What To Keep With Keyhole Pair.

[I Keep Fish]

Hi, in the tank right now i have:
2 Keyholes (male and female, not mature yet)
3 Lyretail mollies
1 Blue V-tail Betta
3 Horse-faced loach
1 Plec (not id'd)
1 Mountain shrimp (can be seperated if needed.)

Tank is 24x24x20 high

 

[Davo86]

Ideally you want a nice group of dithers to allow the Keyholes to feel most secure, This can be something as ordinary as a good sized group of cardinals or black neons, to something a little more exotic such as praecox rainbows. A group of 10 to 15 would make all the difference IMO

 

[I Keep Fish]

OK mate, cheers for that, im thinking about moving the betta and shrimp to a smaller tank, and adding a group of 4 cory's and 4-5 tiger barbs if you reckon that would work

 

[Davo86]

Tiger barbs might work in a larger number (again 10+) but IME keyholes are quite a shy/timid species so boisterous barbs may not be the best choice for tankmates, In this instance Pentazona barbs would be a much better choice IMO

Corys would be a great addition but again they would thrive in a larger number (6-8)

 

[I Keep Fish]

Thought that with the Tigers tbh, wish i could find Pentazonas round here.

Right now in my tank (24x24x20) there is:

2 Keyholes (male and female, not mature yet)
3 Lyretail mollies
1 Blue V-tail Betta
3 Horse-faced loach
1 Plec (not id'd)
1 Mountain shrimp (can be seperated if needed.)

Do you reckon when the Betta,shrimp are removed, would the tank be comfortable with 6 corys,and 5-8 pentazona?

 

[Davo86]

Do you have any pics of the plec? that is potentially the only problem and apart from that should work out fine

 

[I Keep Fish]

No pics at the moment, theirs a 48x20x26 downstairs which will have Tropheous Moori in it friday, i can always put him in their should he grow too big for my tank.
Thanks a lot for the help, i'll have to leave the tank for a while now (month) as i wont have much money till start of december, but after then i'll get the corys, and hoepfuly Pentazona barbs (not in same week though)
Peppered corys or Panda? panda are twice the price at my LFS! haha

 

[Davo86]

pandas are very sensitive, i would go for schwarzi, aggassizi or trills, all of which should be less than the cost of pandas

 

[I Keep Fish]

Aaah, fair enough mate, i'll see what they have and get back to ya