New Tank List/questions

[DarkSide]

Hey everyone,

I've been gone for a fairly long time, but my love for the aquarium hobby was jjust recently re-kindled, and I would like to get my 55 gallon(long) up and running. At first I was having alot of trouble deciding on either making a Saltwater Reef aquarium, or an Amazon river aquarium, but i've finally decided on the Amazon river theme tank.

I'm plannig on having alot of plants with a fine sand substrate aswell as driftwood, rocks, etc. I am also going to try and get my hands on one of those aquarium backplates that are sculpted too look like a rock wall with roots, etc. Along with that I will also have a water jet, on a low setting so that my tank has a current of sorts.

I basically decided what I want my tank inhabitants to be, though i'm concerned about over-stocking/ level distribution, but the fish list is as follows:

1 Angelfish
10 Neon Tetras
7 Rummy-nose Tetras
10 Serpae Tetras
5 Blackskirt Tetras
4 Marbled Hatchets
1 Small Pleco
3 Oto's
and 4-5 Cories.

Once again level distribution is the one thing I know that is wrong, so is there any top-dwelling/ bottom-dwelling fish that wpuld be suited to fit in with my theme? Also number, anything wrong with them?

Along with that, I am also wondering about invertabrates. Is there any invertebrates that could be added to my tank, as a clean-up crew? Snails that won't destroy my plants, shrimp/crabs/clams? Besides that, I was thinking of adding some Triops just for aesthetics/ detritus clean-up, though I know they may pose a threat to smaller fish.

AND MY FOR MY LAST QUESTION. Is there any problems, or saafety precautions involved with adding live blackworms directly into my substrate?

 

[Camad727]

Hey everyone,

I've been gone for a fairly long time, but my love for the aquarium hobby was jjust recently re-kindled, and I would like to get my 55 gallon(long) up and running. At first I was having alot of trouble deciding on either making a Saltwater Reef aquarium, or an Amazon river aquarium, but i've finally decided on the Amazon river theme tank.

I'm plannig on having alot of plants with a fine sand substrate aswell as driftwood, rocks, etc. I am also going to try and get my hands on one of those aquarium backplates that are sculpted too look like a rock wall with roots, etc. Along with that I will also have a water jet, on a low setting so that my tank has a current of sorts.

I basically decided what I want my tank inhabitants to be, though i'm concerned about over-stocking/ level distribution, but the fish list is as follows:

1 Angelfish
10 Neon Tetras
7 Rummy-nose Tetras
10 Serpae Tetras
5 Blackskirt Tetras
4 Marbled Hatchets
1 Small Pleco
3 Oto's
and 4-5 Cories.

Once again level distribution is the one thing I know that is wrong, so is there any top-dwelling/ bottom-dwelling fish that wpuld be suited to fit in with my theme? Also number, anything wrong with them?

Along with that, I am also wondering about invertabrates. Is there any invertebrates that could be added to my tank, as a clean-up crew? Snails that won't destroy my plants, shrimp/crabs/clams? Besides that, I was thinking of adding some Triops just for aesthetics/ detritus clean-up, though I know they may pose a threat to smaller fish.

AND MY FOR MY LAST QUESTION. Is there any problems, or saafety precautions involved with adding live blackworms directly into my substrate?

Firstly, good idea going for the amazon theme, a 55 gallon reef would put a huge hole in your wallet!! Distributions seems fine, the bioload wont be too extreme because you will only really have a couple of larger fish. I have amano shrimp in my tank and they actually hardly do anything to clean up. For one more bottom dweller, a good idea to sift the sand a bit to prevent pockets being produced is a few malaysian trumpet snails (but they breed like mad) and they will leave your plants alone. or a few kuhlii loaches for sifting the substrate as well. I have no idea about the black worms, and have never heard of a triop.

But you set-up seems fine like it is

 

[DarkSide]

Oh, I love loaches so much, dojo are my favourite, but like the problem with your options is that they kind of go against the Amazon, or atleast South American theme, which is what i'm trying to capture mostly.

Triops are small invertebrates, they look like horseshoe crabs and you can buy them in little packages and grow them similarily to sea monkeys.

 

[Colin_T]

I would drop the serpae and black skirt tetras. They will strip the angel.
You can put blackworms in the gravel and if they don't get eaten they will grow and feed on the rotting stuff in the gravel.
Use shrimp or snails as clean up crew. Don't use crabs because they will eat your fish.

 

[DarkSide]

Well so far this has been all good new.

Colin, by shred, do you mean nip at the fins? If that is the case, I would rather drop teh Angel before I dropped the tetras.

Also i'm very glad to hear about the blackworms

 

[DarkSide]

So I was looking over my list, and considering some different options, and here is what I came up with.


