Another new tank

[Ross]

I just started a 55 gallon tank. It will be heavily planted. I have 4 black skirt tetras, and plan on get 3 or four cory cats and was wondering what South or Centeral American Cichlids would work well in that sort of tank. The tank is has pet in the soil, not garvel, so the water is tanned and the ph should end up around 7 or a little less. The temp will be 80-82 deg. I had a very succesfull 140 gallon planted Discus tank in the past (discus are not as hard as people think) but I want something less time consuming and less $$ this time around. Another thing, the tank is only about 15" deep so angles are also out of the question.

TIA,
Ross

[Cichlid Jeans]

If you're happy with tea-coloured water you'll have a lot of options -- all the SA black water cichlids will love it. However. cory cats don't usually do well with large, aggressive SA cichlids, so if you are going to stick with cories for clean-up (as opposed to ancistrus or, if you could find one, a zebra pleco
http://www.planetcatfish.com/jpg/loricariidae/hypancistrus_zebra7.jpg
you'll have to go for small cichlids, or those larger ones that mind their own business.

My own choice for the bottom would be Apistogrammas: I love these spunky little fish, and I keep cacatuoides and moes with some very large SA's, no problem. Check this male caca:
http://www.versaquatics.com/images/cacat.gif

The middle water is for for the showboats, and I'd go with the heros group, like a pair of firemouths or T. aureus: check out these guys:
http://www.geocities.com/bluespeacock/taureus.jpg

In the top, my favorite is red-breasted acaras
http://badmanstropicalfish.com/gallery/cichlids/dorsigera.html
But another GREAT mini is the checkerboard cichlid, particularly Dicrossus filamentosus
http://www.netpets.com/fish/reference/fishid/fresh/details/checkerboard.html

All those plants and dark water are going to make for a lot of algae, so you should consider half a dozen otocinclus. The zebra variety is hard to find but truly delightful:
http://www.planetcatfish.com/ilibrary/loricari/otocincl/353_5.htm

Gee. This was fun.
:mrgreen:

[Ross]

CJ,

Thanks for the response. I don't have a whole lot to choose from because of where I live. I have seen Firemouths around and like them. Would they dig up the plants or be to aggressive for cory cats.

Ross

[SGypsyMermaid]

welcome ross--you've successfully kept discus and you consider yourself a beginner?!--sounds like a ringer to me, guys! :lol:

[Ross]

[quote:a0720cfc5d="SGypsyMermaid"]welcome ross--you've successfully kept discus and you consider yourself a beginner?!--sounds like a ringer to me, guys! :lol:[/quote:a0720cfc5d]

I am new to this forum. Discus were the first tank I had though. They are not hard you just have to start the tank the right way. I used RO water and added what was needed to the water. I started with a 55 gallon and went to a 140 gallon, a bigger tank is much easier to keep stable than a smaller one. The tank was well planted ph was kept at 5.5 to 6.0 and temp 86 deg at bottom and about 84 deg at top (I had a heater in the bottom of the tank). I was very picky when I bought my fish and kept them in a 20 gallon hospital tank for about a week to ten days at higher temps before they went into the big tank. I had about 13 Discus, about 6 corys, various tetras, a few rams and some otos. I never had a discus die. I feed them blood worms and flakes. I spent about 3 days "prepping" the worms before I feed them to the fish. I only changed about 10 gallons of water a month and RARELY RARELY RARLEY vaccumed the substrate (soil), mother nature works! For me I think the low ph, the temp and the plants where the key to mainting good consistant water chemistry When every one of the discus grew much larger or became to aggressive I would sell or trade it back to the LFS.


Ross

[SGypsyMermaid]

you still had to have done quite a bit of research in order to know all of the specific fishkeeping info which you applied in the keeping of your tank. and to have kept them with only monthly water changes is an impressive feat. wish i had been the kind of 'beginner' that you are. :D

[Ross]

I read and talked to many people and took what what seemed logical and used that. I spent some $$$ on that tank and the fish. The tank was succesfull. As far as water changes; plants keep a tank stable, I relied on bio and plants for most of my filtration. I used a bio sand bed and two large external filiters, with peat, bio-balls and cotton filter fluff stuff, running as slow as possilbe. If the water got too tanned I would put an over the back filter with carbon in it to take out some of the tan but that was the only time I would use carbon. I also had a UV sterl. I think doing the least amount of water changes possible the better, as long as you can keep the tank stable. When you constantly change the water you are constantly changing the water chemisrty. My discus would seem more stressed from constant water changes than the lack of water changes.

[chennes]

[quote:220fd1b165]I think doing the least amount of water changes possible the better[/quote:220fd1b165]
Oooh! Them's fightin' words with SGM!! :)

Chris

[Ross]

[quote:b959a1542d="chennes"][quote:b959a1542d]I think doing the least amount of water changes possible the better[/quote:b959a1542d]
Oooh! Them's fightin' words with SGM!! :)

Chris[/quote:b959a1542d]

SGM???

[chennes]

Sorry- SGypsyMermaid (I'm usually too lazy to type it all out!)

See her thread on the subject:
http://www.cichlidforums.com/viewtopic.php?t=6

Chris

[Ross]

I used to do alot of water changes but I got tired of the hassel. My tank was much better off after I slowed down on the water changes. The plants grew more and the water seemed to be more stabel. As far as ammonia I don't think it is as much of a problem in a lower ph tank. I suppose it depends on how you want to maintain your tank.

[SGypsyMermaid]

:lol: there's no such thing as 'fightin' words on this board--chris is just being devilish. you are right about ammonia being more toxic at higher ph levels, but most of us do our water changes not to get rid of ammonia(which is managed by our bio filters), but to get rid of excess nitrates, and to restore trace elements. i'll have to track down the article that converted me to mega water changes to give you some more specific benefits, but one of them is that frequent water large water changes in a way simulate keeping the fish in a larger container since they come into contact with more fresh water.

[Ross]

I used RO water I added KO right(????) and the plants took care of the nitrates. I also used and additive that was supposed to be good for discus. If you don't have good bio filtration and / or many plants more frequent water changes would be neccessary.

[mrkano78]

hi everyone i just brought a 8 by 2 by 2 tank and like the cat fish veriety..... im from australia and havve a limited abilty and resourses for these.....i like the samon cats and the tandanus cats but am worried that i may not be able to have other fish with them.... are they agressive??? what sort of fish would you guys put in it???? i wanna go tropocal though...... i have a 3ft tank now so its an upgrade...lol.... i have silver sharks neons silver dollars angels and loachs any help would be much appreciated

[mrkano78]

i want BIG FISH what other cats are available???? that grow to good size???

[cracklingice]

Just a suggestion. I would add at least one more black skirt. They are schooling fish and 5 is the lowest recomended amount in a tank. I had 4 in my ten though because one of them died and they lived happily for quite some time. I miss my black tetras. They were awsome fish.

[bigfish333]

mrkano78 this thread is over three years old:)