40 gallon biotope build

[swimwithme]

So glad you were finally able to get some fish in there. I'm still working on mine, but hopefully I'm getting closer. Congrats!

 

[nanofish]

I think you need this then Evelyn Lozada talks fiance Chad Ochocinco's fish tank bed: It was his idea - 09/01/2011 | Entertainment News from OnTheRedCarpet.com I hate the guy but I have to admit he has a great tank.

*turns on the music for the Family Feud because it's cool and I can*

Tank #1 is mine. 40 gallon breeder with a canister filter that filters 350 gallons an hour.
Current stock- 5 Sterba's corys
8 rosy tetras
2 kitty tetras
1 gold tetra
1 sivertip tetra
(stupid me and stupid fish store)

Second tank is my grandma's 55 gallon with a submersible whisper in-tank filter 40i. I've also bought her a Aqueon quiet flow 55/75 that I'm taking over there tonight.
Her stock-1 Sterba's cory
1 highfin Bronze cory
1 8 inch pleco that's not a rubbernose like I had been led to believe.

I'd like to give her the silvertip and create a schoal of them for her. I'd also consider giving her the gold tetra, although that can stay. There's your internet confusion since I can't find out how big gold teras get. It's somewhere from 1.5 to 2.2 inches. I'm taking over the care of both tanks after I get her's back in shape. Multiple PWC a week if needed. My tank will stay with the South American theme, her's can vary. She needs more corys for sure. I need an algae eating fish, since if the gold tetras stay they might mess with the plan. Any thoughts?

 

[absolutangel04]

Well, her tank certainly has quite a bit of potential, so the sky is the limit there once you get it cleaned. I think its a good idea to get the silver-tip a school since they can be sort of feisty. Do the mis-matched tetras school?

 

[nanofish]

Actually the mismatched tetras do spend a lot of time together, probably because they don't have much choice. The silvertip gets really active during feeding time but there hasn't been any sort of agression. The sivertip though will be moved to her tank so there's room for school. She's enjoy watching them. The gold tetra and it's future buddies I'm not sure what to do with. Her beloved Big Guy (what she named the pleco) has to have a big bioload. She'd care less about things looking like a circus though.

Just curious but have you heard different species of tetra schooling together? Well not school but interact like corys do. I had heard that Rosy tetras and their relatives did that. I haven't been able to find a lot of corroboration for it though.

 

[librarygirl]

Hey your tank looks great! Congrats on your fish!

 

[nanofish]

Hey your tank looks great! Congrats on your fish!

Thank you and thank you for all the cycling help. With any luck I'm going to be able to talk a relative into letting me borrow a camera over Thanksgiving. The pictures really don't do the tank justice but then I'm biased

 

[absolutangel04]

Actually the mismatched tetras do spend a lot of time together, probably because they don't have much choice. The silvertip gets really active during feeding time but there hasn't been any sort of agression. The sivertip though will be moved to her tank so there's room for school. She's enjoy watching them. The gold tetra and it's future buddies I'm not sure what to do with. Her beloved Big Guy (what she named the pleco) has to have a big bioload. She'd care less about things looking like a circus though.

Just curious but have you heard different species of tetra schooling together? Well not school but interact like corys do. I had heard that Rosy tetras and their relatives did that. I haven't been able to find a lot of corroboration for it though.

IME, some mixed tetras will school (or at least close to it). Of course, others won't. Its sort of hard to say, but it depends very heavily on the species. I currently have a lone red-eyed tetra (the others got a new home, and he will be getting one too, but the store didn't want as many as I had) and he hangs out with all my rummies. He sort of looks similar, but he has a very different temperment so he mostly schools with them, then will suddenly decide to chase one. So, the rumies are waiting for him to leave. Lol. I also keep my baby silvertips in with my embers in a 10g if they are too small to go into the big tank with the angels. They school well with the embers until they get a bit of size on them, then they would rather be by themselves than with the embers. So, IME it depends on the fish, but some will naturally try to school with fish that look similar to themselves. Since rosys and their relatives look alike, it doesn't surprize me at all to hear that they hang out together or even school.

