Tank Plans, Long Term And Short Term

[Wills]

Right so Ive decided that my future plans for my fish are to split them. I want to put my Central Americans (Nics and HRPs) into one tank and my South Americans (Sevs and Geos) into an other. Ideally I want to get a 4x2x2 for the centrals and a 6x2x2 or 5x2x2 depending on house size. I do want to add to these tanks once its sorted but at the moment they are all in my 240, most are young and stocking is in my signature.

Basically Im looking for a full time job now, only got a few weeks at uni left and then I can actually start earning some kind of income rather than the pittance I do now, then once we sell this place Im putting in my order for the above tanks or at least the stands going to try and find some second hand stuff particularly filters seen a lot of FX5s recently for about £100 each or less which is pretty decent with all the media etc.

So thats the long term plan.... which when it happens is going to be fantastic as it will (should) quench my thirst and give me enough room to keep most of what I want.

But in the short term (ie now) I quite want to add to my stock that I have at present and just want to know what people think about my plans...

So at present I have a Roma 240 so around 65 US gallons. Its got an FX5 running on it and the stock list is as follows :

1x True Heros Severus female
1x Nicuraguan female
4x Geophagus sp. Rio Tocantis
3x HRP (very young 1m 2f - these are fry from my old pair that have survived in the tank)
3x Annostomus Ternetzi
6x Lake Kubutu Rainbow Fish
1x L75
2x L135

And this is the problem that happened.... I went to Ferrybridge aquatics again and saw so much I wanted but not sure what to do so wanted a few opinions.

Top of the list that I wanted is some more Annostomus Ternetzi, quite rare to see them and they are about half the size of mine at present so quite tempted to top my trio upto 6...

And I saw my old HRP male hes still there and I feel so bad for him he was just hiding behind the filter pipe and must have been in that 15g ish shop tank for about 2 months now. Im so tempted to bring him home again and try him here again but need to ask a favor of a few members on here.... basically if you live in or near Hull let me know if you would like to be a back up if he still fights with my female nic or his kids. I mean ultimately when it comes to the split any issues should settle down but in the short term bit worried, he seems to have calmed down, the tank has been totally rescaped since he left and the nic has grown considerably.

He also had some really nice catfish in, particularly a jaguar catfish and some nice whiptails that I quite want, obviously these would be going in the SA tank when the split happens.

So in short the additions potentially could be
1x Male HRP
3x Annostomus Ternetzi
1x Jaguar Catfish
2(?)x Whiptail catfish

....What do you think? Do you think I could go any further with the stocking, I can help people out with their own tanks but when it comes to mine I am so indecisive so would really appreciate any help I get in return.

Thanks Wills

 

[ellena]

I'm not familiar with the full grown sizes of those fish. Are you not thinking that far ahead though? In terms of inches of fish currently in there, what have you got?

 

[Wills]

Thanks for the reply. The majority of the fish in there like the geophagus and rainbows are going to take ages to grow, the geos in particular are going to take years both of those are around 2 inches each, the headstanders I have at present are nearly a year old and are about 4 inches the ones I want to add would be about half their size. All the plecs are full grown at around 5 inches each my severum is full grown as well at just over 6. Only fish not fully grown and getting big quick is the female nic whos about 2 or 3 inches at the moment but growing fast.

Wills

 

[OldMan47]

At only 7 inches, the severum is less than full grown. You might compare it to a 4 inch angel in its maturity, something more people will be familiar with. My daughter's breeder was well over 8 inches SL and closer to 9. Nics are also quite large fish when full grown.

 

[Wills]

Hi thanks but I would have to disagree on the severum, your daughter probably has a species called Heros Efascticious which is the common green severum, mine is a Heros Severus the original severum in the hobby. At some point in time the commercial breeders stopped using Severus and swapped to Efascticious and never really told anyone so you often find Heros Efasticious being traded under the name severum and then when you ask which species your always told Heros Severus when the two are quite different. For example Heros Severus is a mouth brooding fish where as Efasticious isnt.

Also she is fully grown as she is 3 years old.

I know nics can get big but the females do stay much smaller, the males get to about 10 inches and the females to about 6. Mine is 100% female as she laid eggs rather randomly on saturday.... Im not sure what happened there but yeah lol thats an other story. I do want to get her a male though and get a few more females for a colony of them in a bigger tank in the future. As I said I want to get a 4x2x2 tank to house Central American cichlids which at the moment is just going to be a group of nics and a group of HRPs Im also going to put my rainbow fish in that tank. I dont anticipate getting the male nic till the upgrade though.

Then in the other tank which is going to be a 6x2x2 but most likley even bigger as I am toying with the idea of rays now.... But yeah in that tank will be my Geo sp.tocantis and severum, want to get more severums when I have a tank of that size along with my annostomus and plecs.

Picked up a few more annostomus ternetzi today as they are incredibly rare compared to most other fish. Came home from a weekend away via my favorite LFS and they had some 2 inchers in so got some more. Also got a pair of whiptail cats which will be for the SA tank

Also if anyone is wondering about time scale for the above mentioned tanks, Im starting to get quotes now but most of it is dependant on when we move house.

But in my opinion I have a year at least before this tank hits any major issues all the fish apart from my nic are extremley slow growing with things like the rainbows and geos taking a few years to get any serious size on them.

Wills