Whats Compatible With My Fish?

[Amina]

First of all I'm not 100% sure that this topic is in the right section due to the fact that It's concerning Angel-Fish. I dont know the "scientific names" for all the fish yet. So if this is in the right forum, thats great....if not. Maybe a moderator could move my topic. Or someone could tell me which one to go to.

I've got a 38 or 40 Gallon Aquarium. It currently is houseing 2 Angel-fish, each is about 3in. 1 Plecostamus about 7-8 in. long (He will be moved to a larger aquarium, or pond when he gets to big) And 1 Crayfish only about an inch long.

I'm pretty sure theres enough room for more fish. But I know...
A: Angelfish are agressive towards some other fish
B: Other spieces like to bite their fins

I'd love to get a Gourami. or one of those smaller speices of the Bosmani Rainbows?....I dont know exactly what they're called, But they dont grow as big as the Bosmani's, but they look about the same.

I WILL be getting an aquatic frog or two because they are the most adorable things ive ever seen....

Khuli loaches are awesome...I'd love to get some of those...

But if maybe someone could give me a list of my options with my Angel-Fish?

Also I'm still trying to find out if this Angel-Fish is a male or female.... I Know the male is a male because he has the larger/bump on his forehead.

Here is a pic of the one that I think is a female....I'm almost positive she is, just want to make sure...

This is when I first brought it home, its very pale

And this is later after "she" relaxed a bit

This is my tank as of last night...

And I just have to show off my male....

Together

And this is the Pleco AKA Sharkbate! (whoo hah hah) from find nemo of course....

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

I'm really no expert on angelfish so i will wait a bit on advice concerning them until others have commented on them, but i have some advice concerning other stuff you mentioned;

Aquatic frogs: By far the two most commonly sold frogs in the hobby are ACF's (African Clawed Frogs) and ADF's (African Dwarf frogs). They may look very similar in appearances, but they vary a great deal in temperment and care etc. ACF's will grow to about the size of your fist and eat fish, while ADF's will grow only to about 1.5inches and do not eat fish.

ACF's;

http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=61229

ADF's;

http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=133204


Personally i wouldn't recommend either for community tanks really. ACF's tend to eat everything, or at least try swallowing it, but with ADF's it can be more complicated. One thing i have noticed is that a lot of people have difficulties keeping ADF's in community tanks when it comes to feeding the little frogs, since the majority of fish swim a lot quicker than frogs, everytime you try to feed the little frogs, their food is snatched up by fish in the tank before the frogs even get a chance to get anywhere near the food. A lot of people though have come up with various solutions to this problem, like using a turkey baster to place the food directly near the frog.
However, another problem is that most community tanks need good filtration, and yours certainly will need filtration due to the pleco. ADF's often get caught up in such filtration though, which can be extremely stressful for them.

Personally if you were you, i'd set up a tank or around 5-10gallons with a little community of ADF's in it and have some very gentle filtration in it with and perhaps only a betta/siamese fighting fish (a type of small tropical slow swimming fish)- i think they'd be a lot happier in such a tank set up .


With the crayfish/lobster, do you know what type it is? Crayfish are essentially predatory critters, some people have been able to mix them into community tanks, but the success rate seems to vary a great deal and it can be risky- a lot seems to depend on whether the crayfish is wild-caught or commercially bred, with wild-caught crayfish tending to be a lot more agressive etc.

 

[Amina]

lol wow...thats really good to know about the frogs....I bought one of the African clawed ones once...(not knowing the difference)....and he grew HUUUGE...its was scary..i didnt understand...my other one wasnt growing that big...i guess he was the dwarf kind..... Ive never had a problem with frogs getting sucked in my filters. Im very paranoid about that kind of stuff.

