36G: What would YOU do?!

[coldmachineUK]

I'm stripping down my 36G which is currently my cichlid tank (Msobo Magunga). The fish are just not to my liking, which I've found really hard to reconcile. I keep all kinds of fish inc. puffers and the more unusual loaches, and really the cichlids are just not doing anything for me. I get no pleasure from them, and they're breeding too much for me to be able to continue passing fry/juvies on to the LFS and local aquarists.

So, I'm moving the seven cichlids out of the tank and giving them away to a new home.

I'm keeping my two petricola and the LDA08 plec I have in there however, and plan on planting it up heavily and keeping it FW.

I'm planning on a group of 4-5 SAPs, but if I can't get hold of them I'm open to ideas. Soooo, if it was YOUR tank, what would YOU do?! Post your stock lists here!

 

[Fishyfanatic]

For a tank of that size, community fish. Nothing that is aggressive or gets very big.

 

[Zagz]

What about dwarf cichlids. Apistogrammas, GBR's or bolivian rams?

 

[JustOneMore20]

I'd go with a large school of Fucata Rainbows (Pseudomugil furcatus), Cories, and either a type of shrimp or 5 or so Otos....with the tank heavily planted. If you went with Otos instead of shrimp, then a pair of Apistos or Rams would be nice to add to the list.

 

[Corey]

Lurker...

Other than more puffers though (which are clearly the best choice), if it were me, I'd probably do a nice planted tank with something like GBR's (or DP's ).
Or you could turn it marine and do a blue spotted jawfish tank. Those little guys are hilarious.

 

[rich311k]

I think a planted tank with angels and gbrs is a great idea. Kind of like the one linked below in my signature.

 

[coldmachineUK]

Thanks for the ideas! Hmm...not a fan of rams. Angels are a possibility...but I'd like to keep something I've not kept before, so it keeps the hobby new and interesting for me. I have a 58G moderately planted community, so would like to try something new.

I have brackish puffers, but no freshwater puffers: I want to keep my synos and plec though (the petricola grow to 4" or so - they're about that now, and the plec about the same size although he's only a little tiny thing at about 2.5-3"). Neale Monks wrote something over on the tropical fish forum suggesting it's ok to keep synos with a school of south american puffers...hmmm....think that's still my number one plan.

I was tempted by rainbows as a centrepiece fish for my larger community, but opted against them in the end because I just can't find good quality (colourful) stock in the shops near to me and I don't trust online mail order with them because the colour is everything. Poor quality rainbows look...well...terrible. Do they colour up once they're in a proper (i.e. non-LFS) tank? Would it be risky getting them in case they didn't?

Also, I think I'm against cichlids now lol. It's the puffers...really...I blame them for everything now. Other fish just seem really boring!

My 20G is a semi-aggressive community, so again don't want to repeat that setup. I will go heavily planted though, whether I keep the SAPs or not. I recently converted my semi-aggressive to heavily planted and my peaceful community to moderately planted, and the difference is immense!

I'm still leaning to SAPs...c'mon convince me!

 

[patryuji]

36G? I am guessing here but maybe a 36x18x12?

Heavily planted...I would have a polypterus senegalus (smallest of the bichirs and they look great slinking through the plants). No otos or other small fish though as they would become snacks in short order. Maybe a small school of rainbows (not sure what variety I'd pick).

 

[coldmachineUK]

It's actually a tall, rather than long: 30x18x15
That also rules out the idea of a river conditions tank: I took my small river tank down not long ago and would have recreated it in this tank but it's too tall for the flow to work properly without a LOT of hassle and money (powerheads galore).

I had the seven msobo magunga in there, been there nearly a year now, but they're just not interesting me at all. It's terrible: I feel so bad b/c I've never had that with fish before! The tank is full of rockwork (built up right to the top), so I'm going to have to remove all of that, maybe leave a couple of pieces in for the synos who love roaming in and around it.

