seahorse Posted April 22, 2002 Report Share Posted April 22, 2002 Hi Everyone. I've finally found the time to come and introduce you all to our tanks. Sorry it has taken so long!!! I and the family have been growing in our interest ever since I bought my little boy a small 36 litre tank and some goldfish as a bribe to behave well, some 2 years ago. The fish I found for him were what I was told were Leopard Fish!! Still not sure what they were but they looked similar to a marble molly except slightly more slender in shape. The females tend to end up a lot larger than the males and they breed so readily that we ended up with having to get a larger tank to accomodate them all.They are live bearers by the way. If anyone could help with the proper name, it would be appreciated. Sorry cant help with a pisture as we're not set up for that. Since then we have moved on a bit and have purchased a 220 litre tank, and tropical set up. (Sorry dont know how this converts into gallons.) We still have the smaller tank which we have set up as a nursery tank as, without even trying, every thing we seem to get wants to mate at some time or another, so we are letting them take turns. I will be interesed to see what has to be said about our larger tank though as we have a few friends who think that we have over stocked, but things seem to be fine, so dont fix what aint broke, I say. Anyway here is what we have in our 220 litre tank. See what you think. 5 Golden Barbs 6 Ruby Barbs 7 Neon Tetras 4 Tiger Barbs 2 Algae Eaters 1 Golden Spotted Pleco 1 Red Tail Shark 3 Silver Sharks 4 small Angels 1 female Krib 3 Blue Rams 2 Convict Cichilds ( with new fry) (Sorry but we are still only coversant with the common names.) and believe it or not, until the Convicts Fry came they were all quite happy together as a community. Still not too bad except that the Convicts have taken over about a third of the tank as their territory, but they all seem to be coping with this quite well. Any ideas on how I could go about extracting the fry would be appreciated because at this stage Mum has got them hidden away in a cave she has made for them between a rock and the base of a plant. Or should I just leave it and see what happens??(They laid unfortunately while I was paying more attention to the Rams trying to figure out whether we had males or females.) Our smaller tank at this stage (36 litres) has our (hopefully) mating pair of Kribs, 1 Albino Pleco,1 surviving baby Krib and the 5 male Fantailed Guppies that I managed to save from the big tank after the Convicts decided to take to them. As you can see we have come a long way in our interest in fish, but we are now in the unfortunate position of having to do a crash course in fish care and the such, so are glad and thankful that we came across Pegasus and his introduction to your site. We look forward to any comments and helpful hints we might get Regards Seahorse. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Posted April 22, 2002 Report Share Posted April 22, 2002 Hi there and welcome Seahorse. The scientific name for the Leopard fish is Phalloceros caudimaculatus, another common name that is sometimes used for them is Spotted caudo. As for the stocking level it varies. Often the surface area is more important than the volume of the tank (so you get rules of thumb of so many inches of fish per square inch surface area), but then things start getting confused because the presence of aeration and filtration change the rules. I agree with your 'if it ain't broken...' comment - if you're not having problems with water quality or disease then the stocking level is OK. Just beware of those convict fry though, small fish growing larger are going to put more pressure on the system. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pegasus Posted April 22, 2002 Report Share Posted April 22, 2002 Hi Seahorse, Great post, and am glad you are getting involved. Seperating fry is always a problem, but I think the easiest way would be to gently slip a seperator in the tank so that the fry are kept to one area. You may have to strip that portion of the tank to get them all, and it could be messy. You should of course make careful preperations before moving them and be prepared to supply them with the right foods in their new quarters, which at the moment the mother is probably doing. The new water conditions would need to be as near as possible to their present one if you understand my meaning. (Ph, Dh, Temp, etc) You're sort of on the craps table at the moment where you have to take a gamble. They could be ok for a week or so depending on your tank size, or they could get eaten by the other fish you have, it's always a risk. Heavy planting sometimes helps, and although the mother seems to be looking after them at the moment she may decide to just sample the delicacy on offer, who knows In answer to your 'other' question. Most good Cichlid parents will chew food then spit it out for the young. Sounds like you have a good balanced tank with good parents, and as Rob says, why upset it. Might be time to start looking for that extra tank though, you're gonna need it Best o luck, you have some great happiness ahead of you. Pegasus. