Community Tank Mates?

[matthew_1990]

Hey all, I'm trying to decide on a community tank, with a particular focus on less aggressive cichlids (mostly south American), I'm hoping to have quite a well planted tank, with bogwood as well as rocks and stones.

So far this is a "maybe" list that Ive compiled:
Kribensis
jewel cichlids
Rams
Angels
Clown loaches
Neons
Hopefully a zebra plec. as well

Will this combination work? Although not as aggressive as some of their family members, I know these Cichlids still can be territorial... but with sufficient hiding places/tank space will this be toned down?

Any help much appreciated!:p

[Zoom]

Hi Matt.

I do not know the first 3 fish... as I've never had them. I have had the next 4... and then finally the Zebra plec I haven't. I believe that all plec's are on the blacklist... Henk will let us know shortly.... (He has a thing for spotting blacklisted items!)

The 4 that I do know will live in harmony... Make sure the neons and the angels are both small when you introduce them together. But eventually the neons will be chowed by the angels. (Rule of thumb... if a fish fits in another fish's mouth.. that's where it will go.) My angels grew up from very young with the neons, so they were alright. When I added the siamese... he killed of the neons!

Rams can be very feisty machines. My Ram picked on my angels to no end. It was rather funny to see this little ram chasing this full grown Angel.

Again.. if all introduced from young, I do not see there being too many problems.

What size tank are you looking at? Obviously nothing smaller than a 3 ft?

Let me be daring and say this... a lot of fish will co-habit with some fish that generally speaking you can't mix... if they are introduced properly.. and by that I mean when everyone is young. I have a TERRIBLE mixture of fish in my community tank, that according to everyone will NEVER co-exist.

I have a fully grown angel (Male) and a male Siamese fighter. Both males have females to pair off with, and neither of them even look at each other. Even my guppies don't worry about the siamese. My tetras also ignore the siamese. So my set up is working.

[brads]

i dont think that the jewel cichlids will be good companions for the kribensis and the angels.jewels are quite aggressive and grow much larger than the kribensis.kribs mainly dwell at the bottom to middle area of the tank,i would personally not get clown loaches.they "interfere" with other bottom dwellers even when they are young and they get quite large actually extremely large! clown loach out and jewels out to because they will munch on the smaller neons...with regards to the zebra pleco im sure they are not on the blacklist.you and every other person keeping tropical fish wants one but we cant have one.why? they are EXTREMELY expensive....around 2 grand..and anyways they wont be able to be in a tank with those fish as they require a ph of around 6.5.....to summarize keep the rams,angels,kribs and sack the rest.neons to, grown angels will harass them.rather get some corydoras to replace the pleco and the loach and some larger tetras to replace the neons

ps what size tank you have?
cheers

[matthew_1990]

Plecs are on the blacklist? :amazed: whoops my bad, saw them in a library book I took out, from what I remember that particular one doesnt grow too big or get territorial..could be mistaken though!

I'm planning on starting a 4ft, going to be up and running in the next month or so hopefully..
Ive kept angels, neons, clowns and kribs before, and there was nothing extraordinarily out of the ordinary aggression wise, probably due to early introduction age like you said. just interested to know about the other cichlids..

I think it would be hilarious to watch a Ram chase a full grown angel! I remember in my old system my spawning angels would pick on my kribs tirelessly..though I guess you cant really blame them:noworry:

[brads]

no plecs are not on the blacklist there are hundreds of different species and the species he was referring to is not blacklisted as far as i know ....you misunderstood what zoom said bud.

[matthew_1990]

oh my bad... like I said Im hoping to get a nice 4ft soon, hopefully a Juwel/Jebo display case funds permitting.
what kind of tetras could replace the neons? Any suggestions in that regard?

[brads]

yeah the bleeding heart tetra,bloodfin tetra,congo tetra (beautiful),rummy nose and lemon tetra all grow around 2cm larger than neons and they are just as colourful and beautiful in their own way!

[matthew_1990]

rummy nose sounds familiar, and from what I remember look great too...

from what you said earlier regarding the clown loaches, wouldnt the corys also disturb the other bottom dwellers?

[Zoom]

Clown loaches are VERY good community tank mates. Very peaceful.

Cory's are also VERY peaceful and good community fish.

Both need to be kept in schools of 6 or more to be happy.

Oh.. and the common plec and family of plecs are banned in SA

http://www.tropicalaquarium.co.za/showthread.php?t=998&highlight=plec

[matthew_1990]

Thanks for all the advice guys :) one more thing though.. what about Kuhli Loaches? From what I know they're rather timid... would they be picked on or would they just end up hiding all day?

