FishProfiles.com Message Forums

Hello. I am new here and just got into the hobby of fish keeping. I have a 33gal tank with the following fish: 1 Pleco, 1 Farlowella, 6 Black skirt Tetras, 2 columbia sharks, 2 silver dollars, 1 Polypterus, 1 Black mystery snail, 1 clown cichlid, 1 tire-track eel, 1 dwarf gourami, and one marble goby. So far everyone is getting along fine except my polypterus killed my pictus catfish. I am sure I will run into problems along the road but is this a good community tank so far? Anything I should know or put in another tank? Any help would be great! Thanks!

The pleco will get far too large for that tank (they can reach 24" in length!). He'll need a very large tank as he grows. The silver dollars and colombian sharks will also get very large. The tire track eel will get pretty big and hungry, and may eat smaller fish like the black skirts or dwarf gourami. Is this a good community tank? No. The black skirts, dwarf gourami, farowella, snail, and goby might be fine in the long term by themselves, but the other fish would have to end up in a large tank (200+ gallons)

><>

a pleco doesnt need a 200 gallon tank. thats way too much.

It's not just the pleco, though. The Silver/Bala/Tricolor sharks and the silver dollars need a 6' tank, and really the pleco as well. But the Columbian/Black Tips in particular get big and have significant housing requirements - and they go brackish as they age. Who knows what species of polypterus is involved and what the "Clown Cichlid" might be - that's a rarely used common name for both Bolivian Rams and a few Malawi species. All in all, I don't think the 200 guess is far off, although a 180 would (hopefully) suffice. Better just to return the fish that can't stay. The remaining fish will make up an okay community tank.

-Molly
Visit shelldwellers.com!

o i thought he just meant the pleco

The pet store I bought the chiclid at said it was a "clown cichlid" but it looks like a dwarf chilid. Not sure what kind of polypterus it is as the pet store only called it a polypterus. Thanks for the help though. I bought another tank so I will transfer a few out of the original tank.

"she" and LittleMousling got it right.

I would guess that the "clown cichlids" are rams, then. They'll be fine in the 33 with the black skirts, etc.

><>

the Columbian/Black Tips in particular get big and have significant housing requirements - and they go brackish as they age.

Actually, they are brackish as juveniles and become marine as they age. They should not be kept in pure freshwater during any stage of their life.

---

I'm not your neighbor, you Bakersfield trash.