many, which type, i want hardy fish so no pandas etc)
 
Possibility's:
 
Bolivian Ram Pair or Solo Keyhole (never kept these, i have always been a large CA man)
Solo Ancistrus/Bristlenose (or similar plec? ideas? my tank is by a window and gets green alot on the glass which i am constantly scraping off)
 
Also how big water changes should I do on such stocking, i normally do 50% weekly on my Flowerhorn but I'm thinking these may need less?

Forgot to mention I want to keep it South American. (Amazon)

 

[techen]

Two angels, Must be a pair or you'll have bullying issues which lead to death, anymore and the pair will attacking the lone ones.
 
Can't have neons and angels in the same tank, Cardinals are fine but I would go with emperor tetras and get a good 12 or 15
 
You can have any type of cory, It does not matter much.
 
You could get a ram pair as well as two bristlenoses in there. But no common plecs

 

[GShorty1981]

Only 2 Angels? i understand they will pair (20 years of cichlid keeping and breeding) but the tanks big enough to have more and it will spread out the aggression surely? i have seen 5-6 in tanks this size thriving as adults.
 
I have also seen neons with large angels in many display tanks, so i'm going to give it a go.

Cardinals are only slightly bigger, so i would assume they are just as likely to be eaten?

 

[ncguppy830]

tanks to small for multiple pairs

 

[Alm0stAwesome]

The rule with angels is that you can have one of these options:
1 angel
a mated pair
a group of over 6 (always keeping even numbers)
 
Your tank isn't big enough for six angels which is why folks above have suggested a pair. 
 
Why do you want neons over cardinals? Cardinals are much hardier fish these days and more attractive IMO plus they are less likely to be eaten by your angels. The neons are pretty much guaranteed to get eaten whereas the cardinals MIGHT be ok - though I know some who's angels have eaten the cardinals as well. Cardinals and neons are an angel's natural prey in the wild. Hence the problem. 

 

[BerryAttack]

you can get 5-6 angels, but when that are young, before the age of pairing. when they start to pair up you'll need to rehome them before aggression becomes to much. or you can find same sex angels. I am able to keep 3 mature marbled blue female angels in my 65. they only become aggressive (not killing intent) when it comes to laying their eggs. after that they school together and act normal.
for cories, I find that the sterba, adolfoi and melinii seem to be very hardy. and look nice
i personally like rummy nose tetras, and i would have a school of 6 in the tank to start off with and then you can add from there.
the Bolivian ram will possible attack your angels. I had two, and the one would always go after my angel and try to lock lips.. didn't like that one bit. i would say you should add German blue rams. they are beautiful and you can have a pair of them and they'll leave your other fish alone. 

 

[Alm0stAwesome]

Bolivians are usually very peaceful, I think you got unlucky there. GBRs are much more sensitive and not guaranteed to be any more peaceful than a BR.
 
Is this a second tank or have you written off your flowerhorn because you can't buy medication for it? Sounds like an expensive project. 

 

[Ninjouzata]

Have only kept rummynoses so my vote is on those  
Am wondering the same as AA but perhaps he has passed and you did not want to bring it up. If he did I can't imagine how you must feel, have only seen pics and videos and when I saw this topic I figured he must have passed so tears were welling up in my eyes Whatever is going on, wish you the best~

 

[GShorty1981]

No hes still around, hes in my bigger tank, his lips have shrunk back down to size and i noticed today that his heater had burnt out and got a replacement heater and hes active again, just still not eating (has been 5 days) but don't worry Rex is going nowhere yet!

The rule with angels is that you can have one of these options:
1 angel
a mated pair
a group of over 6 (always keeping even numbers)
 
Your tank isn't big enough for six angels which is why folks above have suggested a pair. 
 
Why do you want neons over cardinals? Cardinals are much hardier fish these days and more attractive IMO plus they are less likely to be eaten by your angels. The neons are pretty much guaranteed to get eaten whereas the cardinals MIGHT be ok - though I know some who's angels have eaten the cardinals as well. Cardinals and neons are an angel's natural prey in the wild. Hence the problem. 

 
1 pair is fine by me, I'll just get more tetras to make up the space, even when my 8" Flowerhorn used to be in this tank till i moved him to my 5ft and the tank still looked empty, so I'm definitely going to get a huge shoal of a certain type of tetra.
 
I chose Neons because they are 50p each in my lfs, whereas Cardinals are £2.99 each, i found them in the past to be equally weak if not kept in low ph and high temps, i had a mix of both in my Discus tank 10 years ago in a PH of 5.5 and temp of 30c and never lost anything (except plants), i can't be bothered with going down the hassle road of doing all that again, i do find with neons if kept in a neutral everyday tank, if you buy a group of 5, you are likely to lose 1 out of the 5 within the first 24 hours, the rest tend to be fine.

 

[ncguppy830]

well you can still keep neons just dont be suprised if there snacked opon.

 

[GShorty1981]

Well i wouldn't be surprised because i already wrote it in my inintial post.
 
The Angels are going to be small anyway, so i'll dump 5 neons in there and see if they munch them eventually , if not, great, if so, i'll go for a higher bodied tetra, like lemons or something.
 
Right next subject, what strain of Angel should i go for? i have done black Marbles lots of times in the past, i'm thinking either Koi or Natural (silver and black), i think the Kois will look better against the blue background and the plants.

 

[ncguppy830]

blushing or koi angelfish are my favorite angel they look so vibrant.

 

[GShorty1981]

I haven't got the money to buy anything for a few weeks, so any other suggestions would be good, I have borrowed a couple of large convicts off of my mate to keep the tank mature, hes taking them back and putting them back in his 6ft once i have the money to spend, this tank was originally used for my large Flowerhorn, but i moved him into a bigger tank into my dining room, so i didnt want to leave it empty, and he is currently sick so didnt want to taint the tank by leaving him in there.
 
So...
 
Can you guys give me some other stocking suggestions to mull over, these are the guidlines to how i want it.....
 
Must be plant friendly
must have a centre piece cichlid/s that get no bigger than 6" (i have done Festivums recently and don't want to try these again)
some type of shoaling fish that are bright coloured and not nippy (south american, not barbs)
type of cory
type of small growing plec, no commons, gibbis, royals etc.
 
What would you do?
 
My other idea was to have a Green Terror male and a small shoal of fast moving barbs, but i have done this in the past, and would prefer to have a planted tank.

Loachs would be a idea, I really liek these and never really kept them but i wanted to keep the tank as Amazon as possible.
 
Also would you go with Sand or stick with the pea gravel i already have? i like the look of sand better but its a pain to clean without sucking it up with my python, also its hard to keep the plants rooted in sand, they tend to stay better in gravel.

 

[GShorty1981]

Quiet around here these days!
 
Ok I'm going for..
 
2 x Angels either Koi or Silver (wild type)
2 x Bolivian Rams
12 x Emperor tetras
6 x Corydoras (not decided on type yet)
2 x Bristlenose Plecs
 
Plants..
 
Cabomba
Giant Vallis
Java Fern
Java Moss
Anubuis
 
Decor
 
Pea Gravel
6 pieces of bog wood
Pebbles
Blue Background

 

[GShorty1981]

Changed my mind and going to go with either Lemons or Rummynose, i posted this up in 'Tropical Discussion' probably get more help there.