It's Here! Suggestions?

[Nosphaer]

Hello, everyone,

I went over to a local pet store that had a 40 Gallon Breeder in stock, and I was finally able to take it home, so I did.

The lid is called a "Versa-Top", and I only have one or two accessories for it that were available as a deal, at the time.

_|_

So, I had plans for what I wanted to stock with, after cycling. I was gonna go for Some Cory Catfish (Possibly 8), Some Harlequin Rasboras, Red Cherry Shrimp, and eventually some Kuhlis. My Boyfriend recommended that I look into housing a Raphael to act as a counterweight to the shrimp, I believe, but I'm not certain of that idea.

I really adore bottomfeeders, and I'd like for the community to be generally peaceful. I know it would be nice to get some fish that are top swimming too, for some evenness.

I'm just so excited to get things going, in honesty! I'll get my heater, filter, and substrate soon o:

(EDIT - I should stay off of the computer, when ill... By "Suggestions?" I meant to ask of what all you thought would be suitable to live in this aquarium.)

 

[Crossfire]

Hello, everyone,

I went over to a local pet store that had a 40 Gallon Breeder in stock, and I was finally able to take it home, so I did.

The lid is called a "Versa-Top", and I only have one or two accessories for it that were available as a deal, at the time.

_|_

So, I had plans for what I wanted to stock with, after cycling. I was gonna go for Some Cory Catfish (Possibly 8), Some Harlequin Rasboras, Red Cherry Shrimp, and eventually some Kuhlis. My Boyfriend recommended that I look into housing a Raphael to act as a counterweight to the shrimp, I believe, but I'm not certain of that idea.

I really adore bottomfeeders, and I'd like for the community to be generally peaceful. I know it would be nice to get some fish that are top swimming too, for some evenness.

I'm just so excited to get things going, in honesty! I'll get my heater, filter, and substrate soon o:

(EDIT - I should stay off of the computer, when ill... By "Suggestions?" I meant to ask of what all you thought would be suitable to live in this aquarium.)

The cories and kuhlis might compete for territory and food as they're both bottom feeders, but you can still get both as long as you make sure they all get some food Stocking looks good, but no so sure about raphael cats...I think they get really big

 

[Malawi MaD]

The raphael cats get to roughly 10cm (i think)

 

[Gidge]

Get some Sterbai Corys. They're my favourite Orrr Juli Cory's (Three lined Cory's) They go by so many different names here

 

[thereverendturtle]

Rafael cats get 3"-30" depending on the species. Although not bottom feeders, bolivian rams and or apistogrammas would go very well in your setup. As for surface dwellers, hatchetfish, clown killies or just fancy guppies would fill the bill.

Oh and post lots of pix as it comes along. I enjoy watching tanks come together.

 

[Nosphaer]

The cories and kuhlis might compete for territory and food as they're both bottom feeders, but you can still get both as long as you make sure they all get some food Stocking looks good, but no so sure about raphael cats...I think they get really big

Thank you! You seem like a credible source of information on the little loaches, without a doubt, so I'll make sure I'm observant and careful when feeding them all. I'm excited to look into keeping them, later on.

Get some Sterbai Corys. They're my favourite Orrr Juli Cory's (Three lined Cory's) They go by so many different names here

I see... o:

I liked the appearance of the Peppered Corys, as I'm a big fan of leopards and cheetahs, not to mention cats in general. I'd like to give a go with the most adaptable and stable variety, so I'll do a bit of research on them.

Rafael cats get 3"-30" depending on the species. Although not bottom feeders, bolivian rams and or apistogrammas would go very well in your setup. As for surface dwellers, hatchetfish, clown killies or just fancy guppies would fill the bill.

Oh and post lots of pix as it comes along. I enjoy watching tanks come together.

Thanks. I'm not sure of what I'll be doing for non-bottom feeders, but I've been taking Bolivian Rams into rather thorough consideration. I'll be happy to converse and "document" my findings here, with a healthy dose of pictures, of course! ^^

 

[IcQb]

Get some Sterbai Corys. They're my favourite Orrr Juli Cory's (Three lined Cory's) They go by so many different names here

I see... o:

I liked the appearance of the Peppered Cory's, as I'm a big fan of leopards and cheetahs, not to mention cats in general. I'd like to give a go with the most adaptable and stable variety, so I'll do a bit of research on them.

