Rio 240 Tank Journal

[Straydum]

why not consider a mix of cories, for say two species six each. i currently have five species of cories together and its a sight to see them swim together.

if you're going for something wacky try adding oddballs in your tank. i recommend the smaller spiny eel species.

 

[Bryan]

How disappointing, I get to the end of the thread and no fish yet
Very nice job so far, can't wait to see it with fish

 

[Laffers]

How disappointing, I get to the end of the thread and no fish yet
Very nice job so far, can't wait to see it with fish

Its all about patience Can appreciate its probably a bit annoying trawling through 3 pages and not seeing the main reason why we all keep our tanks though joking aside, sorry!

The good news is though that as long as my plans do not change I will be starting to stock my tank this Saturday morning and I can honestly say it cannot come soon enough! Ive made a point of making sure that I do everything as properly as I can and I can get my fish knowing that my tanks going to be as stable as it really can be at this point. This of course is a cover up for the fact that I've slacked and not organised things properly!!

At the stage where apart from gettin a few little odds and ends so next proper update will be the fish - I promise!!

 

[guppy_man]

woohoo lol


keep us updated

 

[Laffers]

Well, things havent quite gone to plan as I would have liked. I was meant to be getting the fish from a breeder but sadly, he couldnt make today in the end. This isnt really a problem as he is doing me a favour. 100% guaranteed I will be able to pick the rest of my fish up during the week from him so not the end of the world.

The good news is, I went to Swallow Aquatics today and got a few of the fish that I wanted to get so I am on my way. As much as I said I wouldnt be changing my mind on stocking when I went in there - I did. The original Plan was to have a shoal of 6-7 Boesemani Rainbows but after looking in the planted tank they have, I saw B Rainbows and Blue Rainbows swimming aroung together and looking amazing I went for a mix. Ended up getting 4 Blues in my little shop today with the plan to get 3 Boes from the breeder.

I finally decided on my what rams should I get with the help of my girlfriend and once again, I'm really happy with my choices (Although, her decision not to get Blue Rams because she didn't like their red eyes was a weird one)! I ended up with what I hope is 1 Male Bolivian Ram, 1 Female Bolivian Ram, 1 Male Krib and 1 female Krib.

They have now been in the tank for a few hours and all of the fish are starting to settle down a bit now and come out of hiding. Im really glad that there have not been any signs of aggression at all yet. I'm well aware that at this point this doesn't really mean all that much but its still nice not to have had an instant cage fight!

I thought I would leave it a little bit before I really go snap happy but I couldnt resist getting a cheeky snap of my Kribensis as for the first time since putting it in it was still and out in the open. Have to excuse the blurryness of the pic, David Bellamy I am not!

Will be many more pics coming tomorrow I'm sure and a hell of a lot more once I see this person during the week.

 

[Laffers]

Can now appreciate just how hard it is to get half decent fish pics! Going to be more to come but heres a couple I got last night of my Bolivians and another one of my Krib. Also managed to get a half decent pic of my Rainbowfish after I don't know how long trying! They've been darting all over the tank ever since I got them!

Excuse the 'String' - Need to photoshop that picture to remove it lol

Really need to get a close up picture of my female Krib. The above picture really doesn't do the colours of it justice.

.....and I finally got one!

Absolutely amazing fish. At the time of typing, my 2 Kribs appear to me pairing up as they seem to be almost unseperable, and both their colours are really coming out.

Its been quite funny waking up this morning and seeing all of the marks in the sand where the fish have obviously got a bit more confident in the dark and started digging about to see what they can find. I also noticed that the tiny bit of food I put in there hadn't been eaten with the lights on but once they were out its gone.

 

[Straydum]

whats in next? there's till plenty for space for you to introduce more fishes!

 

[Laffers]

Thanks for continuing to keep an eye on and contribute towards the journal all.

Really, really pleased with the way the tank is working out so far and thankfully nothing that I know of has gone wrong. No aggression that I've noticed, the fish that I wanted to pair up are constantly with each other swimming about and all the fish really seem to be quite happily swimming about all over the tank.

As far as what species I'm after next I'm not really 100% sure apart from knowing I want to get a large (10-12) shoal of peppered cory. The one thing that I have done to work in my favour is to give my gf a little choice in what I have got so far by letting her have the final decision on what Cichlids I would be getting that day. To make it even better, she chose the fish i wanted!

The Boesemani Rainbows will still be going in to mix with the Blues I currently have and I think I will get about 3-4 of them.

