Yet Another Stocking Suggestions Thread :)

[DevUK]

Some of you may have seen my over excited thread about the Rio 180 I recently won on eBay. Well, I need stocking ideas now! It has the standard juwel filter for this tank, and perhaps a fluval 3+ as backup. Substrate is medium pea gravel.

There will definately be a Chinese Algae Eater in this tank as I've not been able to re-home him. He's relatively peaceful on his own, and always left alone my small shoaling fishies. Was just the slow moving fancy goldfish he would go for, so I'm hopefull he'll leave any small fish alone.

So, can I have suggestions for small fish (mid and top swimmers), and also perhaps seperately, suggestions for a more aggressive tank (baring in mind the CAE still).

Cheers for any help guys

Some fish I've already considered:

Pentazona barbs - would love some of these
tiger barbs - fin nippers?
Harlequin Rasbora
Cherry barbs

 

[three-fingers]

Tiger barbs? I'd say any of the active barb species,

My uncle has a tank with an aggressive golden CAE that is doing great with 6 rosy barbs .

Theres also 8 buenos aires tetras in there that are great and very active.

The CAE will be out of there soon though, the smaller red tailed black shark is always picking fights with him, so avoid them.

Also swordtails and platys get picked on by the CAE, it OK for now because the tetras and barbs chase the CAE away when he gets too close to themselves or the livebearers, but livebearers are a bad idea.

Maybe something like a convict cichlid would be good, since those guys are renowned for being able to hold their own .
If you have 2 they will breed though, which you don't want.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

how big is the CAE at present?

while he may be peaceful now it's unlikely to last, he's going to need a bigger tank than the one you've just got, sadly it's unlikely once he reaches a decent size that he will tolerate any companions with him

best bet is to steer clear of any bottom feeders, go for quick swimming but medium sized and medium aggressive fish, but you should be prepared to re-home them or him in the future

 

[three-fingers]

I agree with the above about any bottom feeders, but why would a rio 180 be too small?

Obviously watch him, but I think he would be perfectly fine with the right fish.

Medium sized (~7-10cm) semi-aggressive/nippy-boisterous fish would be fine, nothing that gets big enough for the CAE to easily latch onto or anything slow moving. Nothing disc shaped like silver dollars either.

Tiger barbs, rosy barbs and Buenos Aires tetras would work well.
I would say no to cherry barbs,harlequins and pentazona barbs as they would be too timid with most CAE's, even though some people apparently keep them together fine its not at all a good idea..

Maybe some of the larger active danios or boisterous rainbowfish.

Give the CAE something like a piece of bogwood to retreat to when he wants, and have fake/real low light fast growing plants (like Hygrophila polysperma) and maybe floating plants (like frogbit) if you want and everyone should be happy .

As Miss Wiggle says, there are sometimes very aggressive CAE that will take chunks out of anything else in the tank, but they aren't really as common as you would think.

 

[cheesy feet]

how big is the CAE at present?

while he may be peaceful now it's unlikely to last, he's going to need a bigger tank than the one you've just got, sadly it's unlikely once he reaches a decent size that he will tolerate any companions with him

best bet is to steer clear of any bottom feeders, go for quick swimming but medium sized and medium aggressive fish, but you should be prepared to re-home them or him in the future

Dam i hate CAE's... I have 3, one adult at about 5 inches and 2 smaller ones.Just recently killed my 3 inch praecox rainbow fish.Bloody things! All i can say is these fish are very upredictable, they like to murder in the night, however a 180 litre tank is fine for them.Even if you get a large one, believe me they are not really high waste producers and don't really do much except jolt around the tank randomly.Strange thing is these CAE's were with my corys and they never attacked them, although the cories swam away when they got near.

 

[three-fingers]

My uncles one has killed corys in the past, which is strange because corys are tough fish and I've even seen them do well with exodons.
And I've heard of another one ~7" that would kill anything on the bottom but left lemon tetras alone.
I would avoid any bottom dwellers just to be safe

CAE's all seem to have pretty diverse characters lol .

 

[DevUK]

I'm definately steering away rom other bottom feeders. I'll let that be his domain. I have planned the tank so that he will have one end all to himself with some nice cave like bogwood etc.

He's currently about 5" (just short) and about 2 years old, so plenty of life left in him I do like him, but he's been a lot of hassle. I've tried re-homing him once but with no success.

Planting will be a lot of slow growers as its going to be a low light planted tank. I will however be ramming it full of cabomba etc to try to avoid alage in the first few months

I like the sound if having a load of smaller shaoling fish. *really* want the pentazona barbs! LFS has a good selection, but all of what I mentioned above are what I'd short listed from that selection. I'll have to ask what he can order in for me

Thanks for the suggestions so far, keep em coming!