Butterfly fish

[beblondie]

you could add a Polypterus senegalus with a butterfly fish -Anne

 

[Max Action]

Well i'll take your word for it but i generally wouldnt advise keeping barbs with long delicate finned fish, most of the barb species commonly available in your average LFS are evil little terrors.

Yes agreed, species like Barbus tetrazona and some other commonly sold fish would be a bad idea. But I have always found Golden Barbs to be a peaceful species that trouble little else, I found the other species to be the same.

Heck, I've had no fin damage to my ABF in a tank with a rowdy school of tiger barbs. (so far, but thwey seem, to get less and not more aggressive as they get bigger, so ...)

Once in a while when the barbs go into a feeding frenzy at the surface and the fearless Butterfly wades into the middle of it for a grab at their flakes, someone will usually peck at him once and make him swim away, but there has been no damage to his fins at all from this, and he continues to do what he wants around them, with his only concession to their nippiness being that he tucks his long spiny under-fins up when they're all around him.

But then, these are the same tiger barbs that let my gourami and loaches feed right along side them on the same piece of sinking food without trouble, so maybe I'm lucky. (The ABF, by the by, also lets the Gouramis and the weather loach feed on the surface next to him, although he took a few swipes at them before he decided they were OK.)

I would, however, strongly recommend for sure that you have some floating plants in there - in the wild, they hide along the edges of the vegetation and do a great impression of a dead leaf, so as to reap the benefits of the surface (falling bugs) without being food for larger things that eat fish from the surface, like birds ... or from pesky fish coming from beneath. An ABF without some nice surface plants seems like a ####ty idea to me. I have some free floaters plus some long, larger ones coming into the tank from the top rear.

Mine eats ants caught from the sidewalk and freeze-dried bloodworms.

Sorry for rambling, the coffee here at work was really strong today. And my African Butterfly is one of my favorite fish.

 

[Jae1525]

Rambling is good!

I need all the info I can get!

I keep hearing conflicting stories about the ghost knife. Some people say they are fine in 40UK gal tanks and others say they aren't?
OH GOD

I rly love the idea of keeping oddball fish as I'm not to much into looks with fish.
I'd rather a person who visits my house to be intrigued by a fishes character or strange antics than color.

 

[Max Action]

If interesting looks and behavior is your thing, I'd say look into loaches too - the eely ones are always getting people's attention, and they are really interesting to watch "loachin' around" - on the bottom or free swimming, they're a lot of fun. Plus, they get along great with African Butterflies!

 

[Jae1525]

Cool.

I was lookin into tiger loaches before.

Anyone look after any?

Are they aggressive, friendly?