New tank setup.

[Leot]

Ok, heres my situation.

What I have right now is my tank, which is 30"x18"x18" which is ~160lt.

I plan to put sand and some plants+rocks, and filter with a small canister filter.

The fishies I'd like to keep are as follows:

A pair of german blue rams.
6-8 kuhli loaches.
6-8 of some sort of dither fish.. maybe zebras or some tetras. (somehing more interesting? im open to suggestions..)

Also thinking, although im not sure how much of these will fit:

Extra pairs of dwarf cichlids, ie
Laetacara curviceps
Laetacara dorsigera
maybe some sort of apisto.

What I'd like to know is how many pairs of the little cichlids I could put in without them being cramped, and how much surface area of territory I should allow for each pair...

Also, is it a bad idea to combine them with the kuhli loachs?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Silva_Fishy]

i'm not sure the scientific names but blue rams(butterfly) and gold rams would look great in that tank and im no expert but im sure they wouldnt harm khuli loaches. Maybe you could get some kribs??? But then be careful of spawning aggresiveness.

 

[Leot]

I think kribs are really kinda ugly

The other ones are just different kinds of dwarf cichlids.. grow to about the same size as the rams.

 

[Ben]

get dwarf pandas! the femalesd are the nicest especialy. ye kribs are preety ugly and agresive.

 

[Silva_Fishy]

yeh kribs CAN be ugly but can be quite nice. What about blue rams? They are definately the nicest.

 

[Ben]

ye but only in breeding........exepnsive little things.

 

[Silva_Fishy]

hope this has helped u

 

[Ben]

wat a waste of a post

becareful with ur kuli loaches cuz they die easily and theyre nocturnal.

 

[Leot]

Well.. not really. Fish choice isnt what im really asking about, I'm wanting to know how many pairs of dwarf cichlids (particulairly of the type listed in my original post) i could comfortably fit into my tank, along with the loaches and some dither fish.

But, that aside, all comments are still welcome

also curious about how much territory the dwarf cichlids are going to claim.. ive got 3.75 square feet to deal with ... which should have sand substrate and have plenty of plants/rocks for them to hide in

 

[Silva_Fishy]

well it depends on the cichlid i guess. Gold rams take up little space neither do blues. Kribs on the other hand are very terratorial. U could prob keep about 4-5 rams even 6 if your lucky. My vote would be get 3 blue rams and 3 gold rams.

 

[Ben]

i had some gold rams and they wer'nt teritorial at all u could probably fit 5 or 6 dwarf rams of any kind since they are mostly not teritorial also becareful nto to stock ur tank too much as males could get a bit agresive towards eachother at breeding time. so try to get more females then males.

 

[Leot]

Upto 6!! wow.. thats alot more than I thought I would be able to keep... thanks for the advice people

 

[Leot]

Ive been doing some more thinking research, and I think im going to go for the dither fish, the loaches, MAYBE 1 pair of rams, and as many curviceps as i could comfortably fit

Does anyone own a group of curviceps? I'm curious to know how they get along in a group, and with other fish as there really isnt much info available online

 

[anna_panna]

I am also quite new to this (6 months), but have the fish you talk about. I have a pair of small blue rams with one bigger fully grown 8 cm curvicep - they get on fine, the curvicep dosnt bother the rams except once when I tried to put another cichlid his size in there - then it became territorial towards the rams and the new ciclid. As soon as I moved the other cichlid it was back to ignoring them. The rams are super curious and I have to be careful when I clean because they get really close! the curvicep is much more shy, but a super eater and spends it time begging for food... it will eat absolutely anything - . But you never know with cichlids - from my short experience they all seem to have their own personalities!

I also have 2 clown loaches (small) and one striata loach and one yoyo loach (small) and 4 otos - they all get along fine. Im thinking of trying to add another pair dwarf ciclid species (smaller than the curvicep) and then move the loaches when they get bigger. I will be interested to hear how you get along.

 

[Leot]

curviceps just look so cute (from the pics anyway)

thanks for your input its good to hear some responses from someone who actually has the fish i plan on keeping.. not many ppl seem to own or know about the curviceps