I Was Told I Was An Oddball So Here I Am

[IronLung]

I posted this on the beginners boad:

I had a fish tank with a betta and mollies as a child....and as teenager and college student i had a bigger tank (70 gallons) with Gourami my fav fish....i learned by trial and error..i am 28 now and moving into a new house and i want to get an aquarium..i haven't had one in years so i feel like a rookie... i am going for a tank that is 120 gallons to 180 gallons...

I was going for the larger semi-aggressive gourami like Gold and Blue, Platium, Oplanie , Pink kissing, paradise gourami....i have seen them with angle fish so i was thinking about them too...in my 70 gallon tank i use to have a elephant nose fish with the gourmai, it went okay ....but the elephant was so sensitive.....it died in a week...my tank condition must have not been to good, but while alive he got along with the gourami...now i am thinking of a spiny eel of some sort... my friend said it would work...he told me something i could not believe...he said he saw angel fish and gourami in the same tank with Discus...is this true...or could he have been mistaken...aren't they harder to maintain and get bigger..how big...? aren't they aggressive?

what tankmates should i get (keep in mind i hate tetras and Barb)


i hear sand is better then gravel or rock..is it true .....why?...i use to have the common rock/gravel with a bottom fitler underneath (and a bio wheel up top)... can i do that wtih sand?

can birch go with gourami.. baby whale...?bronw knife?...ghost knife? opinions ...suggestion

Got this reply:


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The thing with gouramis is they are territorial, particularly the males, so any aggression is primarily going to be directed at any fish that they might mistake for another male gourami about to invade their territory. Still, it's a nice big tank you're going for, that makes a difference. Establishing artificial boundaries, like plants or ornaments breaking up the sightline should also help, if you are keeping more than one gourami.
If it were me, I would look out for some nice catfish to fill out bottom space- something like a Queen Arabesque- or in that size tank, why not a trio (1 male, 2 females)? But that's just personal preference, you sound like you're more of an oddball person. About the bichir, eel and ghost knife- I would ask in the oddballs forum.

 

[IronLung]

ANyone?

 

[halfbloodprincess]

Well, angels I think would be fine with the gouramis. Spiny eels are cool. You could get peacock spiny eels.

 

[nmonks]

what tankmates should i get (keep in mind i hate tetras and Barb)

That's a shame, but think outside the box a little. Not all tetras are neons, and not all barbs are tiger barbs. Silver tetras are large, weird-looking, and hardy, and would probably do well with your fish.

i hear sand is better then gravel or rock..is it true .....why?...i use to have the common rock/gravel with a bottom fitler underneath (and a bio wheel up top)... can i do that wtih sand?

A thin layer (1-2 cm) of sand is easier to clean and most fish like it more than gravel. Since you won't be keeping rooted plants, you don't need much depth, so a bit of sand isn't at risk of going anaerobic. Fish like to dig into sand, and some "earth-eat", swallowing mouthfuls and sifting it for food. A lot of cichlids, gobies, and barbs will do this. No, you can't mix sand with an undergravel filter.

can birch go with gourami.. baby whale...?bronw knife?...ghost knife? opinions ...suggestion

By "birch" do you mean a bichir? These vary enormously. Some are smallish (~30 cm), happily feed on small invertebrates, and are fairly peaceful, so would work fine with gouramis. Others are big (~75 cm), aggressive, and highly predatory. I have had great success mixing Polypterus palmas polli with robust community fish. Baby whales are mormyrids, and as such incredibly difficult to keep even in their own tank, let alone with semi-aggressive tankmates. They are nocturnal, territorial, and only readily take live foods; they also need very good water quality, a sandy substrate, and ideally soft/acid water. Best avoided really. Brown knives (Xenomystus nigri I assume?) are nice enough for largish predatory fish but not especially difficult to keep.

A good idea would be to buy/borrow a copy of a really good fish species encyclopaedia and have a thumb through. Baensch's Aquarium Atlas vol. 1 is one of the best (I'd actually say THE best). It covers 90% of what you'll see in the shops. See what catches your eye, and then balance up details like social behaviour, water chemistry, and feeding. When going for the "jumbo community" tank, picking fish that feed on different things is always a good start. So if you have some that take flake, others that eat prawns/mussels/lancefish, others that have catfish pellets, and others that go for veggies, then your life is very much simpler.

Cheers,

Neale

 

[IronLung]

Thanx for the great info....yes i think i will stay clear of the baby whale and Elephant nose fish..i haven't a good history with them so far....what about the Discus? i also like rope fish...

 

[DiscusKeeper403]

If you wanted Discus id go with some corys and rams. Discus are hard to keep and sometimes angels don't mix well with them. I would do a nice planted set-up. Discus need soft acidic water so test your city water and if it isnt at a 6-6.5 ph and a hardness of around 9-15 DH then you may want to choose an RO unit or bottled water.

 

[tetraman]

Any kind of small, fancy pleco would be awesome.

 

[IronLung]

Yeah the Discus is a reach..even if i could get the water right...my plant set up would not work because the spiny peacock eel will dig them up...No discus ..atleast in this tank...do peacocks dig up plastics plants too?