Cyp. Leptosoma

[gusgus]

Hello,

I have a 30 gal." tank. it's 36" long, 16" tall and I'd like to stock it with 5 to 6 of the smaller C. leptosomas, a couple of dwarf Julies like transcriptus and 3 or 4 shellies. Sound good, crazy? I'm going through some ammonia woes right now so it will be awhile before I actually stock this tank but I wanted to explore my options with different species combos. Thanks.

[aharris]

That tank won't have enough swimming space for cyps. They need at least a 55g for the regular leptosoma, and much larger for the jumbo variants.

The males will stake out vertical portions of the water column as territories, and the smallest of the territories my males have claimed is not much larger than your tank if not quite as long.

The julis and the shellies will probably be OK. Just make sure you don't wind up with the "Gombe" variant of juli (they can be labeled either J. marlieri "Gombe" or transcriptus "Gombe", or you can buy them labeled without a location). I've heard they're little psychos in temperment. I'd look at internet photos until you can feel confident that you can ID them by sight if the fish aren't labeled by local.

If you need a surface dweller, get some rainbow fish that can adapt to hard-water conditions and are smaller. I've kept preacox rainbows under high pH conditions with good success (spawning) even though that's pushing there pH tolerance range quite a bit.

[gusgus]

Aharris, thanks for the advice but almost everything I read says these neons like the soft stuff. My tap water is 250ppm out the faucet, which is great for the tangs but will the rainbows thrive in it or suffer?

[aharris]

I know the internet stuff does. I kept them in a tank with pH range of high 7's to low 8's and they spawned in the plastic plants. It probably had something to do with the fact that I believe they were tank raised. The local water conditions here are naturally high pH and the stores sell them with no water quality warnings (this particular LFS in question always flags rummy-nose tetras, cardinals, rams and the like with water quality warnings). If you'd like to stay away from them, do a web search and go for a smaller rainbow that shows a tolerance up to 8.

[gusgus]

Hello Aharris

I really like the look and size of the dwarf neons. I'll talk to my LFS guy and find out if his stock is reared in local water (8.0 out of the tap). I think a school of 7 or 8 will look really nice. Thanks again.

[acenomics]

personally i think a 30 gal is a little small for cyps. you really need a wider area to see their true behaviors. i also think it is better to keep them in groups of 8-10 too.

[acenomics]

sorry, im new to the forum....i didnt realize teh question was answered already....:ok: