Help me pick out some new fish please.

[patryuji]

Well I won't get anything for a few weeks...but here is my mixed bag of fish:

2 SAE
3 Corydoras "spotted"
1 red-tail shark
3 common guppies (1 male 2 female)

This is in a moderately planted 29G tank. I am thinking that I should increase the number of corydoras and maybe even get another SAE but it looks as if that would "top off" my tank. I do have a 10Gallon tank which currently has 4 young guppy fry and 5 ghost shrimp...I am considering tossing the adult guppies into it and then getting something for the 29G that would enjoy baby "guppy treats".

So would the SAE and red-tail be too much for a pair of angels to handle? If I keep the stock numbers the same as they currently are and remove the guppies would I be able to keep a pair of angels successfully? I have read that angels would enjoy baby guppies quite well...and I don't mind continously raising guppy fry to feed the angels (I'm getting quite adept at hatching brine shrimp for the guppy fry).

Is a puffer far too aggressive to live with my other tanks mates (this would be in lieu of angelfish of course)? I would think so but rely upon the experience of others to confirm or counter what I think I know of these fish. (I have plenty of snails as I was planning to get a loach of some sort).

Other than Angelfish, what other type of cichlids would not mind a 29G space to share with other fish? Kribs?

I was thinking about loaches ...but the lower reaches of the tank are already populated well enough (the guppies act like bottom feeders until nighttime when they finally go to the top...I guess my lighting is too intense for them).

 

[patryuji]

Just wanted to add:

I am also considering the following possibilities as well:

small school (4-5) of barbs (any of the smaller variety that will school together)

or a male betta and a few platies of the same sex (to be honest this would be just for adding color to the tank).

Then again with a full tank I don't know if the red-tail will begin to show aggression.

 

[lyquidphyre]

I could be wrong, and I prolly am, but I think tiger barbs like to nip on long finned fish.

 

[patryuji]

I have read that as well. I did not mean to try to mix all of the fish listed above together but to take each separate *paragraph* to indicate a possible choice that will complete the tank. I don't currently have any long finned fish (the common guppies have "normal" length tails so far) save for the dorsal fin on the red tail which isn't even very long.

 

[AJ]

I wouldn't mix guppies and barbs together. Tiger barbs anyways - you might be able to get some cherry barbs or something like that. I wouldn't mix a puffer with guppies either. As far as I know puffers don't like any other fish period.

However if you plan to put the adult guppies elsewhere that leaves you with a whole host of options from your angels or kribs, gouramis, or you could go to quieter fish like platys or a larger tetra and leave your guppies in the tank.

As long as you have enough hiding places for your shark he should be okay. You really don't have that much in your tank.

AJ

 

[PlatyLady]

Not that I have any personal experience with any of these fish (other than guppies and platies..., oh and bettas too)...

I hear that both puffers and cichlids get pretty aggressive/territorial and do best in tanks with only their own.

The male betta would be more than happy with a supply of guppy fry. With adults however, he'd be likely to attack. With barbs, it's likely he'll get nipped with his long fins.

As for the guppies and barbs together - my neon rosy barbs could care less about guppies. I think they consider them plants.

Unfortunately, I know nothing about sharks, so I don't know how they interact with any of these guys.

 

[Linsay]

what about some rainbows? I saw some really beautiful ones at our lfs

 

[patryuji]

Platylady- I was planning to either do the barb school without the betta or the betta with a few platies (the various hi-fin mickey mouse platies I find appealing). The guppies I have are "common" so I don't expect the males tail to be very large but it is still a bit young for me to know for sure (or is the betta attacking guppies unrelated to the size of the guppy tail? I was under the impression that they are aggressive to other fish who have large/long finnage).

I do see that nearly every cichlid is listed as being aggressive and territorial but the angels and kribs seem to be the least aggressive of the cichlids with the best chance of living in a community tank (I hope).

Linsay- I have seen the rainbowfish but they have not intrigued me enough to research them very much. I'll have to observe them a few more times at the various LFS near me. So what would the compatibility of the rainbowfish be with the current occupants? I'm sure I would definitely max out my tank if I added a school of rainbowfish since they seem to generally reach nearly 5" as adults.

 

[Guest]

I hven't kept everything on your list, but I guess I'll chime in here.

If you want peaceful barbs, with nice color, Cherry Barbs can't be beat. Mine have none of the nipping behaviors that I previosly had with Tiger Barbs. They don't stay in a tight school all the time, maybe 1/2 the time when I'm watching the tank, the rest of the time they wil wander on their own, or split into small groups.

Angelfish are a tough call. Temperment varies a lot between individual fish. Mine are pretty peaceful, never bother anybody (even during spawning, there is little aggro behavior), but I've heard other folks complain thet theirs get aggessive. If you do get Angels, no more than 2 in a 29, since you'll have other fish too. Angels need about 10 gallons per fish.

You mentioned puffers in your first post, that one is simple. No puffers are peaceful enough for the tankmates you have. They are best kept in a single species tank, and most puffers need brackish water, which won't work with you other fish and plants.

 

[Linsay]

Rainbows are a peaceful fish from what I've read. There are so many different varieties and they can range from small to large in size. (hows that for info LOL) The one neat thing is they are a schooling fish but will school with any other rainbows which allows for variety. Our lfs had a Bosemani Rainbow in one of their display tanks and it was about 4 inches and almost looked like a salt water fish it was so colorful (blue and yellow)

 

[Bigdan]

I may be wrong here, but don't guppies require different water conditions than the tropical fish mentioned on the list? What I'm talking mostly is temp. I was under the impression that guppies were like goldfish in that respect. And goldfish mixed with tropical doesn't work well.

 

[Linsay]

I did some more research on the rainbows. The Bosemani grows up to 3.5 inches and there are a couple others that are smaller or around that size. I have to confess everything I've read says that they will only school with their own species. My original info was from a flyer at petco talking about the different species - I'm guessing they were wrong but am not sure.

 

[patryuji]

Allright I checked on the rainbows while looking for some plants. They just didn't seem as interesting to me as a cichlid would be...so I went home to do some maintenance. Found both of my tanks (QT and the main one) to be fully cycled again (each had one SAE in it) after only a few days (the nitrites came down really fast after the spike this time). So I pulled the SAE from QT and put it in the main tank along with one of the bigger ghost shrimp (the QT has 4, one month old guppy fry and 5 (minus one) ghost shrimp as "cycling residents"). Then I couldn't resist and bought a pair of 1" angels and put them in the QT which will hopefully have little spiking as the overall bio load is only going to be equivalent to one angel (I hope since the removed occupants, the SAE and ghost shrimp, are around 2" long and 1.25" long respectively). I figure the angels might feed on the young fry as well...meaning the overall bioload will not be too great in the QT.

 

[Linsay]

I would love to get some angels - they just get to big for my tanks - Enjoy !!