25g plants/fish stocking ideas

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lornajane89

lornajane89

Aquarium Advice Freak
Joined
Aug 18, 2011
Messages
312
Location
midlands uk
hi guys im just starting out a new 25 gallon with an african planted theme. its a bit bland at the minute with some black gravel and 2 anubias attached to rocks. Ive started the filter off in my established tank a week or so ago and tranfered some water into my new tank after a water change and moved the filter over yesterday. Today i added 3 rosy barbs to aid cycling and plan on doing regular water changes over the next few weeks until everything settles down. oh and i put in a load of plastic plants and ornaments temporarily to give the barbs some cover for the time being.

Im hoping the barbs survive i figured they would go well in the big picture which hopefully will involve a leopard bushfish (climbing perch) if i can find one. Im looking for ideas as to which other fish/creatures i could put in there, i want to be fairly minimal with the stocking but i know i cant have anything too aggressive because that would very likely push my bush fish into hiding all day. i was thinking some leopard frog plecos would be nice but im not sure how they would go in the african biotope. any ideas for some medium sized non aggressive fish would be appreciated.

I know the bushfish are predatory but im not sure how they would get on with snails, i was thinking of getting a couple to help keep algae at bay any suggestions for clean up crew would be good to.

ALSO!! planting any ideas for plants would be great like i said of got 2 small anubias on rocks at the minute and would like some bigger bushier sorts of plants to go in the back. Im hoping to find the perfect piece of root wood for the right price eventually but i am going to be patient as its really expensive over here and im being a bit picky about my tanks centrepiece. I think ill go with a suggestion from another thread with the water sprite for my floating plants, id like a good carpet plant that will spread quite easily or will i just have to buy like 20 plants and make the carpet myself? is it easy enough to do? any suggestions and advice are appreciated

thanks

dean
 
Snails and plants are not a bad combo. I have 4 snail species in my various tanks, all with live plants and I do not have an issue. Most commonly available snail species do not eat live plants. Nerite snails are a good choice. They leave plats alone, cannot reproduce in fw, and eat algae. I like my mystery snails too. I also have pond snails and ramshorn snails. Some people consider them pests, but I like them. they don't touch my live plants either.
 
So you have another established tank? Did you transfer the barbs over to the new tank from the other one? You don't need fish for cycling. If you have an established tank already, keep the fish in there, let the new filter run on the old tank for about 3 weeks (not sure how much bacteria would be transferred in just a week). Then move it over to the new tank but test the cycle first with pure ammonia. Or you could leave the new tank empty with the new filter on it and do a fishless cycle (you could also move some filter media from your other tank into the new one to help seed it). The link is in my signature: new empty tank.

I had never heard of leopard frog plecos so I just looked them up: very cute and pretty fish!

Here are some African biotope ideas and info: African Biotope Aquariums
 
Well that didnt work.. Woke up to 3 dead barbs and a cloudy tank.... Poor fish.. Fishless cycle it is then!
 
Ohwell the tanks gone cloudy now which i believe is bacteria bloom so hopefully not a bad thing. I added some seachems stabilizer to help things along... I guess ill keep u posted when i start testing

Thanks
 
lornajane89 said:
Ohwell the tanks gone cloudy now which i believe is bacteria bloom so hopefully not a bad thing. I added some seachems stabilizer to help things along... I guess ill keep u posted when i start testing

Thanks
Click to expand...

Sorry about your fish. Cloudiness is OK, it'll go away in time. I wouldn't add any chemicals or fake bacteria products to the tank; it isn't needed. Good luck with your fishless cycle; post here if you have any questions.
 
Just done some tests. My ammonia is lower than id have liked. Is there a good source of natural ammonia.. Ive been putting food in the tank and obviously my now deceased barbs added a bit but its still only about 50 ppm i dont have any pure ammonia not sure where id get any either.
 
lornajane89 said:
Just done some tests. My ammonia is lower than id have liked. Is there a good source of natural ammonia.. Ive been putting food in the tank and obviously my now deceased barbs added a bit but its still only about 50 ppm i dont have any pure ammonia not sure where id get any either.
Click to expand...
You can buy it at a hardware store. Otherwise, you can shrimp from the deli section. Put them in a mesh bag though bits don't get scattered. Oh, and if you buy the ammo, make sure there is nothing else in it at all.
 
managed to find some household ammonia at homebase. put in 2.5ml and got the ppm to about 3ppm i read 2 is better for kick starting but had alot of advice saying 4ppm is better so i went for mid range lol. anyway gonna see how things go with fishless cycling hopefully wont take too long, ive rang round a few stores but nowhere has my african bushfish yet but many have stocked it and have taken my number so x-fingers crossed-x i have been thinking about 1 bush fish, 2 frog plecos and either 1 butterfly fish OR if anybody can recommend a good large shoaling fish that wont be eaten by my bushfish i would greatly appreciate i like the look of congo tetras but a school of 6 3 inch fish puts me over my stocking limit. i used an online calculator which said with the 4 fish listed i am 75% stocked so will change the butterfly for any other recommendations that are worthwhile.

still looking for planting ideas I.e. carpet plants and any tips on getting them to spread and something really bushy that the fish can hide in anubias are all ive got in there at the minute but they are slowly dying i think its a water quality issue its sooo cloudy they cant be getting any light but ill shall be patient.

Thanks guys
 
Oh do u think a leopard bush fish would eat an african dwarf frog? I read they eat adult female guppys
 
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