5 ft Community tank ideas

[DanLear]

Hi everyone

Iv just setup my 5ft 600l tank, and need ideas to stock it. There are currently 5 Tinfoil Barbs, a pleco and 3 Malawi Copadichromis Borleyi (Which I would like to get rid of). I want to definitely get a couple of Golden Deacons and some Corys. Anybody have any ideas about what else I should put in here? I wanted to keep some smaller fish (eg the corys) to contrast with the tinfoils, but nothing too small to get eaten by them. Also nothing that will kill plants, and nothing too aggresive (Reason for wanting to get rid of the malawis)

[tracyp]

Hmmm.. it's such a personal thing, stocking! But, if I had a 600L begging, I'd ditch the cory idea (though I dig em!) and build up a school of clown loaches... they're SO pretty!

I've never had tinfoils, do they not have a rep for chomping plants?

[DanLear]

not that a i know of. I always thought clown loaches were plant destroyers?

[SalmonAfrica]

Yup - Tinfoils are notorious plant chompers. Loaches won't ever eat the plants, but they may uproot plants with shallow roots when they're scrounging around for food.

I think either go big or go small. There's just so much that could conflict... just imagine feeding times! :p Poor corys, as if food would ever reach the bottom :p

Why not look into other big shoalers? Bala sharks? Silver dollars? Lemon-fin barbs? Sure, you can't have real plants (plastics are always an option), but the shimmer of silver will be absolutely beautiful.

On the flip side...

On the smaller scale, a big school of corys, tetras and a few small cichlids could go a long way in a big tank, not to mention all the space you have to plant in!

[wolf]

nice big angels

[Reedfish]

nice big angels

Yup, space for plenty of Angels in there :love:

[disco]

2 oscars with the tinfoils. I had tinfoils and they eat/devour plants. A large shoal of zebra loaches is entertaining as opposed to clowns. Ive seen a deacon(severum..where does the name deacon come from?) with red colouring similar to discus..very nice...try to get somethin uncommon ito colour or fish. Uncommon knife fish or those related to the elephant nose eg dolphin or whale...dunno the scientic names. A large school of angels makes interesting sight. Just get the compatibilty combo right.

[sarf]

6 geophagus altiphrons sp, 10-15 adult congo tetras or red rainbowfish, 4 angel fish, either a grp of clown loaches or corydoras, pair of ancistrus n a lot of drift wood..will make an awesome showtank with no hassles or aggression..plus all the fish I mentioned should b readliy available in petshopd

[DanLear]

Would the tinfoils work with angels, deacons, corys and maybe some congo tetras? And maybe some other cichlids

[SalmonAfrica]

Nope, sorry mate... the tinfoils are too boisterous for the Angels. and too big for the corys. Might work with the others though, as I have seen in cases before.

[Reedfish]

Also, I would have at least 5 Angels, if not more.

[DanLear]

I would like to keep a couple of angels, maybe four or five, is that a real no no with the tinfoils? I'd also like to have deacons (severums), and some other cichlids. And are corys out of the question?

[mxz]

Hi DanLear

I have kept angels with tinfoils before and must admit they don't go well together, especially when the tinfoils get big.

Better options with the angels would be severums, festivums, keyholes cichlids, uaru.

Schools of tetras will work also.

[DanLear]

thanx for the advice mxz. Anyone have any other suggestions?

[azurekoi]

Rainbowfish!! Nice big school of mixed Rainbows... boesmani,Irian reds,Lake kutubu,M.Splendida,M.trifasciata,M.herbertaxelrodi etc...Whatever you can find - will work well withthe angels as well and forma an amazing shoal in your big tank... (Cant for the love of me understand why Rainbows have such a small following in RSA...) + they will do great in our Gauteng hard water...