4X2X2 Community Tank

[ConnerD]

THe tank has been running for 3 weeks but with the use of my old filter media and all the water from my old tank, the current stock is as follows : 6 albino cory, 6 bronze and 6 peppered.. Also a bala and albino shark. I plan to remove the albino and give to to a friend when he is around 6 inches or so.

I'm wondering what you think would look good in the tank ( sand subsatrate)

I was thinking of going down the cichlid route but changed my mind as i'd prefer to not have to chop and change the fish due to the vastly differing personalitys of some cichlids.

Thanks, Conner

 

[waterdrop]

It would be fun to see a very large shoal of rummy noses in tank like that. WD

 

[anon02]

I`m also a fan of large shoals of small fish, I think with the right setting you can have your tank look like a snapshot of their natural environment. I`m looking to have a few dwarf ciclids like rams or apisto`s, one third of the stocking given to bottom dwellers like corys and the other two thirds of the stocking capacity for just two or maybe three shoals of maybe harlequins or galaxys, something of that nature.

 

[waterdrop]

yeah, I agree, a very nice way to handle cichlids is to grit your teeth and just choose one of the many nice possibilities and then let that one little pair (or whatever is the proper grouping for the species you've chosen) be the little cichlid king and queen of the mid-lower region of your tank, doing their territories and whatever. Then you can turn your attention to completely different species of tetras, corys, danios, whatever that won't create difficult spats with the cichlids.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Wills]

I wouldnt be put off cichlids completely in that size tank there are a lot of options on how you could stock it without fish clashing over territory.

In a 4x2x2 you could accomodate a number of the geophagus species with no issues - a group of geophagus sp.tapjo red head would work nice about 4 or you could have an exceptionally amazing large group of their smaller even more peaceful relatives the cupid cichlids which get to about 3-4 inches but have amazing big cute eyes in a 4x2x2 you would easily be able to accomodate a group of 8 or maybe more! Then you could mix either of those 2 with a pair or trio or even group of festivum cichlids which would work well because the festivums are open water cichlids which mean they stay higher in the water column (and would make good use of your 2 foot tall tank) and then the geos or cupids would stay on the bottom. The two species would then interact on 2 separate levels so would rarely clash if ever and then each species would develop a hierachy depending on the numbers you keep them in. You could also then keep a single specimen of an equally peaceful larger cichlid like a chocolate cichlid or severum - though with Severums if you want a better chance of them being peaceful try and get a male one either wild caught or F1 and avoid the golds and super reds as the more line bred severums are the more likley you are to hear of aggression. I particularly like the true Heros Severus as they stay smaller than the more common Heros Efasticious

By all means go with the smaller fish but just be aware that cichlids are massively diverse and each species have different levels of aggression which is a natural instinct to defend away from larger predators.

I would seriously look into the Cupid cichlids as they are really really peaceful Other species you could consider would be any of the Laetacaras, Nannacaras, Krobias or Discrossus

Wills