 

[nanofish]

IME, some mixed tetras will school (or at least close to it). Of course, others won't. Its sort of hard to say, but it depends very heavily on the species. I currently have a lone red-eyed tetra (the others got a new home, and he will be getting one too, but the store didn't want as many as I had) and he hangs out with all my rummies. He sort of looks similar, but he has a very different temperment so he mostly schools with them, then will suddenly decide to chase one. So, the rumies are waiting for him to leave. Lol. I also keep my baby silvertips in with my embers in a 10g if they are too small to go into the big tank with the angels. They school well with the embers until they get a bit of size on them, then they would rather be by themselves than with the embers. So, IME it depends on the fish, but some will naturally try to school with fish that look similar to themselves. Since rosys and their relatives look alike, it doesn't surprize me at all to hear that they hang out together or even school.

Thanks. I'm sure the prefence is always for their own species if the numbers are there. The mixed species schooling together was the reason I had previous thought of doing the ornate and black phantoms. I had heard they interacted. In any case the sivertip should be good until I get the other tank ready. That gives me some time to figure out the gold tetra too.

 

[absolutangel04]

Yeah, it stinks that the store is a ways away where you got the mis-identified ones. I have gotten a couple of misidentified fish once or twice too. I was not thrilled about having a whole different fish to figure out, but at least these guys are just tetras and not cichlids or something.

 

[nanofish]

Whew. SO I'm not the only one that has had this happen. I'm probably the only person to get three species instead of one though. I hope anyway. lol I need to talk some of my friends into setting up aquariums.

 

[nanofish]

Really dumb question. I've only ever fed flakes before. Right now though I have dried mysis shrimp, bloodworms, and tubifex worms. I route through them. Any other foods I should be looking to add?

 

[librarygirl]

Really dumb question. I've only ever fed flakes before. Right now though I have dried mysis shrimp, bloodworms, and tubifex worms. I route through them. Any other foods I should be looking to add?

What kind of fish do you have again?

Are the shrimp and worms freeze-dried? Freeze-dried foods should be given as a treat only, maybe once or so per week as they can cause bloating issues. Frozen foods would be better if you can get them. The flake food should be their main diet though with maybe some frozen foods given once or twice per week. I mainly feed New Life Spectrum Community pellets (I use the smaller .5mm size as my fish are small but you should be OK with the main 1 mm size). I have Panda Corys and once or twice per week after lights out at night I'll give them a sinking shrimp pellet or algae wafer as they like to feed at night. I also fast them once per week and give a thawed, deshelled frozen pea once per week to aid with digestion (the fish love it).

 

[nanofish]

What kind of fish do you have again?

Are the shrimp and worms freeze-dried? Freeze-dried foods should be given as a treat only, maybe once or so per week as they can cause bloating issues. Frozen foods would be better if you can get them. The flake food should be their main diet though with maybe some frozen foods given once or twice per week. I mainly feed New Life Spectrum Community pellets (I use the smaller .5mm size as my fish are small but you should be OK with the main 1 mm size). I have Panda Corys and once or twice per week after lights out at night I'll give them a sinking shrimp pellet or algae wafer as they like to feed at night. I also fast them once per week and give a thawed, deshelled frozen pea once per week to aid with digestion (the fish love it).

I have rosy, kitty, gold, and silvertip tetras and some very small Sterba's corys. The shrimp is freeze dried, both of the worms are frozen. I had thought I needed flakes but, well there's a ton of different brands out there and I had no clue what was good and what wasn't. I had always just bought whatever last time I had fish. Thanks for the recommendation, I will certainly check into that. Most likely I'll get the small size as because of the kitty tetras. I had also planned on the sinking pellets but again, wasn't sure which kind. I'll get some of both as well. I was researching something else last night and heard about feeding peas. Honestly I had no idea that was such a fishy favorite.