Just to be clear; the Corydoras julii and the Corydoras trilineatus are two different species! Althought they are both called 'leopard cory'
The 'dots' on the head of the trinlineatus are connected, whereas the julii have separate spots!
Julii;

Trilineatus

I have the trilineatus, i just ADORE them (got 4 new ones yesterday to accompany my two older ones)
I hope i can breed them in a few months!

 

[Gidge]

Yehp! The Trilineatus are the ones I like. Thankyou for clearing that up Something new I've learnt today!

 

[fluttermoth]

I'd give the raphael catfish a miss; they're a very big fish! Not very long, but incredibly bulky for their size.

Don't forget you'll want a sand substrate for cories, rams and kuhlis

 

[IcQb]

Yehp! The Trilineatus are the ones I like. Thankyou for clearing that up Something new I've learnt today!

np
I've been in the dark about them too for a long time. Untill a friend of mine cleared it up

 

[Nosphaer]

Just to be clear; the Corydoras julii and the Corydoras trilineatus are two different species! Althought they are both called 'leopard cory'
The 'dots' on the head of the trinlineatus are connected, whereas the julii have separate spots!
Julii;

Trilineatus

I have the trilineatus, i just ADORE them (got 4 new ones yesterday to accompany my two older ones)
I hope i can breed them in a few months!

Thank you for clearing that up. I hardly know how to navigate all the nicknames created for each species. o:

I'd give the raphael catfish a miss; they're a very big fish! Not very long, but incredibly bulky for their size.

Don't forget you'll want a sand substrate for cories, rams and kuhlis

Certainly! I have planned to get some black freshwater aquarium sand for them. I figured the black would be a little bit easier on their eyes, in the long run.

 

[fluttermoth]

I don't think the colour matters that much to the fish! Cetainly my cories and zebra loaches do fine on light coloured sand, if you find the black stuff too expensive!

 

[moochy13]

i think peppered cories prefer temps a bit cooler than most, certainly rams. trili cories are great, i have some and i think they're possibly my favourite cory, certainly out of the ones that are easy to get hold of. theres a lot of nice cories, but some start costing quite a bit of money when you need to 6+ of them, trili's are generally pretty cheap. i would be very surprised if you ever find true julii cories at your lfs - they seem hard enough to get hold of is you specifically ask for them, let alone just appearing at your local shop. trili's will very often be labelled up as julii's. even within trili cories, they can look quite different. for example compare the photo posted above, with a photo of one of mine. the markings are very different, but both trili's.

looks a nice size tank, though why are you calling it a breeder ? very few fry will survive in a general community tank. also rams could eat the shrimp, certainly baby shrimp. cories, and i suspect loaches will eat any eggs they can get to, rams will eat fry, other than their own.

 

[IcQb]

I agree with moochy13
mine also look slightly different.
What I especially love is the way they 'look' at you. They're able to rotate their eyes downwards to see the substrate better. It looks very much like they 'blink' at you

And indeed, cory's prefer slightly cooler temps, I try to keep mine around 23°C.

When I try to breed, i put the heater on 26-27 degrees, just for a few weeks and take out some water day by day, so as to simulate a draught.
Then i turn the heater down to 21-22 again and sprinkle 15°c soft water in the tank, simulating large (cold) rain showers.

If any spawning does happen, it will be then

Only succeeded around 2 times, without me even knowing i did the correct thing then (i was young )

 

[Nosphaer]

looks a nice size tank, though why are you calling it a breeder ? very few fry will survive in a general community tank. also rams could eat the shrimp, certainly baby shrimp. cories, and i suspect loaches will eat any eggs they can get to, rams will eat fry, other than their own.

Thank you for the info on Corys. I'll be skeptical and observant when checking them out in the shop.

As for me calling it a "breeder", that's simply the title given to the tank with this design. This tank (and other breeder varieties, I believe) has a large footprint, which I appreciate.

I was told that rams are peaceful, but that's not usually in relevance to shrimp at all. I'll have to look into this, before I endanger my own stock. I'm not quite going in on a mission to breed the fish as soon as I get them, at that. I'm a real worrier (Given all these advise-seeking threads, you can only imagine), so I'm definitely going to take precautions, later on, for fry.

I honestly want the catfish to get to the eggs, from time to time. I'd be overrun with cramped shrimp, eventually... That's one of my fears, at least.

Is that a reasonable idea?

Still, I appreciate all you're giving me in knowledge, as this spurs me to research all my decisions ahead of time, and more thoroughly, at that.

EDIT - Paragraphs were out of order.