some decision making help.

Hi fellow capetonians, i need a little help, i have kept fish already but do not know too much about all the types of fish out there, i have been doing lots of research but still do not find what im looking for.

so i have a newly setup tank, been running for 4 days now, and i want some stocking help. what im looking for is fish with nice colour and personality and are around 10cm. do any of you guys here in capetown breed and sell fish that would fit this description?

i am in goodwood, my tank details, tank is 1200 x 500 x 550, have 2 small internal power filters and a fluval cannister filter running on the tank, and a 300watt heater, thats it.

Thank You Guys

 

4-6 Angels as the feature fish - these will swim all over the tank
a school of about 20 medium sized tetras (not neons, too small, will get eaten) Just research which tetra's. Some can nip the fins of angels - these will be your middle dwelling fish and can be the colouring you are wanting
5-6 Cory's (Panda / Bronze / albino) - these will be your bottom dwellers (Good for cleaning up uneaten food)
3-4 Bristle nose anscistrus.- Just because I think no tank is complete without them!!

 

@Nadeem - Zebra Danios are really lively fish. They're hardy as well and swim all over the place and are fairly easy to breed. Dark Blue and gold striped body should look good. In due time i will be breeding them..

@Zoom - Whats the difference between the Anscistrus and the Plecostomus?

 

Hey gents, thank You for the advice, those setups would look awesome, BUT, i have a tank with almost exactly what you just suggested @Zoom.
for this tank, im looking for NOT SMALL fish, not tetras and things like that, bigger fish, around 10cm or so, with good colour.

let me mention a few i have seen at lfs's to give an idea of what im talking about, rainbow cichlid, gourami etc etc.

you guys see what im saying, thank you though zoom and ryan for the suggestion,s i appreciate it.

 

Then maybe the smaller african cichlids

 

Cool man. Only advice i can give then is to building your scape and get nice fish to compliment it, OR get nice fish and do research on the type of scape that would be sufficient for them. Since you already have a tetra, angel tank - Why dont you get yourself a malawi tank?

You could end up with something like this...who knows

 

well, if your looking for around 10cm fish, depending on what else goes in there, rainbow sharks grow to about 12cm and they get to that size very quickly, but as they are "semi" agressive, you cannot keep them with other fish that look like sharks as they are very territorial, you can also only keep one per tank.

tiger barbs get to about 7cm, so thats not to bad in terms of size and you could go with about 7 or 9 of them to curb aggression, seeing as you going for colour, get all of them green. (these are schooling fish)

rosy barbs get to about 15cm, but would work very very well in a 1200 tank, you can get 7 of them and they have (obviously) nice rosy colour. (these are schooling fish)

red-line torpedo barbs get to about 15cm and are very colourful, looking something like a very big neon, you would need about 5-7 of these to curb aggression

bottom feeders, polka dot loaches ( IF YOU CAN FIND THEM) get to 12cm these also have very nice colouring and you would need about 5 each of them.(these are schooling fish)

bottom feeders, zebra a loaches get to 10cm these also have very nice colouring and you would need about 5 each of them.(these are schooling fish)

lastly, clown loaches, altho they do get very big, approx 25cm, it takes them a long long time to get to that size and you could get about 5 of them as well. (these are schooling fish)

the loaches are all very lively and full of character and i would recommend them to keep any tank vibrant and thy have fantastic colouring as well as being very comical to watch.

any of the of the above combinations would be reasonably compatible if kept in the correct numbers and schools.

do not add skunk, tiger or blue loaches as these are horribly aggressive fish and would cause havoc in your tank, even tho blue loaches are really beautiful, do not be tempted to get one.

loaches do require slightly warmer water tho.

my 2c

 

@mydummyname, thats worth more than 2c dude, top notch, thank you for that. i have been looking around on the net and what do you guys think of the following fish :
Astatoreochromis alluaudi
Astatotilapia aeneocolor
Astatotilapia latifasciata
Astatotilapia nubile
Lithochromis rufus
Paralabidochromis chromogynos

do any of you guys have these fish for sale? and can direct me to somewhere i can get them?

@Ryan , just sold my malawi tank dude, so maybe cichlids from some other lake, lol.

thank you again for all the suggestions, highly appreciated, going to have a look at some pics of clown loaches now, yo @mydummyname, when they get to 25cm, you going to take them from me? lol.

 

no worries!

i'm no expert on cichlids, but these look like tanganyikans?

if these are the fish you going for, then you really are going to get all that colour you want for sure! IF you can find all of these babies..!

 

haha, really beautiful fish these hey, i dont need to find all, just some of then and i will be happy, or even some similar ones.

so is there anyone in the kaap that can hook me up with these fish or similar?

 

What about the south american dwarfs, rams, agassizi etc

 

@riyadh - just had a look at the rams, and it says they grow to about 10cm, beautiful fish hey, i would definitely consider these, i must look at availability and price for various options, thank you for that riyadh

where can i find these fish in cape town? any idea?

 

Hey Ryan, The major difference between Ancistrus and Pleco's are the adult size. Ancistrus max's out at about 15cm and the Pleco's can easily double that. Also Pleco's will chow your plants whereas the Ancistrus is perfect for a planted tank.

Nadeem checkout Firemouth cichlids too, they are peaceful and colour up beautifully under proper conditions.

 

nice that is what i was aiming for with mine

 

Rams you should be able to find just about anywhere, also check with our sponsors especially for other dwarfs, try Altum, then as far as firemouths are concerned they are hardly peaceful fish. They are quite agressive, This is is the only ithe fish that I have had that does the same Gill flare thing like the siamese fighters

 

thanx Boebie. that pleco i had really used to scare me...

 

goodluck nadeem...i would have said for colour you can't beat a all male malawi tank...not sure why you fell out of love...also awesome watching fish colour up

tangs are awesome too....if you struggle to find some ask @sarf to direct you....he knows where you can get awesome f1 tangs...

 

Thank You dragon, i wouldnt say i fell out of love with the malawi, they are totally awesome fish, but for the first time, i am planting in my tank and i am really enjoying that, and malawi's are not going to be too nice to my plants.

im seriously looking at rams, saw some beautiful ones, will shop around and so on, need to save abit, upgrading lighting at the moment so the rand is getting low, lol.

 

nadeem pls come look at my malawis some time....with hopes that we can win you back

planted tanks wont work with malawi's....

you did say previously that you wanted personality and the aggression of the malawi's make for that...

am gonna try a planted when i grow up...

 

Hi Nadeem. Thanks for the Rainbow.

Get some rainbows. Which breed is up to you. Conga Tetras are awesome is well and get up to 7.5cm, I am looking for some as well. Giant and Pearl Gourami's are very nice as well and grow up to 10cm. The Pet shop at Fairbridge mall has some larger than usall German Rams for R70 each and they are very, very nice. Maybe email Gert. He always has Gorys for sale and is definately worth to go for a visit.