African Oddball Tank

[Esfa]

Four reedfish would need a tank somewhere around the 200 litre size.

I have to disagree there
I have kept 4 reedfish quite happily in a 100G for over a year
the most important thing when keeping reedfish is the foot print of the tank.
At least 48 inches long and 15 inches wide would be the min,
however if you increase the width you can decrease the length slightly
so a 39 x 19 would be just as good (as I kept mine in such a tank before I got the 100G)
height doesn't matter as long as you don't exceed 32 inches

a 200l tank fits those measurements, 48x15x17 = 200l.

 

[nmonks]

Ropefish don't need all that much space. 200 litres is fine. The four I had lived most of the time inside a trickle filter (long story) and seemed happy enough. I think they care rather more about having some pals (they're definitely social fish) and lots of cover (plants, caves, coconuts, etc.). They don't go out much during the day, in my experience, and make a poor alternative to bichirs. I'd sooner recommend a small bichir like P. senegalus or P. "palmas", that you can train to scoot about the front of the tank in the day time.

P. "palmas" works great with Congo tetras and Ctenopoma acutirostre. If you can find Ctenopoma fasciolatum, so much the better. This is an interesting species that changes its colours all the time and seems happy to swim about by day. Ct. acutirostre is very much a dawn/dusk fish, and not the most exciting fish in the world. Pretty, yes, and peaceful too. But not exactly outgoing. Easily bullied, too. They do work nicely in groups though. My specimens were about 12 years old when I passed them on to someone else. Mostly, they ate bloodworms.

C. kinglseyi is a really nice big climbing perch. Used to be quite commonly traded, now rather rare sadly. Treat it like a sturdy Central American cichlid and combine with robust catfish, big barbs, big characins, etc. There are some cracking medium sized African catfish out there, like Chrysichthys ornatus, well worth keeping. Chrysichthys ornatus is very pretty but will eat ANYTHING it can cram in its mouth. My specimen polished off things as big as blue gouramis... so choose tankmates with care! Hemisynodontis are lovely, too and a bit easier to keep with smaller fish. Schools of Synodontis nigriventris are hard to beat if you have lots of floating plants or lily pads.

Cheers, Neale