FishProfiles.com Message Forums

I have a 55 gallon long tank.
In it I now have
5 Danios (small)
6 Glo-lites (small)
2 Upside down cats (6"
2 Albino Choc Plecos (small)


Do you think I have room for some more small community fish? I would like to get a few fancy mollies and platys.

I run a double emperor bio filter and also a single emperor bio filter, the water parameters are fine. I had an issue with a lil higher PH than I wanted but added DW and it is lower now. I do partial water changes weekly although I only do about 20 percent and its fine. Also vac where I can.

So, what do you wise ones think?

I'd think you'd probably be better off increasing the sizes of your schools. You'd get a lot nicer schooling action with more members of the group.

Are upside down cats schoolers? And yikes, didn't know they got that big.

What size do chocolate plecos get to?

If you do get mollies/platies/any of the livebearers, keep in mind that unless you get a group of males, you're going to have a lot of fry. In the case of your danios, you may have a decent amount of fry control (danios will go after young fry), but I don't know if that's enough to keep the population down.

~Meow. Thus spoke the cat.~

I was thinking about making the schools larger and had hoped the glos would school with the danios as they are basically the same thing. They sort of school at times but not all the time.
I did want a lil variation of fish so I will think about what to do.
As for the cats, I didnt think they got this big either. The male is 6" and a very big boy. His top fin is HUGE! He really is a beautiful fish. The female is smaller. She is maybe 4" and not as full as the male. I wish I could get a pic but they hide until its dark out.

Hi there,
my first suggestion is to remove the 2 albino chocolate plecos. These are one of the largest species of pleco, easily reach 18 inches in size, with 20+ being common. This size fish needs at least 125g or larger, espescially with 2 in the tank.
You would be better off to replace them a pleco species that stays 10 inches or smaller. Queen Arabesque, Royal, and Green Phantom Plecos are all very nice 8-10 inch fish suitable for 55g.

I too would recommend increasing the schools of danios and glowlights to 8.
Then you could have a 3-4 platies and a nice pair/trio of mollies.
Glowlight Tetras and Danios wont school - they arent the same species.



Come Play Yahtzee With Me!
http://games.atari.com
Http://www.myleague.com/yahtgames

It sounds like you might have Synodontis eupterus, from what I've read there are a number of Synodontis species that swim upside-down. The most common one seems to be Synodontis nigriventris which only grows to about 4 inches.

aye...i'd bet its eupterus/feather-fin syno. they'll eat anyting small enough to get in their mouth if it's ill or weak, too.
J

In most cases, a fish eats anything that fits in its mouth; catfish are a danger in particular as they tend to have relatively large mouths. You might want to consider not keeping small fish as they might just become expensive chow for your cats. I'm actually surprised they haven't eaten your other fish yet, though truth be told I've never kept S. eupterus.

Personally I'd go for bigger species like Angelfish or Gourami. If you want schoolers, consider Rainbowfish, Congo Tetras, or some other species that hopefully grow larger enough to be safely out of the range of catfish consumption.

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

Danios are good with the eupterus, but a lot of tetras aren't. We've had danios (pearl and giant) with ours, but when we tried rummy-nose tetras, one disappeared each night until I moved them to a different tank. That was with my two, the larger of which is about 10" with a mouth big enough to swallow sinking tablets whole. They don't tend to bother the danios, though, that are always near the surface (they don't rest at the bottom of the tank at night).

><>