I am still considering getting a couple of Angel Fish to go as the focal point of the tank. To my knowledge, I do not have any known fin nippers at the moment so I am hoping that I will be ok there. I've had a little look at the Spiny Eel species suggested and hate to admit wasn't overly keen - the suggestion was greatly appreciated tho!!

After that, I'm guessing I will be pretty much stocked for the time being as I'd rather be understocked to begin with (assuming I would be) than I would over. As it stands, the Cory and Boes. Rainbows will take priority over everything else.

Suggestions and comments welcomed and appreciated as always

 

[rchambers]

I'd be careful about getting too many bottom fish. The kribs and rams both stay at the bottom and so do corys so the corys could get harassed. I have four rams in my take with corys and the rams ignore them so hopefully you will be lucky. How about some middle to top fish like rummy nose tetras (very active and shoaling fish, lovely) or if you have a decent lid some hatchet fish for the very top of the tank. That way you will have activity at all levels and everything won't be crowded at the bottom. The tank is looking fantastic so far though and I look forward to seeing it progress.

 

[Straydum]

the thing with cories and other fishes is you'd find it alittle hard to feed them. i have 12 cories with 6 angels and food almost never hits the bottom. i use algae waffles with little success (though it kinda works) as the angels just go down and pick on the waffles.

i think this issue would be the same with other mid fishes or as all fishes even (food drives them nuts). back to the cories, i dont know how you're going to count them there was a thread some while ago where people find it hard to keep track of the number of fishes in their tanks. i count my 12 by species but since you're going for all peppered, yeah you know what i mean

pictures look really good by the way. you're doing a good job

 

[Laffers]

I have now realised that the internet and a search engine is a great thing! I got home today to see my kribs swimming about together as per usual but this time I noticed that the female kept curling her body up and vibrating. Obviously being new to tropical fish and Kribs I got a bit concerned and thought that my female was fitting so I had a quick search to see about Kribensis and it turns out that its a sign of the female tryin to pair up.

As it stands at the moment, the pair keep swimming under all my slate and around my bogwood but I'm a bit concerned that my slate doesnt make an actual cave. Would it be worth while for me to get some of the extra slate I have and make a little makeshift cave with only a small entrance to get in? All the signs of breeding such as really vivid colours, the vibrating, looking under my slate 'bridges' and the vibrating are there so I'd really like to make it as possible as I can.

Another thing I have read about people doing is doing a water change the lower the water temps ever so slightly to see if they can trigger the breeding. Does this sound worthwhile once I sort my slate out?

Really pleased that I chose my Kribs, they are the most interesting fish I have in my tank so far and with the way they are coloured up at the moment I would recommend them to anyone.

 

[guppy_man]

If you want the kribs to breed, i'd suggest getting a small terracotta pot, which you can hide behind your wood or slate. IMO and experience the pots are great for breeding kribs.

You could possibly have eggs within the week. When i bought my first pair a few years back, they paired and spawned within 2 days, without me doing anything special. All you really need is water for these guys to spawn

The cory shoal will look great, they are great eating machines, and great to watch.

I would still go for angel fish, as i think a pair would complete that tank once the cory's have been added

 

[Laffers]

Back for another big'ish update and I'm a very happy boy!

Main update is that I went to see the breeder my friend knows today and I did indeed get mate rates! He didn't have the numbers of the Boesmanis or Corys I was looking to get but he said I am more than welcome to go back whenever I want to.

The first fish that I got were 6x Julii Corydora. The original plan was to get 12x Peppered but after seeing these I decided I much prefer them and they were only about 20p more per fish so made sense to get these. Only problem was that he only had 6 at the time, but I can go in and get more when he has them in. This has probably worked in my favour because as people have already stated on here, it might get a bit overkill on the bottom and this gives me a chance to find out before getting more.

Second addition were my Boes Rainbowfish. For such small fish, the colours are already really intense and like the other Rainbowfish I have, they are already bombing from one end of the tank to the other trying to race each other. As I hoped, they are also shoaling up with the Blue Rainbowfish which is working really well.

Finally, I got a pair of what I think the bloke said were Sri Lanka Angelfish. Going to have to get pics of these to do them justice! They looked a lot nicer when you looked at them next to the standard Angels. Really pleased with them.

I'm having the rest of the day as a lights off period, but will be adding a lot of pictures tomorrow when I find my camera (!!) and will be turning the lights on for the first time. As it stands, there has still been no aggression at all in the tank.

 

[Straydum]

Sri Lanka Angelfish. Going to have to get pics of these to do them justice! They looked a lot nicer when you looked at them next to the standard Angels. Really pleased with them.

i'm looking forward to this. i've never heard of sri lanka angels pictures!

 

[guppy_man]

Sounds good mate.... just want to see piccies now