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If not why? I'm looking to get some Glo-light tetras, Cherry Barbs, Glow light danios, redstripe rasbora, red cherry shrimp, red crystal shrimp, lake inle danio, blue ram, upside down catfish, dwarf gourami, and lemon tetra. Any input is helpful. Thank You

The CRS wont fit. Cherries will be fine, unless the Rams eat them.
Not an ideal mix, but i dont see any problems if the tank is big enough. Rams preffer a softer lower pH, but the tank bred versions these days are probably hardy enough. Id probably go for neutral pH, suit the danios and the tetras. Prolly get more than one Syno, though.
The Gouramis may actually feel a bit intimidated with all the fast moving fish actually.
James

i agree with mez how the shrimps dont like the lower ph cuz people say that it disolves the shells of them...... what size schools are u keeping all ur schooling fish?????? and what size tank do u have cuz thats like 4 schools of fish and depending on how many charry barbs u got might even be another school of fish....... a 55 gallon tank might work if u have really good filteration......

I have a 45 gallon corner tank. I have a bala shark and tiger barb in it now and I'm not going to be getting anymore for a while because I wouldn't want my tiger barb to eat them like it did my feeder guppies i had become partial to. I won't be getting all those fish I just wanted to know how compatible they were, and I never read anywhere about the shimp losing their shells, Thank you. My schooling(SP?) fish will be kept in schools(SP) of at least 6, and there's no way i could possibly fit all the fish. I have a fluval filter and I also have a bio filter I could hook up if needed.

Sounds like a plan...however, i would consider getting rid of the bala shark and tiger barb, though. Perhaps returning these to the LFS for credit is a good idea in this case, because bala sharks will reach a foot long and need to be kept in schools, the tiger barb also needs to be with at least 4 or 5 other friends for him to take his fustration and anger out on, they're very nippy boistrous fish, as your guppies found out.
James

mez is totaly right and bala sharks will rip up and type of shrimp......... most of thos fish will work fine just keep us updated on what fish u get!!!!!!

I will probably trade in the fish because I don't want them to be miserable. I will definitely keep you updated on which fish I get. I also plan on getting a couple more plants and some Java Moss. Should I put the plants in before the fish? I have one plant already but need more for the fish that like to hide.

do u have flortie gravel and how much lighting do u have??? yes u should do plants then fish much less stress for the fish.......

No I don't have florite gravel. I can have 2 lights set up, but right now I only have 1. Do I need to get special bulbs?

Hi,
Before we hijack this thread with all sorts of substrate,
lighting, and plant questions and answers, I suggest that
you go to the next forum down on the list of forums here
on Fish Profiles, and read the first "stared" article
in the Planted Aquaria forum.

http://www.fishprofiles.com/files/threads/13454.1.htm?45#

Frank


-->>> The Confidence of Amateurs, is the Envy of Professionals <<<--

45 gallons? Is this UK or US gallons?

Right, here's my thoughts with respect to the stocking you suggested.

One, the freshwater shrimps will probably require harder water than the Rams will like. When it's time for them to moult, they need dissolved calcium in the water in order to harden their new external armour. Crustacean armour is an interesting mix of organic matter (I think it's chitin, but I could be wrong here) and calcium carbonate, and the external armour won't harden properly without sufficient dissolved calcium in the water.

This will also have an impact upon any plans you might have to breed Glowlight Tetras in the future. Glowlight Tetras will live in hard water for maintenance purposes, but they won't breed in it - for breeding, you need to keep them in very soft, slightly acidic water, around pH 6.4-6.6 and a hardness no greater than 4 degrees dH. Since Glowlight Tetras will provide you with an interesting spawning experience, because the parent fish "barrel roll" when mating, it would be a pity to stop yourelf from experiencing this!

Glowlight Tetras will live OK with the Rams, as Rams like soft, slightly acidic water too, but Rams like elevated temperatures - for maintenance alone, they'll prefer to be at around 78 degrees F, and if you want to breed them, typical breeding temperatures are 86 or even 88 degrees F. In the wild, these fishes live in lakes in Venezuela that are open to intense illumination by equatorial sunlight, and in the wild, the water at the surface layers of those lakes can reach 90 degrees F or more. Of course, if they want to cool down in the wild, they can retreat to deeper water, and find their preferred temperature with ease, but in an aquarium, you have the responsibility of providing that for them, and I wouldn't keep Rams at temperatures lower than 76 degrees F, because they're apt to suffer chills at temperatures below this - Rams are among the serious "sauna lovng" fishes.

If you can find them, I would opt for a different choice of Dwarf Cichlid - an African species called Anomalochromis thomasi. These are known in some circles as Dwarf Jewel Fish, but don't let that name put you off because there's a world of difference between them and the regular Jewel Fish, Hemicromis guttatus. The regular Jewel Fish is a serious hardcore headbanger in an aquarium, and needs to be kept in a large aquarium with other bad tempered Cichlids, whereas the delightful Anomalochromis thomasi is about as close as you'll ever find to a "pacifist" Cichlid, and is in my view the ideal choice of Cichlid for the beginner. It's a real beauty in spawning colouration, it's easy to integrate with a wide range of standard community fishes, and is tolerant of a wide range of pH and hardness values, which means that if you build your community around this species, it gives you a LOT of options. Plus, because Anomalochromis thomasi is such an even tempered fish, and probably the best behaved of all the Cichlids you will ever encounter, provided you furnish the aquarium with a liberal supply of caves formed by stacking suitably gnarled bits of bogwood or Mopani wood, not only will they live happily with other peaceful fishes, they might even breed in the community aquarium! What's more, they don't turn into psychotic nutters when they start breeding, and consequently they'll provide you with a fine introduction to the world of Cichlid breeding without the headaches associated with some other species. In 45 gallons, they'll have enough space to call their own whilst the other fishes can skirt around them if they do start breeding and become defensive of their eggs and fry, but even then, they're notable for being unusually tolerant of other fishes whilst breeding, unlike many other Cichlids! Anomalochromis thomasi is an adaptable, brightly adorned fish with lovely iridescent spangles, has a superb community temperament, and stays a reasonably manageable size as an adult, which is why I continue to recommend it as a "beginner's Cichlid", and wonder why on Earth it isn't a LOT more popular, given its huge number of virtues and almost complete absence of vices. But, that's the world of commerical fish trading for you ...