Old list
1 Angelfish
10 Neon Tetras
7 Rummy-nose Tetras
10 Serpae Tetras
5 Blackskirt Tetras
4 Marbled Hatchets
1 Small Pleco
3 Oto's
and 4-5 Cories.

Revised list
10 Neon Tetras
10 Serpae Tetras
1 Small Pleco (Bristle-nose?)
4 Marbled Hatchets
2 German Blue Rams
10 Rummy-nose Tetras
5 Blackskirt Tetras
3 Otocinclus
5 Assorted Corydoras
---------------------------------------------------

This is what I was thinking, but then i'm still considering the angelfish, but then the thought of a discus crossed my mind, though i'd have to give up a few fish to fit a discus in there. Why does there have to be so many different choices D:

One of my biggest problems right now, is the lack of different genus'. I've got a bunch of tetras, but i'd like to have a little more variation, does anyone have any suggestions, while still sticking to strickly South American originating species?

 

[Colin_T]

Hi DarkSide

By shred yes I mean bite, chew, nip the fins.

South America is renowned for its cichlids, tetras and catfish. If you want other types of fish like barbs, gouramis or rainbowfish, you have to go Asian, African or Australian.

 

[billy0510]

hey dark side

i am in the process of setting up a south American bio type also. Your list looks good there are a ton of smaller plecos for your tank. Some dint do much for algae so if thats what your looking for u might want to look into shrimp. How about a pair or two of dwarf cichlids like your blue rams you mentioned you can also look into the apistogramma family,these little fish have tons of personality you wont find in tetras. I'm looking for several pairs to put in my tank.

 

[DarkSide]

South America is renowned for its cichlids, tetras and catfish. If you want other types of fish like barbs, gouramis or rainbowfish, you have to go Asian, African or Australian.

Yes, I do realize that. Cichlids would be fine, but I would like a kind of cichlid that would work well for a community tank, non-aggresive, that are also brightly coloured and school/ don't have to be paired off.

Your list looks good there are a ton of smaller plecos for your tank.

Yeah, there are alot of different kinds of pleco's. I just picked the Bristle-nose as a general place to start, as my LFS has a mediocre selection of fish, what I would really be intrested in getting, is a Rubber Pleco, Medusa-head Pleco, or a Rhinocerus Pleco

 

[Colin_T]

most cichlids don't school, they either live solitary or pair off. Normally the latter. The only cichlids I know of that schools are the Cyprichromis and Paracyprichromis sp. from Lake Tanganyika in Africa.
The Apisotogrammas are nice looking peaceful dwarf cichlids from South America. In particular A. cacatuoides and A. agassizi.

 

[DarkSide]

most cichlids don't school, they either live solitary or pair off. Normally the latter. The only cichlids I know of that schools are the Cyprichromis and Paracyprichromis sp. from Lake Tanganyika in Africa.
The Apisotogrammas are nice looking peaceful dwarf cichlids from South America. In particular A. cacatuoides and A. agassizi.

Oh those are nice fish , do you think a pair of Rams and a pair of Apisotigrammas would coincide well? A single Black Stripe Dwarf Cichlid seems like it could also be a nice addition.

Alos is there any suggestions on smaller catifish that don't fall under the sucker-mouth category?

Thirdly, I decided a nice fish to inhabit the upper levels of my tank would be some sort of pencilfish.
Gahh, the amount of choices is ridiculous.

 

[Colin_T]

A 55g tank should be ample for a pair of rams and a pair of Apistogrammas. Not sure what a black stripe cichlid is.
There are a couple of species of pygmy corydoras, (C. pygmaeus & hastatus) among others.
Hatchetfish (which you already have on the list) are probably the only true small surface dwellers I can think of from South America. Penclfish tend to be midwater. Splashing tetras (Copiena arnoldi & Copella sp) will hang around the surface when breeding but are midwater normally. If you didn't mind an African fish I would suggest and African Freshwater Butterflyfish (Pantodon bucholzi). But you have to watch them because they will eat small fish. There are a heap of different hatchetfish tho so maybe a couple of schools of two or three different types.

 

[KraKen]

I don't know if they're amazonian or not but upside down catfish would be a good non-loricaride catfish.

 

[DarkSide]

I don't know if they're amazonian or not but upside down catfish would be a good non-loricaride catfish.

Yeah, I was looknig into Upside-down catfish, but sadly their from Africa D:

So yeah any catfish that arn't oto's, cories, or pleco's would be intresting additions.

 

[Colin_T]

twigs (Farlowella sp) and whiptails are interesting but they are algae eating catfish. Different shape to brinstelnose and such.