Stocking

[bricko]

Hi folks,

I was wondering if I could have some advice on my tank stocking idea I am toying with.

Currently I have a 260l community tank with various cories, brisltenose, glowlight tetra, glass cats etc... a 190 corner tank which houses my green severum, 2 dwarf acara (laetecara flavilabris I believe) 5 black widow tetras, 1 pictus cat and a bristlenose. I have also got a juvenile nicaraguan ciclid in this tank currenlty.

I also have a 65l tank which currenlt houses 2 juve keyhole cichlids which eventually brings me onto my question.

If I rescape the 260l tank in my front room and provide plenty of caves and refuge in the form of plants, wood and rocks, would the Sev, nicaraguan, dwarf acaras and the keyholes be ok in the same tank? I would also be adding the pictus and a couple of BN's do you think this would be ok? I was thinking the instead of the black widow tetras I would add some bosemani rainbows as dithers also.

Let me know your thoughts on this stocking? It will be filtered using 2 no fluval 305's plus the internal juwel filter also with weekly 30% maintenance water change.

Cheers,

Bricko

 

[bricko]

Any info on whether the keyholes will be ok in there would be apreciated.

Cheers,

 

[tenohfive]

Whats the dimensions of the 260L tank? I'll let others answer the other questions, but boesmani's grow big and need a lot of open swimming space - so if its a corner tank then they're possibly a bad idea.

And pim pictus should really be kept in groups of 6 or more ideally.

I'm not going to venture an opinion on the rest of the stocking as I've not kept the fish concerned.

 

[meguro]

My guess is that it would depend on the nics and severums personality, ie. whether they'll care about the keyholes or not. Since you have a few tanks, you could give it a go for a while and simply move them out at the first sign of trouble.

Also, rainbow fish require low nitrates which usually means 50% or more water change weekly. They'll reward you with more colour though.

 

[bricko]

Hi,

Tank Dimensions are 121x46x62cm Bow fronted aquarium.

The pictus has been a solo fish since I inherited him over a year ago and seams ok with it. Not at all shy and readily swims out in the open during lights on and joins in with the feeding.

Would 2x weekly 30% water changes suffice for the rainbow fish?

Thanks for your input,

 

[tenohfive]

Hi,

Tank Dimensions are 121x46x62cm Bow fronted aquarium.

The pictus has been a solo fish since I inherited him over a year ago and seams ok with it. Not at all shy and readily swims out in the open during lights on and joins in with the feeding.

Would 2x weekly 30% water changes suffice for the rainbow fish?

Thanks for your input,

Thats more than enough water changes for rainbows. As for the pictus, I'm not suggesting they can't be kept singly - but they are a shoaling fish by nature and you'll love watching their behaviour if you've got a group of them. Mad fish but great to watch in a group.

Tank size should be fine for the rainbows.

 

[bricko]

Thanks for the advice tenohfive, I would love to add more pictus to the tanks but do you think there would be enough room?

Stocking as follows;

1 x Severum
1 x Nicuraguan
2 x Keyhole
2 x Dwarf Acara (5 inch each)
2 - 3 x Bristlenose
5 - 6 x Rainbow
1 (?) x Pictus
2 x botia stratia

I was also thinking of adding 3 x skunk cories from my community tank but I think they would get a bit of a hard time?

This is a 260 litre tank which will be heavily planted with lots of rock and wood caves.

Cheers,

Bricko

 

[bricko]

Would the above stocking be workable / worth having a go or should I leave out the cories and loaches?

Also how many bosemani rainbows should I get?

thanks for your help,

Bricko

 

[minxfishy]

Its workable purely on the personality of the severum and IME the nicaraguan. My Nic was a vicious girl and attacked and harrassed every fish in the tank, in the end I had to rehome her, so if you get an aggressive one, the keyholes wont stand a chance.

Minimum of 6 rainbows and yes they do need regularly large water changes. The stocking could work, Id leave out the botia and only have 1 BN, you are pushing the limit a bit, especially with the severum needing the entire tank space, once full grown, to itself, but it could work.

 

[bricko]

OK thanks Minxfishy,

I have my 190 corner tank which will be on standby if required or I will probably just rehome the Nic if problems occur.

Will keep you posted when I complete the move.

One last question on the Nic, how fast do they grow so I can assess how soon I need to do the tank reshuffle.

Cheers,

Bricko