Interestin fish...

[kevy]

I'm setting up a 55 gallon, which I plan to put 10+ barbs in (mostly tigers with a couple others mixed in). I'm also looking for ideas of what other active, interesting fish that can go in there and get alone fine with the barbs. Here are some ideas I've had, suggestions are more then welcome.


Some small school (5-6) of some sort of colorful tetra.

A couple upside-down catfish.

A smaller pleco (not a common).

Some clown loaches? (Though I think they will get a little too big so I probably won't do these)

A red tailed shark.


I wouldn't do all of these, just a couple. I'm trying to be overly careful not to overstock.



So please give me some suggestions on those or any new ideas.



I forgot to mention that I'm not using live plants. Maybe the next tank.




Thanks

 

[smb]

Can't speak about the tetras as I've never kept them before. Seems that they might be harrassed by the Tiger barbs tho, imo. Others that know about tatras will be able to give you a better answer on this than I.

Which species of upside down catfish? There are 7 different species. Most common are S. nigriventris and S. contractus.

A smaller pleco will bo ok as would a rtbs.

Clown loaches should be ok also.

 

[Lateral Line]

>>> There are 7 different species.

There are at least 129 species of Synodontis and at least 2 as yet unidentified.

 

[smb]

>>> There are 7 different species.

There are at least 129 species of Synodontis and at least 2 as yet unidentified.

He said upside down catfish and I was asking what species of upside down catfish he meant.

 

[Lateral Line]

>>> He said upside down catfish not and I was asking what species of upside down catfish he meant.

Er, yes, I was simply pointing out that where you had said there are 7 species, there are in fact at least 129 probably 131, and almost certainly more out there waiting to be discovered.

It is of course true, that only a small subset of these are regulaly imported, and not all syno species swim upside down.

 

[smb]

It is of course true, that only a small subset of these are regulaly imported, and not all syno species swim upside down.

I am only talking of the upside down species that he requested info for. He said he wanted one that swims upside down and didn't generalize about all Synodontus. There are, to the best of my knowledge, only 7 Synodontis species that swim upside down.

 

[kevy]

I'm not sure which kind upside-down catfish. I'd ask before I bought though. Which kind are good for what?

Any other suggestions?

 

[smb]

S. nigriventris is mainly a peaceful species that only grows 3" or so. They are very comical too. At least the ones I had were. I had 6 of them in a tank once and they got along with everything and even each other.

I wouldn't put them in a tank where you have fish that can eat them tho because they have sharp fins and any fish that tries to eat them might die trying to as would the S. nigriventris.

They might have a hard time if put in with Mbunas as sometimes the Mbunas might harrass them or try to get at their eyes. Not sure how common this is but I have heard of it happening.

 

[AquaNut]

Although tiger barbs and clown loaches look AWESOME together, a school of clown loaches would eventually out-grow a 55 gallon tank, ime. I have yo-yo or pakistani loaches and skunk loaches, too. Both are fantastically interesting fish, stay much, much smaller than clowns, are a fraction of the price to buy, are less prone to ich, and are definitely feisty enough to live with the tiger barbs. Mine are in with tigers and also with a pleco... all do great. Just make sure that if you're going to add a school of these bottom feeding sorts that you provide them with caves, rocks, and roots for hiding.

 

[kevy]

Alright, I'll look into those loaches, thanks.

 

[Lateral Line]

>>> only 7 Synodontis species that swim upside down.

I would dispute that, but frankly, there are only a couple of species he is likely to find in the regular shops so the point is moot.

If you wish to take it further, provide me with a list of your 7 species.

 

[smb]

>>> only 7 Synodontis species that swim upside down.

I would dispute that, but frankly, there are only a couple of species he is likely to find in the regular shops so the point is moot.

If you wish to take it further, provide me with a list of your 7 species.

No, I don't really wish to take it further. You keep quoting me so I feel I have to reply in kind.

I didn't want to worry about it but I felt like I had to respond to you each time because I thought I wasn't making myself very clear in my posts and you were misunderstanding me because of that. As it is, this isn't the forum for it since it's about trying to help someone with a question here and this is a totally different topic and this is way off topic to keep going like this.

Here's the list--

Synodontis batensoda, S. nigriventris, S. contractus, S. aterrimus, S. angelicus, S. membranaceus and S. resupinatus.


And the URL-

Link.

 

[LimpyFins]

anyway, back to the point of this thread. i think if you got a few tetras and a couple of yoyo loaches, they'd get along well. i have 3 black-skirted tetras and a few yoyos. they get along fine. no worries. and if you wanted to get a few clown loaches for the 55-gallon tank (instead of yoyos), you shouldn't have to worry about them growing too big.

 

[kevy]

Is it okay to mix barbs from different stores? None of the pet stores around me carry more then 4 or 5 healthy ones at a time. Should I buy them all the same day or is it okay to get groups of them a couple days apart? I'm just afraid that if I put some in before the others, they might not school with the ladder groups I put in.

Another quick question Is a common pleco too big for my 55 gallon? If so which ones are good?

 

[AquaNut]

You should be perfectly fine adding a small school from one store and then, a few days later, adding another school from another store. I had only four tiger barbs left in my tank, so I wanted to beef up the school a little bit. At the one and only lfs in my town, they had some of the tiniest tigers I've ever seen in a store... about this big ____ . There was one other, leftover from the last shipment, who was a little bigger, so I bought him. My tigers are steroid size (lol), and I was worried about adding such a little guy in with them. At first, the largest male in my existing school kind of forced him into a corner and poked and prodded him for a minute. I was on stand-by with a net, thinking I was going to have to rescue Junior, but it was short lived, and they've all been schooling happily ever since.