[brads]

clown loaches might be good yeah but not for the fish he wants to keep..they grow quite large in relation to the kribs that they will share the ground with.im not saying the loaches are aggresive but kribs like their own space especially if he hopes to breed them,the last thing those kribs will want is this big loach foraging through their caves etc.i think this will stress them out.....common plecos as far as i know are not allowed to leave the country but they can be brought in? im not sure anyway who is going to miss the common plec we want to keep the exotics!.maybe a importer can tell us....i know dolphin was bringing in exotic L-plecos ...kuhli loaches will be fine,they are very susceptible to disease as they have no scales so make sure the fish you buy has been in the pet shop for a while as kuhli loaches are wild caught and often have fungus. other than that the only other concern is the substrate you are using? they need a fine substrate to dig into and hide

[matthew_1990]

I am planning on breeding the Kribs eventually, but ideally I will have a seperate breeding tank..

I guess substrate is a whole other issue... Im planning on having the palm peat mixture, though Im uncertain as to what substrate to cover it with. Are the cichlids I mentioned before particularly inclined to a certain substrate? As Im more inclined for a natural looking brown gravel, not sure if you get pool sand in that colour?
Have also seen some very nice set ups with a fine black substrate, starting to warm up to that too...

[Dolphin]

per the current black list, all plecs are not banned or black listed for import into South Africa irrespective of what restictions might be in effect in Brazil where most of them come from...

as for the cichlids, consider these:
apistogramma species
aequidens maroni (keyhole cichlid)
flag cichlid
nannacara anomala
kribs
rams (gold, blue and super neon blue)

all these become agressive when breeding...

[matthew_1990]

keyhole really appeals to me, just concerned with the local stock here in PE, must go LFS browsing again real soon...
all those fish are beauts :) must just see if LFS supplies any decent stock, otherwise I'll have to source them somehow.

[Zoom]

per the current black list, all plecs are not banned or black listed for import into South Africa irrespective of what restictions might be in effect in Brazil where most of them come from...


Then why did Henk say they are blacklisted? I'm not saying all plecs... just the common ones. I don't consider things like the "bristlenose plec" to be a plec... I consider these as ancistrus.

[Theo]

Hi matthew. i have kribs that iv bread for sale. let me know if you want any.

[Big G]

Then why did Henk say they are blacklisted? I'm not saying all plecs... just the common ones. I don't consider things like the "bristlenose plec" to be a plec... I consider these as ancistrus.

I think it was one that was proposed to be put on the new list that they were waiting to review?? I may have it wrong, but thats how I understood it??

So unless the new list has finally been accepted, Plecos are not on the Blacklist, but will be once the list is accepted!! I think?? Maybe Henk will pop by and confirm this later??

Cheers
G!

[matthew_1990]

hey theo :) that sounds great, where abouts do you stay?
Its so weird to think of Plecos being blacklisted :/ mind you Ive had to return many the Pleco that grew enormously large, so I guess they could be a threat if anybody had to introduce them into local conditions..

[Dolphin]

Then why did Henk say they are blacklisted? I'm not saying all plecs... just the common ones. I don't consider things like the "bristlenose plec" to be a plec... I consider these as ancistrus.

refer to the current black list:
http://www.tropicalaquarium.co.za/showthread.php?t=78

the common plec is not on this current list nor are any of the others from Hypostomus, Glyptoperichthys, Ancistrus, Panaqolus, Megalancistrus, Baryancistrus, Hypancistrus, Pekoltia, etc....

I dont know what will be on the new list...

Henk might have been referring to whats happening in South America with the restrictions(banning) in collecting and exporting these fish...

[Big G]

Ja, getting slightly sidetracked here, but It seems stupid to me that South America (most notably Brazil) are restricting these exports of certain species.

It seems to me that they are banning their exports so that people forget about these species whilst they build new dams which will wipe out their natural habitats and effectively make some species extinct!!

One such place is the Rio Xingu were they have plans to build a HUGE dam fairly upstream, which will severely impact the downstream habitats!!

So, the best course of action is to buy any fish of these locales and start breeding them so that they do not disappear all together!! Unfortunaltely, this also means that such fish from these areas are going to have a high price, especially if they are already a rare species to begin with!!

Just a few sobering thoughts!! Anyhow, back to the thread!!

Cheers
G!

[Theo]

im in East London. my sister is going to pe tomorrow morning pm ur cell number and where u stay. would be great if u want them, to pick them up in walmer heights