If you run with any Dwarf Cichlid, be it the darling Anomalochromis thomasi, or something similarly even tempered such as Laetacara curviceps, which is also an excellent choice, your best bet is to run with top swimming shoaling fishes so as to minimise any chance of unwelcome interactions if the Cichlids start breeding. On the other hand, you could, if you can find these rarities, run with an African Characin to go with the thomasis - a rainbow-coloured fish called Neolebias ansorgei, which again is small, peaceful, and becomes a blast of colour as an adult.

Sticking with this theme, this allows you to integrate a small Synodontis species as your bottom feeder, which, together with the thomasis and the Neolebias, wil result in you having a really nice West African community setup that is not too far removed from the sort of assemblage that can be found in nature. Keep a big shoal of Neolebias (say 12 fishes), and that 45 gallon tank will also have room for six thomasis and 4-6 small Synodontis that will provide you with lots of entertainment watching their antics. If you can find it, Synodontis acanthoperca, a recent introduction to the aquarium hobby, is an excellent choice because it is one of the 'dwarf' Synodontis catfishes, and prettily marked into the bargain.

If, on the other hand, you decide to run with a South American type setup, and have Laetacara curviceps as your Cichlid species, then teaming these up with a shoal of 12 Lemon Tetras and, say, 8 Corydoras metae catfishes in a planted setup with lots of bogwood decorations arranged to form cave grottoes will again give you an entertaining setup in terms of the antics of the fish, not least because if you put any of the Corydoras in a decent sized single species group, they liven up enormously and frolic about in a highly watchable fashion. While I have Panda Corys in my setup, I'd avoid those for your first choice of Corydoras because they are more high maintenance than other Corys, which is why I suggested metae instead - they're not that far removed from Pandas in appearance, but a good deal hardier, and every bit as frolicksome in a large enough group. Again, give them a setup to your liking and they'll probably start spawning in the community aquarium the way my Pandas do!

If only having three species in that 45 gallon aquarium seems a bit sparse, remember, big groups of fishes help to make quite a spectacle, and the species I've suggested will make the aquarium 'busy' enough to be interesting without being a handful.

If you want fishes that prefer harder water, then running with something like Melanotaenia mccullochi, the Dwarf Australian Rainbowfish, or possibly Telmatherina ladigesi (though this latter species is a bit more high maintenance) will allow you to have a blast of colour in a hard water setup, into which you can put the dwarf Synodontis catfish for the bottom, and still have the thomasis as your Cichlid choice. Harder water will allow you to put in decorative shrimps, though it's debatable whether the thomasis will treat them as a snack, at least when they're small. Personally, I'd think very carefully about what fishes to put alongside decorative shrimps, because a surprising number of fishes, even small, peaceful ones, may decide to snack on the baby shrimps at the very least. Even those usually well-behaved Corydoras might find baby shrimps too much of a temptation to resist, though they'll generally leave the adults unmolested. I'd certainly consider decorative shrimps and any Cichlid species to be a risky mix from the shrimps' point of view unless you run with a decent sized shrimp species, and most people I know tend to keep decorative shrimps in their own small aquarium initially, before attempting to integrate them with fishes, so that any experiments in this vein that fail don't result in a wholesale wipeout of the shrimp population!

Anyway, the above should give you some food for thought as regards future stocking.

Oh, and one thing I'm going to state at this point is this. Why, on why do dealers keep selling Bala Sharks? These fishes are properly to be reserved for a VERY large setup, because they reach at least 12 inches in length fully grown, are active schooling fishes that need to be in a decent sized shoal to be happy, and doing this species justice requires, in my view, a 250 gallon aquarium. Yes, that's right, two hundred and fifty gallons. You're looking at an aquarium that's around 8 feet x 2 feet x 2 feet to keep these happy long term, but then, if you have an aquarium that size to put them in, along with a big Eheim power filter to keep it clean and give the Bala Sharks the water current they like, you'll also have room for those other oversized shoaling fishes, Tinfoil Barbs, to go with them, and still have sufficient space to keep something like a Synodontis eupterus catfish that will grow to full size in 250 gallons and become a spectacular show fish. My advice to everyone with respect to Bala Sharks is this - if you can't give them 250 gallons, leave them at the dealer's. If more people did this, we'd see a lot fewer of them in the shops eking out a miserable existence in small dealer aquaria.


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

Update on fish. I have 2 guppies, 6 glow light tetras, and an algea eater. Although I haven't seen it since I bought it. I have to set up a quarintine tank and add some more plants before I get more fish. I plan on getting the german blue rams next, but not the ones bred in china or something like that because I read they mass proudce them wherever it is and the fish aren't as hardy or healthy.

Are glow-light danios the same as glo fish?

Glowlight danios are not the same as Glofish.

Glowlight danio = Danio choprae
Glofish = GM form of Danio rerio

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The aquarist is one who must learn the ways of the biologist, the chemist, and the veterinarian.