Hey fellow fish keepers! I am planing at redoing my 1.2m tank next month. i realy want to go into the plants side a bit more and am doing alot of research on that. I'm fitting three 900mm t5 sylvania(dont know how to spell that) growlux lamps and i have some of the profs firtz. My question now is will my yo-yo loaches destroy my finer plants? i want to add pearl, blue, red robbin and some darf gourami's and some neon, cardinal and black widdow tetra's. If i have to get rid of the yo-yo's i wil try a pair of agizizi's. wil they go with the fishes mentiond above? And wil the gourami's be able to breed in that tank? Thanx for all the great advise i have recieved from you guys in the past! Kind regards Schalk
Hi Schalk I don't know anything about the Yo Yo loaches, so I can't comment on that at all. If you wanting to go with a planted route, you could also look into going with the Palm Fibre Peat fertilizer under the gravel. If you going for a low-tech plant route, I am sure that the combination of those lights, professors ferts, and the PFP under the gravel, you will have plants growing pretty well. My sister has Pearl Guoramis, and she struggles with plants because they eat a lot of plants. They seem to prefer the finer leaved plants, and tend to leave the plants with the broader leaves alone. Having said that, they if they become territorial, meaning if they pair up and want to start breeding, they will establish an area in the tank that is there, and will chase anyone away. Within their territory, if they don't like a particular plant in it, they will uproot it as well. As far as I can recall, Guorami's are bubble nest builder's, whereby they will create a nest of bubble at the surface of the water, and lay there eggs in this. If you have too much water surface movement, they will struggle to form this bubble nest. This poses a catch 22 situation, as oxygen enters the water through the movement of the surface... so if you have NO surface movement, you will find your tank is low in Oxygen. In my experience, there is also very low success in breeding within a community tank, mostly because the rule of thumb here is... if it fits in another fish's mouth, that's where it goes. So altho the guorami's might breed if the conditions are right, the survival of raising the fry in a community tank is very limited.
Thanx Zoom! What fish could you recomend then That would not detroy my plants? And do you know where i can get hold of this palm fiber peat firtilizer in and around cape town? Thanx for your imput! Schalk
Hi Schalk, You can do a google on compatibility of fish in community tanks. Basically research what fish you would like, and check their living conditions. A lot of fish have the same conditions when it comes to pH, temp and water hardness. I won't suggest any particular fish for you, because that decision is really up to you. I personally don't like guoramis, so I've never tried it. Having said that, my sister has pearl's in her tank very successfully... obviously being very limited to plant types. Let me rather share with you what I have personally kept in my community tank: Angels Danios Guppies Swortd tails Black Widow Tetra's Neon Tetra's Cory catfish Ancistrus catfish Dwarf Cichlid. Also, ensure that you get the right number of fish. Danio's like to play around together in schools of 6 or more, and are extremely busy fish. If you only have 1 or 2, they could pose a problem to other fish. Tetra's like being in schools. COry's like being in schools too. My sister has the following in her tank: Neon tetra's Ram Angels Dwarf Guorami Pearl Guorami Bronze, Pepper and Albino COry's Ancistrus Clwon Loaches Danios. I have also got a Male Beta and 5 female Beta's in my tank. I would advise this with caution, and they can be aggressive, and the fast swimming fish, like tetras and danios can nip the fins of him (Also they can nip the fins of guppys as well). I've been very fortunate in that my male has shown no aggression towards any of the other fish, and I think this is also because he was the last one to go into a tank that was already establish with regards to it's pecking order. I see there aren't a huge amount of people online, but I am sure someone will comment with other advice. A lot of people only come online during the week.
there is link in my sig where you can type in a fish name and it will give you info,you can click the compatible button to see all fish who are compatible with him/her. http://fishprofiles.com/profiles/list.php?term=loach here is a list of loaches.