I had started to remove some rock to make it easier to get in and maintain the tank in the meantime. So, I've also started planting it up as well with the extra space. I originally stuck with java ferns and vallis since mbuna don't particularly like munching on them (don't taste so great apparently!) and theyre well planted. The newer plants include more vallis, some tall chain sword, and a few malaysian swords. Keeping to the hardy ones for now since they're going to get dug up. Once the cichlids are in their new home I will plant more heavily and with greater variety, like I have in my other tanks.

Senegal bichir is an interesting idea! But, they scare me! If I'm going to get nibbled I'd prefer it was by something cute lol
Also they grow to a foot in length which is way too big for the tank.

But it's a different non-angel, non-ram idea though so thankyou!

Thinking of puffers I'd love to keep an irrubesco or two in there, but they're a bit moody and I don't know how they'd get on with the synos...

Another alternative is to keep an aggressive 'community' (my msobo magunga really WERENT aggressive despite all the literature reporting the contrary! I think mine must have been on valium or something :S). Maybe some of the more moody barbs, perhaps everetti.
Does anyone know of any aggressive but interesting fish that can be kept together? Or, I like the senegal bichir idea on the basis of a single fish in the tank kinda setup. Any other single medium-sized fish that will roam all levels of the tank (no oscars either!) that anyone can think of? The problem is that puffers are interesting solo, and my community is interesting because of all the interactions. The cichlids just kinda hang out and do very little. Munch a bit on algae, and repeatedly have babies....! That was fun the first few times...but not really anymore lol
So, if it's a single fish it'd have to be a pretty interesting one!

Wow, am I fussy or what?! Hehe. I just don't want to fall in to the trap of the cichlids where I end up feeling like I'm not getting anything out of keeping them and because of that they're not getting the attention they deserve (they're not neglected, but I look at them a LOT less than my other fish).

Still leaning towards:
#1. Group of 4-5 SAPs
#2. Pair of irrubesco
#3. Aggressive 'community'?

 

[LandGhoti]

I was tempted by rainbows as a centrepiece fish for my larger community, but opted against them in the end because I just can't find good quality (colourful) stock in the shops near to me and I don't trust online mail order with them because the colour is everything. Poor quality rainbows look...well...terrible. Do they colour up once they're in a proper (i.e. non-LFS) tank?

Yes, they do color up once they're in a well-maintained home tank. My LFS has a tank of turquoise rainbows that look grey-blue at best (also the bad lighting there doesn't help). I bought two of them several months ago and they colored up right away and continue to dazzle me with the colors they reflect depending on where they are in the tank.

 

[newfound77951]

It does depend on what kind of rainbows, too. the regular Australians will get more colorful, but just aren't as bright as some other species, such as turquoises or boesemanis. For a short, high tank like that one I would say some of the dwarf rainbows (neon rainbows/praecox), featherfins or pseudomugils would be great.

Just reread your last post...I had 4 clown barbs (everettii). They were pretty but got spooked very easily, so if the tank is near any foot traffic they'll perpetually be freaked out. I had mine in a 30 gal (36" long) and that was really too small for them (mine were 4" by the time I gave them away). They also were very good at digging up the plants. Another suggestion, although they are almost as big, would be Arulius barbs, like the rainbows they usually look awful at the LFS but get gorgeous when they're bigger. They are one of my favorite fish.

 

[patryuji]

The polypterus senegalus will do just fine in that tank.

12" long fish that is only 1" in diameter is much different in bioload and manuevering requirements than a 12" oscar. They do like a slightly bigger tank better (as any fish will).

Since it isn't a long I'm not sure if I'd still put rainbows in there...a little less room for them to swim in a straight line.

Now if you have any livebearers that are just killing you with overpopulation (platies and guppies), you could put them in the bichirs tank when it is atleast 7-8 inches long. It is great watching it slink up slowly near a fish and then flashing into action. They love to hunt through plants for ghost shrimp as well. Then again, they also do just fine on any type of sinking pellets, blood worms, etc.

 

[ingg]

Tank is large enough to do a school of small fish for your color instead.

I'd set it with a school of 15-20 pygmy spotted rasbora (they'll look drab grey in a LFS, but color up in a day or two to awesome salmon and red colors), 3-4 ottos, pair of Apisto Borellis (blue), and see if a dozen Cherry shrimp could outbreed the apistos picking on youngins...