Thinking About ...

[Akasha72]

... getting some more harlequins but I'm open to other ideas.
 
I was looking in my tank this morning after it's water change and it just looked bare. My angels were resting in the plants, the palmeri tetra's were the same and all I could see was my harlequins huddled together in their little group of 9. My tank looked empty
 
Now all my black neons have passed on and there's just one kerri tetra left the harleys are all I see, I think with the 4ft tank I could easily double their numbers. The other option would be another shoaler and I'd love it if I could add a group of cardinals but I'd be terrified my angels would just see food. The harleys though are too deep in the body to be food (once they hit adult size) 
 
What do we think? Only fish I won't entertain are barbs of any kind - I just don't like them
 
Current stock is
 
2 angelfish
9 gold headed, purple harlequins
9 palmeri tetra
3 oto's
1bn
various cories - 6 peppered, 6 panda, 5 bronze, 5 melini, 3 smudge-spot
 
oh and the SAE's .. I always forget about the SAE's!!

 

[Zante]

I'd go for more of the same. A bigger shoal will look much better and... who knows, maybe you'll see some schooling!
 
I would have suggested getting 20 espei rasboras, but they are a bit smaller than harlequin and might become angelfish food.
It's a pity, because they are similar to harlequins, but I think they are subtley better looking, and they would shoal with them.

 

[Akasha72]

that was my thinking Zante ... the 9 do school a bit and I do really like them. What do you think of the number for my tank? I was thinking about getting another 8 or 9 but would that be stretching my stock level?

 

[Zante]

I don't think you'll have stocking issues. Go for it.

 

[Akasha72]

well I had 6 or 7 black neons so I guess it's only replacing the space they took up.

 

[Zante]

Are you going to let the palmeri die out and relpace them with more rasboras or will you keep up their numbers?
I know they're still quite young, so it's a bit early to decide, I was just wondering if you had any idea yet.

 

[Akasha72]

yes, the palmeri can die out in time. They're lovely to look at but they're a bit too arguementative for me. I've enough aggression in the tank with the angels

 

[Ch4rlie]

What is the size of tank again?
 
Also how many SAE's do you have?
 
Btw, otos prefer being amongst its own species, so a group of 6 + would suit them better.

 

[Akasha72]

the tank is a Rio 240 and 4ft long. As to the oto's - yes I knew but I'm allowing them to die out due to reading stories about angels trying to eat them resulting in the death of both fish.
And I have 3 very lazy SAE's that spend all their time sat on the substrate or bickering over food
 
It's my upper level that looks so bare Ch4rlie. The angels spend at lot of their time sat amongst the plants at the moment

 

[Ch4rlie]

Aha, I get the picture now.
 
Hmm, a decent sized tank that does hold all of these fairly comfortably, though certainly a bit of a community tank
 
What do YOU like and whats your feeling you should do?

 

[Akasha72]

I do love these hybrid harlequins ... they're colourful and happy lil fish. They're no trouble, never seen even so much as a bicker from them. They're big enough not to eaten by my angels but small enough to be cute and kept as a nice large school without taking up too much space. 
 
My gut feeling is to increase their number but at the same time .... there's that option to add another top dweller and I don't want to rush into things. That's why I thought I'd do some thinking here ... chuck some ideas about so to speak

has anyone kept angels and cardinals successfully out of interest?

 

[Ch4rlie]

Angels and cardinals do work as long as cardinals are adults sized. But cardinals go ALL over the tank, they do not generally stay at top of tank as far as I know.
 
I'd up the harley's numbers for a start, I have some lambchop rasboras (espeis which are smaller) and they are great little fish to have in any aquarium.
 
So a nice shoaling number of harleys is always good in my book

 

[Akasha72]

another vote for upping the harley's then. I do like how they huddle together and swim about in their little group. I'm guessing I'd see much more of that natural behaviour in a larger group.
 
On the other hand ... cardinals are stunning too. I've fancied cardinals for a long time now but always thought keeping them with angels is a no-no. That said my angels grew up with the harleys and black neons and were no trouble. 
 
Hmm ... common sense is nudging me and telling me to stick with the harleys. If I got another 8 or 9 the angels might not notice the addition of them as they'd just join the others (hopefully) - that's what happened when I got the new one's last year anyway. I think there's only 2 left of my original school, the others were new last summer

 

[Fishmanic]

black or white skirt tetra (or some of each) add movement to the tank and are interesting to watch and are a good community fish.   my 29 gal stocking is in my sig
 

 

[RainboWBacoN420]

I would say up those ottos. And if you're looking for another shoal, maybe go with emperor tetra (personal favorite) or maybe some green neon tetra?