Yo-yo loaches won't so much eat the plants as possibly uproot them. They often poke around in the substrate for uneaten food so if your plants are not properly anchored they may be uprooted. As Zoom as said, Gourami's are indeed bubble nest builders. SHOULD they happen to spawn, and they would need a surface which is not agitated too much as well as having some floating plants in order to anchor their nest with, their fry will most likely not survive in a community tank. The fry are tiny. As for which fish will not destroy plants, it would be easier if you could give us an idea of your absolute favorite fish and then we could work a list around that in order to ensure that all the fish recommended are compatible with each other and require the same water conditions.
thanx this heps alot! Veegal i would realy like it to be some agizizi's lots of colourfull tetra's some cory's and maybe at a later stage like 4 discus... I heard thet the angels can be agressive towards my other fish. What is your guys experience with them? Veegal do you know where in the cape town i can buy some palm fiber peat? Tanx again Schalk
The palm peat fibre you should be able to buy at any nursery or Builders Warehouse. It is sold in brick form, and costs about R25 a brick. The Chemicult Hydroponic powder is also available at nurseries or Builders Warehouse. You should be able to get a 500g bag for about R50.
My angels are fine in my tank... BUT when a pair is established, they can become agressive amongst each other. Vee might be better qualified to clarify that, as she breeds angels... and I am sure she will tell you to go for them... she's a bit biased towards angels. (hehe) Palm Fibre Peat blocks can be bought at most good nurseries. (Just read through that thread before doing it... just to get the right Chemicult and the right mixture.) But I know the cape tonians are pretty friendly, and you might be lucky enough to have someone donate a few teaspoons of chemicult your way. There really is no point in buying 500grams of the stuff when all you need is a few teaspoons. Schalk, I was going through your pictures on your profile. I see you have/had angels already. And it looked like you had barbs in there as well? How did you find the interaction between the barbs and the other fish? I don't like barbs because they can be so aggressive towards other fish. Would be interesting to hear your experience?
Thanx for all the imput guys and girls! As for the pfp how much wil i need for my 1.2m x 45cm tank? And how do you go about mixing the chemicult in and then putting it in your tank? Is there maybe a thread that can explain that? My head is to flat! Yes zoom i stil have tiger barbs but had to give my two angels to a friend coz of my tiger barbs... the Leaf the other fish alone its just not good with fish with large fins... And they are a bit to lively for the setup i want to try now... But exept for the fin nipping realy nice little fish
Dwarf guorami males get very aggresive around breeding time. So I would not keep a few of them together. The females on the other hand are very dull. Some of the tetra species get quite big but you always see the smaller ones in the LFS. So a school of these can be impresive. The neons are some of the smaller tetras. Although mine is about 3cm. Cories seem to be the one fish that goes almost with averything Check out some axelrod tetras, some can be very stunning like the Axelrodia riesei. Maybe a school of different barbs? Have not kept these but have seen some really nice ones and they are easy to come by. They also love plants, the more the better.
And that angels I had was sold to me as assorted angels for i Think like R15. but they dont have that nice long fins like for example the marble angels or the altums. I would realy love some altums Thanx vis so you even think i can keep my yo-yo loaches with cory's? I allready have 5 yo-yo's. and that is very nice fish just not sure i would go for barbs. i'm selling my tiger barbs. i like the white clouds and the phantom tetra's and i can get lots of these. thin k i would also get some more rummy nose vis that axelrodia looks very nice!
mmmmm Do not know if yo-yo's goes with cories. Never kept them together. Usually cories are very peacefull but do not know about yo-yo.
Darryn, Thanx alot! that thread was an awsome read and i have learnd alot!!! i wil def. do this when i redo my tank in 3 weeks!!! Once i filled the tank with water hoe long wil i have 2 wait before i can ad the plants and then for how long must the tank stand planted befor5e i can add the fish?
I think you can add plants same day as filled. And if you going to use the same (cycled) filter, and at least half the water from when you empty, you could put fish in within 2 days or so. If new water, then you have to cycle again.
