Feedback for new tank lineup

[Dr.Danio]

hey,
I'm new to the boards and new to the aesthetic fish thing. I've been working with Zebrafish, aka Zebra Danios, for quite a while now in a strictly research setting. I'm very familiar with the biological and chemical implications of aqatic environments, but I don't know the damndest about fishy attitudes. I currently have a 10 gallon with a small school of Tiger Barbs and High Fin Tetras, but had the fortune of inheriting a 35 gallon compete setup from an associate. Its cycled pretty fast as it was alive and well with all kinds of non-fish life forms (bacteria, algae, bugs) for a long time at my freinds, and I planted a medium load of plants over the cycle period.
Now that its ready, I've developed a lineup of potential inhabitants and I'd like to run it by you guys to see if its ok. My water is medium hard well water with a pH that I can't get to budge off of 7, I ran a few tests in lab and its well buffered. I was also going to make the tank low brackish, with about half the normal salt load. With that said, heres the lineup:

Needlenose Gar x2
Algae Eater
Firemouth Cichlid x2
Tiger Oscar
Redfin or Redtail Shark
Medium School of Feeder Danios


OK, I think I did decent research, but you guys know more about regular fish than I do. So let me know what you think. Thanks a bunch in advance!

 

[SixFootDaisy]

The only problem from my knowledge is that Cichlids and Oscars need to have a high pH. Also with these fish your tank will most likely be overstocked.

What sort of Algae Eater are you going to get?

Please keep in mind I am not an expert, so someone else may think your fish load is fine.

But this is just my opinion

 

[Allivymar]

Hiya and Welcome Dr Danio

Coupla comments on your fish choices:

Wow. Thats a HUGE bio-load for such a small tank. You may want to rethink your choices and I'll explain why.

Needlenose Gar: Get about 8 inches long, and are recommended to be in a 50g tank minimum...not because of size so much as they need LOTS of room to swim.

Oscars are another fishy that need a good size tank (min 50g or so. possibly more). Agressive, and really messy buggers too.

Be careful what type of algae eater you chose. Some plecos will get upwards of 2 feet long LOL poor guy may be pokin out each end of the tank plus, no room to really turn round.

Firemouths should be fine; do keep in mind they can get VERY territorial around breeding time tho.

Redtail sharks are also mondo aggressive. You don't want more then one in a tank as I think you are aware.

Theres a nice explanation of stocking a tank here: http://www.geocities.com/scalehead/stocking.html . Keep in mind you need to consider the ADULT size of the fish. Better to be prepared from the beginning then moving fish from tank to tank.

 

[Dr.Danio]

ok. I checked out that equation and it seems very reasonable.

here is what I calculated.
Needlenose Gar: 36in²/fish
Firemouth Cichlid: 54in²/fish
RFShark: 54in²/fish
CAE (Flying Fox): 54in²/fish
Danios: 12in²/fish
Oscar: 156in²/fish

Now for the sake of argument I follow just these estimations, and I have a 35 gallon tank with 384in² of surface area, then I should be able to get the following combination:
Gar x2=>______72in²
Firemouth x2 => 108in²
SFShark=>_____54in²
CAE=>________54in²
______________288in²
leaving room for
Danios x8=>___96in²
Total of________384in²
Leaving out the Oscar is no problem, I did hear that they're messy and uproot some plants, so I don't mind dropping that from the lineup.

Any other concerns beyond Bioload? I think that I have enough plants to combat NH3 buildup and get enough oxygenation. The feeders don't have to live in there, I've got plenty of places to keep them anyway... but thanks Allivymar for the excellent tip!

 

[tkos]

I believe that there will be very bad problems once those fish mature. They are all quite violent fish (except danios of course) that will want to attack each other for territory. The CAE is not a flying fox also. 2 different fish. A CAE is a true algae eater that gets close to 18 inches in length and becomes quite violent towards most tank mates and from what I hear stops eating algae after it ages. A flying fox gets to be 6 inches at most and is a grazer of all bottom food. It also gets territorial but generally to those of its own kind. I would skip an algae eater and just try to keep the tank as clean as possible. A well planted tank should grow too much algae if there isn't too much ferts and CO2. This would also give the shark full run of the bottom of the tank and make him very happy.

 

[Allivymar]

*nods and agrees with tkos*

Guess I wasn't very clear in my previous post.

The issue with your choice is not only size, but aggression levels. You obviously want an aggressive tank, and no prob with that, but your choices may start WW3 They are not only territorial within their species, but with other species as well. You may get lucky and everyone will get along, but their track records aren't that great so be warned.

Also, those gars need swimming space. I suggest again, smallest tank would be a 55g or so, although a 125g would be much better. I don't know if 2 would be compatible; I gather they're loners.

Heh, and good idea on keeping the feeders elsewhere. Otherwise they might become feeders quicker then you plan

Good idea about not including the oscar. I think they are AWESOME; smart, agressive and fun to have, but need lotsa room. Plus they are the messiest eaters you'll ever see LOL

You might want to do some further research on WetWebMedia; they have a pretty thorough section on FW fish full of tips, info and faqs: http://www.wetwebmedia.com/FWSubWebIndex/fwsubwebindex.htm You also might want to check www.fishbase.com for basic info on your fish.

 

[Allivymar]

Btw Dr D:

I'm guessing u work for one of the bio-tech companies doing studies on disease...worked with the transgenic flourescing zebras? Been lots of controversy on the forums bout them going retail.

 

[Dr.Danio]

nope, I'm a Grad student at Lehigh University doing molecular genetic studies. The fish are secondary really, good model organism for the stuff we're studying. And yes I've been following the flourescent line news... thing is that I have made quite a few of them myself, want one? you would need an argon laser and a $40,000 microscope to see them glow, but hey...

Well the tank is now inhabited with 1 gar and 2 firemouths. oh, and the giant feeder goldfish that I got to cycle the tank (2 died). I'm monitoring the levels, so we'll see how it goes.