Fish for Eclipse System Twelve

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dimdem

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Dec 27, 2004
Messages
40
Location
Norfolk VA
I got an Eclipse System Twelve for Xmas. It will be awhile before it is set up, and I realize that once I have it going then it will still be a number of weeks before I can add fish (unless I find some Bio-spira), but of course I can't help but think about what fish I want. I am thinking about two rams and two or three small otos. Is that appropriate for this size/style of tank? I haven't tested my pH yet, so that is one other possible hitch. I do know that my water is soft.

I bet someone is tempted to tell me to take the Eclipse back and get a bigger tank. :) We thought about it, but decided that it was big enough for us to get a feel for what having fish would be like. If we like it, then next year we'll go bigger.
 
Welcome to AA, fellow Virginian! :mrgreen:

I have an Eclipse 12 gal too and you are somewhat limited but they make a great tank, and you have more options than you may think. I've got mine chock full of Endler's livebearers and cory cats, along with cherry shrimp. The tank is planted with low-light plants, so that is an option for you too.

Rams would be perfect in there, assuming you can find some hardy specimens. If your water is relatively soft and acidic that's much better for them than my hard, alkaline water. Wait a bit on the otocinclus cats until you get a good crop of diatoms going (they do much better in a mature, stable tank anyway) and you should have a very nice setup.

You might also have a bit of room for a small schooling fish, like white cloud mountain minnows or neons. Harlequin rasboras might also be a nice choice, maybe 5. If you can find some Bio-Spira then you could stock the rams and the schooling fish immediately.

Good luck!
 
I thought about some schooling fish instead of the otos. Doing both, though, plus the rams, seemed like it might be pushing it (assuming that 5 or schooling fish would be a bare minimum). Someone warned me that the Eclipse filter was really just barely adequate for an aquarium of this size.
 
Right - they are not serious filters at all - and actually now that I think about it, otos can possibly scratch the acrylic on the tank with their rasping action - I have had that happen with small plecos, so maybe it is a good idea to skip them anyway.

You will find that with the standard fluoro tube that comes with these tanks algae is really not much of an issue, though I do get diatoms. I just wipe it off once a week and it is not a problem.

I don't think 2 rams and 5 schooling fish will be a heavy load at all. I used to keep 4 dwarf puffers, 5 tiger barbs and a 3" rubberlip pleco in a 12-gal until the barbs got too big. That's really pushing it but what you have in mind should work just fine.
 
Thanks for all of the input. One more question then I'll let it go (for now :)). What about a couple of rams and an SAE? Would it chase the rams? Would it scratch the acrylic just like otos might? Schooling fish would be more fun to watch, I'm sure. As a beginner, though, I really like the idea of having something in there that is helping me maintain the tank and keep it clean.
 
It's pretty easy to enhance the filter on the eclipse 12. Look for a thread by me in the DIY forum.

It seems to be able to keep up with a rather large population (I'm probably pushing it). Water parameters are still all good.
 
A SAE (if you can be absolutely certain it is a "true" SAE) would be okay in there, but only if you had some real algae issues. Otherwise it is just in there creating waste and requiring feeding of algae wafers. If you like them, there is nothing wrong with that, but it won't be working for you, so to speak.

A school of small cory cats, like paleatus or pygmy, would do a nice job for you in there of keeping uneaten food off the bottom - I'd get 4.

The other consideration is some good sized shrimp. Most rams would have trouble eating a shrimp as large as a ghost or Amano, and if you had plenty of plant cover, real or fake, they would be very happy and do some cleanup around the tank.

TeutonJon, I am a fan of DIY filter cartridges, and will re-use the plastic frames with fiber batting and a rubber band. The level of filtration is not going to change, since the motor is driving the same amount of water, but it certainly saves money on those cartridges. I tend to re-use the cartridges over and over until the fiber floss is falling off, then make my own with the frame.
 
Shrimp are a great suggestion, thanks. Maybe I'll push it a little and try 2 rams, 5 neons, and a couple of ghost shrimp.
 
I like the looks of a small school of neon tetra's. very pretty fish, especially against nice, green live plants.

Course, I also love Cherry Barbs. These guys are rather docile as far as barbs go and are really pretty. (keep them in pairs of male and females.)

cory cats are great bottom feeders.

Black Mollies are very pretty and would be a nice contrast to neon tetra's
 
Great call on the cherry barbs because they are really marvelous algae eaters - they will "work" for you, dimdem!
 
I like the rasboras that TankGirl suggested earlier too. This gets more difficult as I read about more fish. Could I do a pair each of rams and cherry barbs, or will I regret not having schooling fish? Also, my water apparently has low KH (29), and if I understand correctly this means that keeping pH rock steady will be hard for me, especially in a small tank. Something that I read made it sound like even small flucuations might be quite hard on the rams; is that right? I really like the rams, but I guess it would be easy to skip them and go with cherry barbs and rasboras.
 
Cherry barbs are really going to like to be in a school, and this tank just cries for a "feature" fish with a small companion school. Low KH is not necessarily the kiss of death - if you practice regular tank maintenance and frequent partial water changes you will keep your pH stable. If you don't allow the tank to sit and accumulate debris that will acidify the tank even more then you should not have problems. You could always put a seashell or mix some crushed coral in your gravel to assist in buffering your water.

Alternatively you could consider a dwarf gourami instead of the rams, but I have had a bit of trouble with them and aggression in smallish tanks - others have had great success. If you go with Bolivian rams they seem to be much hardier than the German blues.

There are apistogramma species that would work in this tank, as they are dwarf cichlids who in general prefer softer water. If you find some of these it would probably be a species tank, but a pair of them would fit nicely in a 12gal. I have tried kribensis in a 12gal and find it to be a bit small - I think I'd stick with 20gal and up for them.
 
You are right, Rocket, they won't "school" without sufficient numbers and without some minor threat, like bigger fish - you can't get this in a small tank at all, but they do better in groups and will add much interest to a small tank. I find you need at least 10-15 individuals to get any good schooling behavior.
 
I actually found a couple of web sites that said that cherry barbs do better in pairs than other barbs, so I'm thinking 2 of them, 2 rams, and some shrimp. Another question is about an air pump. Do I need one with this aquarium? Something I read made me think that the splashing biowheel would aerate the water well enough with no pump.
 
You should be fine without the air pump. But I always had a small one burried in the gravel behind a plant. it added just a hint of visual intrest, and it also kept the water oxygenated and moving.
 
Okay, we are finally getting closer to setting the system up. I ordered some bio-spira last night. My wife bought several pieces of equipment when she bought the tank, some of which we are going to return. We have dechlorinator, gravel, a siphon, a thermometer, and a net. She got a 50W heater, but I'm going to get a 75W one instead. I'm going to get water testing supplies. I'll also need to get something besides gravel to have in the aquarium. She had purchased a really cool looking set of "Roman ruins," but it is just too big for the tank. I may well get something smaller along the same lines. If I do, do I still need "plants" too, or will some "hard" decorations give the fish sufficient cover? (Any plants will be plastic.)
 
The 50W heater should be okey actually, I have one on a 18.5gal aquarium and it works out fine, but YMMV.
'Hard' decorations will provide good cover as long as they are cave like (meaning they can hide in there) and you best have more then one. But plants, even fake can provide excellent resting areas as well.
 
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