 

[librarygirl]

I have rosy, kitty, gold, and silvertip tetras and some very small Sterba's corys. The shrimp is freeze dried, both of the worms are frozen. I had thought I needed flakes but, well there's a ton of different brands out there and I had no clue what was good and what wasn't. I had always just bought whatever last time I had fish. Thanks for the recommendation, I will certainly check into that. Most likely I'll get the small size as because of the kitty tetras. I had also planned on the sinking pellets but again, wasn't sure which kind. I'll get some of both as well. I was researching something else last night and heard about feeding peas. Honestly I had no idea that was such a fishy favorite.

I have regular flakes, Top Fin brand I think, nothing fancy. They get the NLS pellets most of the time anyway but I'll give them flakes once a week for variety instead. For the Corys in addition to the NLS and flakes which they eat also I'll give them either ApI Bottom Feeder Shrimp pellets or New Life Spectrum H20 stable algae wafers at night once or twice a week. I've tried other algae wafers but in the morning they broke down and crumbled and left quite a mess. The NLS H20 wafers don't disintegrate so I can easily remove what's left in the morning. And yep they love peas, it's too cute lol.

 

[richpowell1989]

Well, mine sure are getting to be that big. Yeah, I had done some research and read that they were only supposed to reach a foot, but I know you know all about conflicting info online!
Lol, I LOVE the stocking game. Its a good way to live vicariously through people when I am out of space for another tank at the moment.

My sword is over 23" tall so I think they get big mate

 

[nanofish]

I have regular flakes, Top Fin brand I think, nothing fancy. They get the NLS pellets most of the time anyway but I'll give them flakes once a week for variety instead. For the Corys in addition to the NLS and flakes which they eat also I'll give them either ApI Bottom Feeder Shrimp pellets or New Life Spectrum H20 stable algae wafers at night once or twice a week. I've tried other algae wafers but in the morning they broke down and crumbled and left quite a mess. The NLS H20 wafers don't disintegrate so I can easily remove what's left in the morning. And yep they love peas, it's too cute lol.

Thanks Now I have a shopping list to take to Petsmart. At the very least they'll have flakes if I need to order everything off the internet. I had been feeding twice a day, but after reading through one thread on here I've switched to just once a day.

 

[nanofish]

Not a whole, whole lot to update. No fishy fatalities which is great even if it's only been a couple of weeks. Surprise, surprise the planarians are gone. Also no surprise to me is that I'm seeing brown diatom algae. I need to buy a brush and maybe do a second PWC each week. An actual surprise is that I haven't seen any sign of the white fungus that tends to grow on unboiled DW. It's been almost two months for that, maybe I'm getting lucky. No sign of any leaf breakdown either.

The fish are doing great. The corys always hide so you have to look all over for them, they blend in very well with the leaves and days can pass without me seeing all five at once. The rosys are fun to watch. They will swim around together at times, at other times some seem to set up little territories and chase everyone else off. The bigger kitty tetra will also occassionally chase off the smaller. Nothing unusual in my opinion, especially since it's just the two of them and not a whole shoal. The silvertip is pretty calm, but when it's feeding time you can definitely see him zooming around the tank and tell he's a much faster swimmer than everyone else. The gold tetra, well I'm still trying to figure out what i should do with him.

I think I might pass on plants for this tank. The light I got for it was stupid anyway. It's the same length as the tank but the legs stick out to the side. How does that work? Anyway I thought it might be fun to rig up something so some leaves stay floating. Great idea for some shadows and all but no idea how to do it.

Last thing. I'm artsy apparently. I played with the camera and thought I took some good pics. I changed one setting and didn't realize until I uploaded them. Sadly it's about the best pics I've taken so I'll post one anyway for a laugh.

 

[absolutangel04]

Good to hear there have been no deaths! Thats always a good thing! Sorry I have been gone a lot lately, but I see librarygirl was here for you!

 

[nanofish]

Haha I think librarygirl is just happy I'm not throwing out cycling questions that confuse everyone. I still need to check online for the NLS foods. Petsmart has a poor selection.

 

[librarygirl]

Haha I think librarygirl is just happy I'm not throwing out cycling questions that confuse everyone. I still need to check online for the NLS foods. Petsmart has a poor selection.

Your tank looks great. I'm glad you're enjoying your fish. They are fun to watch aren't they? Good luck with them!