Stocking My Tank (With Pics)

[Confish]

hey i made a thread on tropical discussion and had lots of help from wills to come up with this proposed stocking.

the tank is a rio 240 with the internal taken out and a ex1200 external.

Stocking that me and wills came up with

1 Rotkiel Severum
4 Cupid Cichlids (or rams) ?
5 pencil fish
8 Bleeding Heart Tetras (or any other suggestions?)
3 Hoplo Catfish or 5 Brochis Catfish or a larger school of a larger growing species of cory any other ideas?

please dont hesitate to give any other ideas ect. as this is just a rough idea

Also how would you decorate the tank im thinking white stones and tall plants in the back ?

 

[minnnt]

Your convict is stunning. He has a touch of HRP about him. Also loving the tiger loach! You could always keep them two and just rehome the jewel.

Bleeding heart tetras are very expensive, I would look at Columbian red fin tetras instead personally, they're very interesting.

Rotkeils are very nice too. I would also look for a nice ellioti.

 

[kizno1]

Stocking sounds good to me. Personally i would go for the Cupid cichlids over Ram but both will work so its just a personal choice really. Having Cupids or Rams you will be alot better off with sand the Hoplos will prefer it aswell. I really like the big piece of bogwood and i would be tempted to try and find some branchy pieces of wood to go in aswell. Maybe a few big rocks or pieces of slate aswell. But everything sounds good so far.

 

[Confish]

minnnt cheers they are all up for sale and would the convict be over aggressive for cupids and tetras? and adding HRP be then also overstocked?

kizno1 ye im thinking cupid aswell as rams are quite common i did have sand but i find it a pain in the #16##### ye i was thinking a root style bit to left coming into the tank sort of style with white large pebbles

also i really want colorful shoaling fish like neon tetra style and rummy nose as im not a fan of the silver style fish any ideas?

 

[kizno1]

Yeah that sounds good. I personally would go for just one group rather than having the Pencil fish and Tetra i would just go for 1 big group. I think a massive group of the Pencil fish would look stunning but if not something like Emperor tetra, Red phantom tetra or Serpae Tetra would be good choices.

 

[cupcakes]

You have beautiful fish! Love your loach!

 

[Confish]

thanks cupcakes he is rather funky but not sure if he will be staying as not sure how aggressive he would be with smaller fish,

ye i think i need to see the fish in the flesh as google can make them look slightly different
anyone else got any fish for me to look into?

 

[minnnt]

I saw some blue emperor tetras in one of my lfs and they were stunning. Just thinking that if you're planning on stocking rotkeils then you may want fish that are a bit bigger. Cupids are very nice, but they're pretty pricey too!

Rainbow Cichlids
Keyhole Cichlids
Apistogramma

Penguin tetras
Columbian red fin tetras
Emperor tetras
Scissortail rasboras

Giant corydoras

 

[karin]

I'm loving my cupids and much prefer them to bolivian rams anyway. I got 5 wild caught, all males. Two are stunning, one is coming on and two seem to be runts, or stunted for some reason. I've had them 6 months and they are absolutely not skittish and haven't been very aggressive. A bit of chasing and that is all. Wills and others helped me a bit too. I have them in a 60 gallon now but will upgrade to a 120 next month. My biggest cupids are about 3.5 inches. So here are a few pics with the phone, but no pic really does them justice. I have read the cupids need two years to come on in a very stunning way. Early on they are a bit plain looking. Also included a pic of Tony the red spot 4 inches and Bean the rotkeil just under 4 inches.

Oh and the tank, I would go with a rock formation, some caves and such. Then plants too. Here is mine from a couple months ago. Nothing brilliant but hopefully will give you some ideas. Also look at the tank of the month competitions on this forum for some ideas.

 

[Wills]

Karin those Cupids look amazing!! I am seriously thinking of swapping my Geophagus for Cupids atm just to give the other fish in my tank a bit more room

Wills

 

[Confish]

karin cheers for the info and so good to see some real photos of cupids liking the look photos alot Anyone else have any photos what size do they max out at? ye i think im going to add some branch/root style wood to one end with a long thin plant like vails then white stones then my center bit of would to the right abit

has anyone ever had sand in one section on there tank then had gravel for the rest?

 

[karin]

Thanks for the comments. I really do like them. Confish, not certain what the size will be. Websites seem to say max at around 5 inches (then say, but usually smaller) but those sites seem to have faulty information as well. Some sights say highly aggressive and that has not at all been my experience. Some say very shy, also not at all my experience. Also says best kept in pairs. What I have read is that females are hard to come by. Supposedly these guys don't breed well in capivity so most are wild caught and I've read there is a theory that the females stay lower in the water column so that they don't get caught up by fishermen. I would love to hear from anyone with a pair!!

I've heard that mixing sand and gravel results in just that, a mix of sand and gravel which in my opinion would be hard to keep clean. Gravel needs deep vacuming and sand needs surface cleaning. I will say the cupids like to sift sand.

Cheers,
karin

 

[Wills]

I've read there is a theory that the females stay lower in the water column so that they don't get caught up by fishermen.

Thats really interesting!! I never knew that!

I really am tempted to swap these for my Geos as my Geos atm are getting really nasty with each other and always have torn fins

How fast did yours grow Karin? I have seen some large ones at Wharf Aquatics but for a group of 4/5 it would cost over £100 which is a bit out my price range but I know you can get smaller ones for less.

Confish - I have seen sand/gravel in the past and usually it just gets mushed around and the sand sinks to the bottom of the gravel and then gets sucked up in cleaning. I saw something cool the other day with half sand and loads of cobbles at the other end which I thought was cool - would be good if you had catfish and tetras in there as if they bred and the eggs fell between the cobbles the fry would have a much better chance of survival. It would be like when people use marbles to gather the fry.

Wills

 

[kizno1]

Reather than Cupid cichlids/Biotodoma cupido what about Biotodoma wavrini there only £8.95 in wildwoods compared to £24.95 for the Cupids. The Wavrini are stunning aswell, if they turn out half as nice as this one in the pic you will have a amazing looking fish
http/www.aquatic-experts.com/AQUATIC-EXPERTS%20IMAGES/FRESHWATER/FRESHWATER%20FISH/Biotodoma%20wavrini/Picture%20420%20cw.jpg

 

[Confish]

ye thats what i thought about the sand and gravel i was thinking like one side has a sand section lol ye i like that other fish you mentioned 24 quid that could get expensive if having 4 then all the other fish i need to get what other small ish cichlids are there more colour the better