Redoing/restocking a tall tank?

[Skai]

So, when I first got back into the hobby I got a lovely 25 gal hex tank. (I love me an odd shaped tank) I had some angels in it because I figured the height of the tank would really work with them. The angels soon got a 125 gal because 'oh yes' they decided 'eggs even though we got no more room'.

The 25 hex has been a community tank and grow out tank since.

I've been thinking of redoing it and have been flirting with the idea of dwarf puffers. Although I read that they prefer long to tall tanks. Any thoughts on this? It's a lightly planted tank but gets lots of sunlight because it's central in the living room that has windows on two sides. It's a great feature tank so I want a real active character fish. Hence the puffer flirtation.

I've also toyed with the idea of rams if some sort but not sure which would work best if I go that route.

What would you do with a tank with a small but tall footprint?

 

[SaraB]

What about adding more plants and making it a pea puffer tank? Or is that what you meant by dwarf puffers?

 

[Skai]

What about adding more plants and making it a pea puffer tank? Or is that what you meant by dwarf puffers?

Yeah, that was what I meant by dwarf puffer

 

[SaraB]

You should be able to fit a few in there. I'd do 5 maybe, I think pea puffers are 1 fish per 5 gallons.

 

[Autumnsky]

A tank with many different colors and tail shapes of male Guppies and Endlers. They move all around the tank, chase around together and flutter splashes of color all around! Playful and fun. Always love to get fed!

Guppies - Tiger, Cobra, Japan Blue, Mosaic, Metalhead, Grass, Moscow, Snakeskin, Tuxedo, Blonde Albinos in most types too. And all variety of colors!

Endlers of all colors and patterns as well.

Here is a clip of tails and some colors

Just a thought!

 

[Skai]

A tank with many different colors and tail shapes of male Guppies and Endlers. They move all around the tank, chase around together and flutter splashes of color all around! Playful and fun. Always love to get fed!

Guppies - Tiger, Cobra, Japan Blue, Mosaic, Metalhead, Grass, Moscow, Snakeskin, Tuxedo, Blonde Albinos in most types too. And all variety of colors!

Endlers of all colors and patterns as well.

Here is a clip of tails and some colors

Just a thought!

My mother has sworn off guppies after she had a tank overwhelmed by babies... although if pure male populated.... hmmm food for thought

 

[earhtmother]

Just a quick interjection here, if you do all males make sure to have enough decor/plants that any dominance/territory issues are kept to a minmum by breaking up up sight lines. I have found that male guppies are ruled by their hormones and with no females......

 

[libertybelle]

Val is a great no nonsense plant for breaking up sight lines. Grows super fast and tall and will spread wherever you let it quite quickly. I started out with one plant like two months ago and now i’ve got it over half the substrate in the back and sides of two tanks (a 29 and a 10) and have to trim it when it starts moving across the surface.

Great for tall tanks because it gives high cover to fish and encourages them to use vertical space.

 

[Autumnsky]

The experience of having toooooooo many Guppies is quite common.

Once I went to a hobbyists home to get some fish supplies and there was maybe a 75-100 gallon tank FILLED with guppies with every couple square inches was a Guppy in the entire tank, and they couldn't hardly get rid of them fast enough I guess.

As for the angry males, yes if the tank is too small or there would be a bully, which I had one before. Lately I have had the males hanging out together in 3 different tanks and now mainly going be all together in the 72G with the other fish. Maybe about 20 in there now.

They do chase each other around but so far, I haven't seen any mean /bullying actions!

I love them. They really make the tank look so colorful and happy. Not happy if one is a bully though. You could remove if there was one meany!

 

[Skai]

There are some plants in the tank. Some tall grasses that I cannot for the life of me recall the name of. (I am horrendous at plant names) but I would probably do some other nice tall plants no matter what I restock with. The one small angel in there has decided it likes grazing on the grass and has mowed a good portion down lol.

 

[Autumnsky]

The Angels are interesting that I have had a bunch over the years, and some didn't et the plants and some thought they were cows, hahaha.

I did start offering more veggie type food - a easy one is Seaweed Extreme by Hikari. There are others which are more based with veggies, Seaweed sheets, very small piece at a time, and Omega One Veggie Micro Pellets, Spirulina flake. Another option is the Frozen Spirulina Brine shrimp

A new one I would like to try is New Life Spectrum Probiotix it seems to be a really promising new food line, the probiotics and phosphate eating bacteria as well to help with water quality and reduce fish waste, and they have a Algae Max wafer which has a really good list of ingredients. I think I will try these 2 out and see how they are!

One of my favorite tall and easy plants are Crypt Balansae, you can get them in the tissue culture cups and need to be patient while they grow but I used a pack and ended up with probably 8 plants ~ 8.99 - 9.99 Really pretty.

Another easy plant is the African water Fern Bolbitis heudelotii (this one times onto a stone or Driftwood and goes to town!)

The C. Balansae is the long leaves kind of crinkly curving over from the back and the Bolbitus is the mass in the center front growing up on the Spiderwood.
Pic is old one from 2015

 

[Skai]

All my angel fish have decided they like to munch my plants. Been trying to find more veggie rich foods for them so they'll leave the leaves alone, lol. I'll have to try some of those foods you listed.

 

[Autumnsky]

If you have a good lfs, sometimes they have some samples set back and you might ask about it. I found some great samples at a trade show couple years ago and then also found one lfs, which is far from me and I visited 1-2x per year, and the manager gave me several packs/ variety from some somewhat recently released last year and it was nice, as the 2 new foods I plan to order this week ~$35.00 (larger size of one so a good value, but so much money if the fish don't eat it).

From the ingredients it looks like they will eat it.

Very excited about the NLS Probiotix for small fish 1mm pellet. Will try it for the Betta too.