Fish from Heaven

[enadeau12]

how many angels should i put in my 55. would 2 be fine or should i go with 3 or 4?

 

[bs6749]

Either go with 2 or 4 and try to get an equal number of males and females.

 

[enadeau12]

okay thanks. and i have one more question. can i get two fiddler crabs for my tank or will they kill my bn pleco and other fish?

 

[bs6749]

No experience with crabs but I doubt they'd go after a BN pleco unless it's less than 1.5 inches. I could be wrong but I wouldn't expect that it'd happen. To be safe I'd keep them in a species only tank if you were interested in getting them.

 

[enadeau12]

i want something other than fish wandering on the tank bottom. any ideas other than crabs?

 

[bs6749]

There are some cool bottom dwelling fish like cories and loaches, but if you don't want those you could always go with larger snails, dwarf shrimp, dwarf crayfish. Not sure what you have in mind as far as stocking the tank i.e. the types of fish. Some of them may not be suitable with what I recommended. Angels would most likely go after dwarf shrimp unless you get something like Amanos, ghost shrimp, or some other type of shrimp that they can't really see well. Providing lots of hiding places for them in the form of vegetation like mosses is key in keeping an established colony going in the tank.

 

[enadeau12]

i thnk ill just stick with my bn pleco and other fish cuz i have kribs and rams in there with some barbs and soon to be angels. should i get a moss ball for my tank? how much care do they need? do i need to get a CO2 thing or what?

 

[bs6749]

Moss balls/marimo balls can be more difficult to care for. They require moderate to high lighting and you don't need CO2. If they get enough lighting it will cause tiny bubbles to form (called pearling) and these bubbles will cause the moss ball to float around the tank. You should "clean" them every 2 weeks by getting a container with some tank water and putting the ball in there. Then, grab the ball like a tennis ball in the palm of your hand and squeeze it several times until you see the ball no longer emitting dirty water. Put the ball back into your tank and toss the dirty water...simple as that. One more thing is that the moss ball isn't a plant, rather it's a form of algae. Not a big deal, just most people don't realize that. A good fertilizer would also be good to have since they suck up nutrients even though they have extremely slow growth rates. They really aren't a "beginner plant" so to speak but they aren't that hard if you remember to clean them. Dwarf shrimp would keep them free of debris as well. I keep some of them in my shrimp tanks. If you get a shrimp tank I really recommend a marimo ball. They look cool and the shrimp love them.

 

[enadeau12]

would the fish in my tank benefit from one? kribs, gbr's, rosy barbs, bn pleco, red tail shark.

 

[bs6749]

No, they'd do perfectly fine without one.

 

[enadeau12]

okay thanks. i thnk tomoro i will get 2 angels, 2 more rosy barbs to make a school of 6 and try and find another female krib. that way ill have two pair of kribs and 1 pair of germans.