Back to the fishes

Some of you might remember me from back in 2008 on APSA and SA Fish Forum, a cocky student with absolutely no knowledge about fish, plants, or much else really. I have learned so much from APSA and the old SA Fish Forum about keeping fish and aquatic plants. I had a very small case of MTS, got married and infected my wife, but had to move to a smaller apartment, so up for adoption went 4 tanks, a rat snake and a yorkie. In the meantime we had some guppies without live plants, but they just didn't grab our attention. So, starting this weekend, we are crawling back into tanks and plants, 2ft 60L tank for now, as the months progress we will be starting a DIY project of building a 3ft wide tank where the 60L inhabitants will over. Our main attraction will be angels, hopefully I can get a couple of healthy golden angels, otherwise some other var will do. With them a school of cardinals. I opted for bristlenoses as I can get a bunch for very cheap, but wifey doesn't like them so much... so a pleco or otto's will go in there as well. Plants wise, will have a look at what I can get from friends and shops until the tank is stable, but will definitely add some valisineria and limnophila (sp?). Regards, Chris (Chemical Engineer / Programmer) and Esré (Math/Sci teacher)

 

Welcome back @DigiGram, glad to hear that you decided to take up the wet nuthouse syndrome again. See you mentioning a 3ft tank in which you want to keep angels, cardinals and pleco. Think your tank space is a bit on the small side especially with the angels, need to keep at least 6 of those if you want to keep the agression levels down and a pleco grows quite big, about 45cm which is half the length of a 3 ft tank.

 

Welcome back!

 

Welcome back DigiGram.. Tell me where do you get the very cheap bristlenoses? Jimmy from BBS..

 

@ DigiGram, After reading what you are planning to keep in the 3 foot tank, I need to tell you that this space is not enough in the long run. You will be buying a bigger tank sooner than you think.

Pleco's get quite big. That is why they are among the popular Tank busters.
Angels also Get very big. Roughly 10cm body, and with fins included roughly 25cm fully grown. So you see this will become a problem in the future. Also they are agressive toward other fish.


You are better of with a 4 foot tank to start with in my opinion. Even though this will also be become a problem later on, you will have a bit more time to plan than with a 3 foot.

Not trying to discourage you, just trying to save you time and money in the future. Also fish need enough space to be happy.

Good luck.

 

Hi, after two posts about the pleco and the tank I finally got the time to re-read my post, kind of a bad typo there, the DIY tank will be a 5ft, my bad. Won't be going for the pleco anymore. My previous pleco stayed quite small and healthy, maybe something went wrong in his gene pool, won't try my luck with it.

I have bred with Angels in a 3ft though, but then you can't add much more, so the 60L will only be a grow out tank for now until the 5ft is done.

Thanx for the heads up. Enjoy your day.

PS. After I read that Limnophila sessiflora is on the blacklist I won't be adding that either, will look for an alternative.

 

I will also have to get a bigger tank in the distant future:amazed:. At the moment I have a Arowana roughly 20cm and two Oscars in my 5 footer. Will be buying a 7 foot tank to give them some space.

That is unfortunately what needs to happen as they are real tank busters. As for your pleco that stayed small. Did you feed him his own food or just gave the other fish food and he had to join in?

If you want a pleco to grow big he needs two things. Sufficient space to move and try adding sinking food. This stops the top dwellers devouring all the food before pleco's get something to eat. They do not rely solely on algae you know.

I have a Synodontis catfish along with a pleco in my tank and had to buy sinking pellets because of them staying in the bottom half of the tank most of the time. So they get their own food now.

Good luck building the tank!:thrasher:

 

He had his own sinking pellets from Tetra while the others had some Omega. Maybe he felt left out . Just received my filters etc from reptile city, can't wait to start cycling the tank, want to add the first tetras Sunday.

Would you guys recommend tetra or danio with the Angels? As far as I have read Danios are a bit fin nipping, but in the past my angels wasn't put down by nippers os fast swimming fish

 

They are both fine with angels. And even if a danio tries to nip an angel fins they will eventually find out why they shouldn't. I personally have never seen a Danio nipping at fins. They are actually playfull with other fish and poses no threat at all. If anything I think the Angels might bully them.

I would rather go for the tetras, Just because they are a little bit more pleasing to the eye.

 

I had an Angel and tiger barbs together (tank leaked, rather put these together than leaving them dry...) and they had such a relationship that the barbs knew their place and the Angel knew her place. Both were bullies in their own tanks, but together they lived in harmony, even left the corries and oto's be... But then again, each personality can be so different that I'd rather ask, never kept Danios, and my wife is taking a liking in the zebra danios at our LFS. Will visit Animal Kingdom and Jungle Aquatics this weekend and let her decide...