Planning My New Stock - Tanganyikan!

[myrtle]

Hi, I am finally swapping my general community to a Tang community and would appreciate some assistance with choosing my stock. I have been advised that the rainbowfish I have will be fine with a peaceful (ish) tang community so long as they are the only occupants of the open water, so no cyps etc. I am getting some of EliseW's multi's babies but so far that is all that is set in stone (other than the BN plecs). I would like some calvus (should I get 2 or 3?) and I'd like either xenos or punks but any other suggestions would be very welcome, plus an idea of numbers would be useful! The tank is a standard 240l (4 foot by 1 foot 5 inch footprint).
Thanks,
Jo

 

[Malawakiwhite]

Hi, I'm pretty new to keeping fish and have just got some tanganyikans. Looking at your choices the first thing that stands out is watch your multi babies with the calvus and they may disappear I think. I have a compressiceps sumbu with similis shellies but the Sumbu is young and the shellies not so young. I'm aware that the sumbu will snack on similis babies. Other than that I'll let someone with more experience on the rest. Good luck with it, I'm really enjoying watching mine settle in.

 

[minnnt]

Telmatochromis Burgeoni Really interesting fish, but the female will dig so bare this in mind.

Fairy Cichlids
Daffodils
Juli's

There is a pretty long list, but it's just a matter of researching the ones you like and seeing if they're compatible.

 

[bullit]

Your on the right track for a peaceful tank. If it was me id prob leave the punks out because your going for multis, plus with xenos your gonna have 3 species competing for the bottom though punks will take terrority in the rocks. So for tank layout id have some rockwork a third in from one side for some calvus (you could go for 3 if you wanted to try get a pair. Then on the smaller side of the rocks id have a shell bed for the multis to colonise, then on the other side of the rocks id have a sand bed with maybe 1-2 rocks for half a dozen xenos as they want atleast 2 feet of sand. As for multis being snacks, any fry from any fish will chomped on though the way they mate you shouldnt have any problems with them colonising. cheers

 

[elisew]

Hi, I am finally swapping my general community to a Tang community and would appreciate some assistance with choosing my stock. I have been advised that the rainbowfish I have will be fine with a peaceful (ish) tang community so long as they are the only occupants of the open water, so no cyps etc. I am getting some of EliseW's multi's babies but so far that is all that is set in stone (other than the BN plecs). I would like some calvus (should I get 2 or 3?) and I'd like either xenos or punks but any other suggestions would be very welcome, plus an idea of numbers would be useful! The tank is a standard 240l (4 foot by 1 foot 5 inch footprint).
Thanks,
Jo

Jo, we have a funeral to go to on Thursday 12th so will look at getting some of the multi fry into the small plastic tank on the friday so that I can get some idea of how many I can seperate. I`m going to try and get fry from 2 different sets of parents so it`ll lessen any interbreeding. Will send you a pm with my mobile/home numbers and we`ll confirm for the weekend if that`s ok with you?

I`d strongly advise against the brichardi/daffodils and leleupi if you`re aiming for a peaceful tank. The calvus will attempt to and on occasion will be successful in eating some of the multi fry but as has been said, most other fish will see fry as a snack. The only way you`ll stop that from happening is to have a species only tank and that`s obviously not your plan. As long as you`re aware of it you can make your choice accordingly.

Went over to MA at Wimborne today, I wanted to speak to them about the fry I have and have a look to see if there was anything that would be good for your setup and they`ve said they`ll give me a really good price on the other multi fry as they`re looking at rescaping their display Tang tank, they`re planning to have a built up area of multis. They`re going to give me a good price on my Malawi fry too

 

[minnnt]

So what would be your suggestions then?

 

[elisew]

Jo already has rainbows for the open areas in her tank but if she hadn`t I would suggest 3 or 4 ventralis and 12 cyprychromis leptasoma for the open swimming areas. . For mid level I would suggest calvus or compressicceps and possibly 1 julidochromis, for bottom dwellers the multis and punks, bearing in mind I am suggesting based on the stocking I already have in my 380L Tang tank so can only speak from personal experience.

I found from my personal experience that Brichardi/daffodil and leleupi are a higher level of aggression that really should be kept alongside other fish that are on that same level such as sexfasciatus etc

 

[minnnt]

Sorry, i didn't mean to sound rude. I am eager to learn and need the advice myself. My fairies are just that, fairies. They have never shown any aggression towards anything they have ever been in with.

I'm not familiar with any of the others you suggest. I was very intrigued by the comp gold heads, but i think they would get a little too big for my current Tang tank unfortunately as it is only 32 inches long. Shame as i think they're awesome!

 

[elisew]

Sorry, i didn't mean to sound rude. I am eager to learn and need the advice myself. My fairies are just that, fairies. They have never shown any aggression towards anything they have ever been in with.

I'm not familiar with any of the others you suggest. I was very intrigued by the comp gold heads, but i think they would get a little too big for my current Tang tank unfortunately as it is only 32 inches long. Shame as i think they're awesome!

That`s cool, I didn`t take any offence

I have 1 goldhead comp and they`re known to grow very slowly, mine has hardly grown at all and I`ve had it for a few months now. The 2 black calvus I have do seem to have grown but not a lot to be honest.
I can only advise based on my own experience but I appreciate that different species can behave differently with other kinds of species, it`s always going to be a hit/miss/trial scenario, that`s how we all learn

 

[minnnt]

What would be a minimum size tank for a comp then?

 

[bullit]

What would be a minimum size tank for a comp then?

Youd get a couple in that size tank, due to to whats been mentioned aswell is that they grow incredibly slow. 1" a year slow.

To the op. Paracyps and callochromois may be worth a look aswell. cheers

 

[minnnt]

Thankyou Bullit.

 

[kiriyama]

Hi, as mentioned the Xenos and the shellies will compete for the bottom.
I have xenos and shellies and comps all on the bottom and cyps in the open water, oh and a few plecs as well, so yeah quite over crowded, its a shame as the xenos get pushed over to the side and sometimes swim above the cyps.
When the 240 is freed up its gonna be open space, xenos on the bottom, a small rock section with a couple of shellies, and any small/young cyps in the open....

Anyways, your rainbows (are the praecox/dwarf neon?), will work with the multies you are getting.
Multies at one end in a shell bed, an open area would be nice for the xenos, dont know how the rainbows would behave towards the xenos though , they are quite easily bullied. Which ones were you thinking of getting ?
I think with some rockwork, comps would be nice , or Calvus, the Multies could look after themselves and the comp/calvus could do the "population control"..
OR small Julidochromis on the rocks and Multies at the opposite end.. are you using the rainbows as dithers for your Multies ? IMO not necessary , once the Multied get used to you the will swim at all levels of the tank.... Probably not any help from this but just thought I would add my two cents
let us know how you get on

 

[myrtle]

Thanks for the replies, my internet went down last night so sorry I couldn't reply! I'm still unsure about the xenos as they aren't really seen as a beginner Tang afaik. The rainbows are there because I couldn't bear to part with them and they'd be fine in the tank so I'm not worried about dithers etc. The praecox aren't aggressive at all though they can hold their own but the herbies are not herbies really but hybrids and are fairly aggressive (in rainbow terms, not cichlid terms lol). I have only got 3 herbies and 7 praecox now though. The tank was stripped yesterday and rescaped with a plain sand substrate, a rockpile in one corner and some of the old bogwood which has anubias attached. The rockpile needs some more rock but I'll sort that later.
I'm only looking at tank bred fish from Mikes really so I'll be getting whatever he has so long as it's suitable. I think wild caught would be a step too far for a first timer!