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caryl Posted April 22, 2002 Report Share Posted April 22, 2002 Personally, I would not have convicts in with anything else, particularly when they have fry as they get very vicious. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dawn Posted July 25, 2002 Report Share Posted July 25, 2002 Anyway here is what we have in our 220 litre tank. See what you think. 5 Golden Barbs 6 Ruby Barbs 7 Neon Tetras 4 Tiger Barbs 2 Algae Eaters 1 Golden Spotted Pleco 1 Red Tail Shark 3 Silver Sharks 4 small Angels 1 female Krib 3 Blue Rams 2 Convict Cichilds ( with new fry) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caryl Posted July 25, 2002 Report Share Posted July 25, 2002 Barbs are well known fin nippers (specially the tigers) and will attack anything slower than they are - which is just about everything! Keeping barbs in groups of 6 or more helps. They are shoaling fish who develop a distinct pecking order in the shoal. If you have enough of them (more than 6) they spend so much time keeping each other in order that they tend to ignore the other inhabitants. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pegasus Posted July 25, 2002 Report Share Posted July 25, 2002 HI, When selecting compatable species, think SPEED before size. Your Tigers in this case are the Jaguars, while say the Angel is a Mini, and the Fighter is a Moped White Clouds probably survive with Goldfish because they are in this case the Jaguars, and the Goldies are the Mopeds. Bill. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seahorse Posted July 26, 2002 Author Report Share Posted July 26, 2002 I was told also to watch out for the Tiger Barbs, but have had no problems with them to date. In fact they are probably the most friendly fish in my tank.Even my Angels who to start with were smaller than the Tigers. No fin nipping or anything. No aggressive behaviour at all!! I was also told to watch out for the behaviour of my Convicts and Kribs, but they all seem to be getting along fine with everything else. They have taken their own territories of course, but they all seem to keep within each others guide lines and this makes for a very peaceful tank. I don't know whether you could call this luck or not, but I do know that there are things I have been told to watch out for and they just don't seem to have happened. There again, some things have, so it just pays to watch for a while after you put new fish into your tank. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pegasus Posted July 26, 2002 Report Share Posted July 26, 2002 Hey Seahorse, good to see you back on the forum. How are those Kribs and Rams doing ?? Usually when fish grow up together they do exactly as you say, and again usually, they get along fine, especially if they were all young to start with, but there are so many combinations that the best advice is just to be careful in your choice of fish. Hope to see you a bit more often on the boards Bill. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ajbroome Posted July 26, 2002 Report Share Posted July 26, 2002 Probably should've moved this to a different forum, sorry Cees ;-) Dawn said... > From what I've read since then it seems there aren't that many > other fish you can put Barbs with without them constantly nipping > at them. > > What do the experts on here think? While not an expert, one tank I've always wanted to do is a relatively dark tank (perhaps a 3ft, back and sides painted black, dark gravel, some driftwood and Java Moss, maybe some common crypts - lit with only grolux) with standard tiger barbs (I'm not a fan of the modified' ones) and a red-tailed black shark. The shark is reported to be dangerous enough in appearance and active enough to encourage the barbs schooling behaviour and the red would *really* show up with the grolux lighting against a dark background. I did something similar once (maybe 15 years ago) with an old 2 ft metal-framed tank (frame painted white, ends and back glass painted black, dark gravel, driftwood, java moss, grolux) and housing only whitecloud mountain minnows. Once they'd been in there a while they started producing fry which, with their neon-like blue line, looked very impressive IMHO. I just rediscovered the tank above during my shift so may do something similar with it, once I've fixed the cracked glass... Andrew. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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