The crayfish is commercially bred. It was in a tank with lots of other crayfish and MANY MANY chichlids. He's not agressive at all...most of the time hes hiding and I cant find him. I did worry about it and the frogs though. Since I've never had crayfish before. But I've got a spare 15 gallon and spare 10 gallon....and spare 5 gallon....and 6 gallon....and 7 and 8.... I have sisters....so its like if i get a fish...of course they HAVE to get one too lol...if you have sibling you know exactly what im talking about....thats why I have so many spare tanks tehe. But thats a really good idea. Setting up one of my smaller aquariums for a frog/loach/tetra tank...im totally going to do that! ^-^ And dont worry...if my crayfish becomes A problem I'll put him in a seperate tank too with some other crayfish....no one gets left behind...or sent back to the petstore

 

[Amina]

OH! and about the filtration system. Ive got two filters set up right now. Only one of them has an actual carbon filter atm (its meant for a 10-15 gallon, its the old one) and the other is Penguin brand, mean for this size tank...I bought the wrong kind of filter yesterday lol...... thats why i only have one filter thing >.< and yea...tanks getting a litte nasty with just that little thing runnin lol.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Cool, well if the crayfish turns out to be one of the more agressive ones, you can always move it to the 15gallon tank, while any of the smaller tanks would be easily able to hold a decent number of ADF's.

With the filtration, carbon sponges are used for taking out things like meds from the water as the carbon absorbs such chemicals. However carbon sponges have a short life expectancy, i would say 6months tops, and after that they will stop working and will leach out all the chemicals they have absorbed from the tank. So unless you want to remove any meds from the tank water, carbon sponges are not really messy.
Its very important though to have the right sort of filtration for your tank and fish- certain fish prefer certain strength currents in their tanks (for example, betta's prefer very gentle current, fish like angelfish do fine in medium strength current, while fish like plecos and goldfish need strong filtration to handle their waste while fish like hillstream loaches need very strong filtration due to being specialised strong current river fish etc). How many gallons do your filters claim to filter up to do you know? How often do you clean the substrate in your tank and do water changes (and how much water do you take out on average when you do?)?

When you go to tanks under 10gallons, fish stocking options become an aweful lot more limited. When it comes to tetras and loaches, there are many that can live in a 15gallon, a small amount that can go in a 10gallon, and very few than can go in tanks under 10gallons. If you have a lot of small tanks, sometimes it can just be easier to sell them on and buy a larger tanks in their place .
If you have a lot of fish you'd like to get in the near future, i'd personally put aside the 8 or 10gallon tank as a quarentine/hospital tank, which could save you a lot of fishes lives (i cannot express how good quarentine/hospital tanks can be, i have a 5-8gallon one at the moment and it has saved many fishes lives ) .

 

[Amina]

OH dont worry Ive got enough spare tanks for quarntine tanks. I've got the carbon out of the one filter right now because im treating one of the angels for Ich.

Dont worry the current and filtration is fine. I will most likeley take out the small one once I get a filter for my bigger one. I originally just put the little one in because it was in the old tank and I wanted to help the tank cycle when I set it up.

I've got two or three spare 10 gallon aquariums. one 15 gallon. numerous amounts of 5-8 gallons. (they're the plastic ones that are like the starter kits)

well I'm going out to the barn to see my horse. When i get back, I'll check how many tanks and what not I have to see what I can play with

 

[parker313]

For tankmates for your angels, stay away from anything nippy, like serpae tetras or tiger barbs and stay away from anything small and slender like neons or other smaller tetras. Some good tankmates for angels in the size tank you have would be corydoras catfish, though they might fall victim to the crayfish, German blue rams or bolivian rams, harlequin rasboras, or other taller body tetras. For rainbowfish, turquoise rainbowfish are very nice, as are splendid/western/australian (seen them under different common names) and they don't get as big as the boesmani. If you get rainbowfish, I'd stick with just one species and get 5-6 of them (which means you definitely want to make sure and get the smaller ones).

 

[Amina]

WOW! I just googled german Blue Rams....they are soo pretty! I also look up the rainbows, and it says they get up to like 4inches. and that would probrably be to much for my tank with 6 of them >.< also says they can become nippy.I think im going to order the german blue rams. Should I find them online and have them shipped to my home? otherwise they'll be put in with other chichlids at the pet store and i'll risk diseases and what not. Also there arent any pet stores around here who know ANYTHING about fish. nor do they care about their customers.... my ordered fish would be sold before I could pick them up...... (It's happend before, I ordered a panada oranda...and it was sold when I got there...even tho I pre-ordered it, and payed them NOT to sell it to someone else...."Customer satisfaction os our number one Priority!" ....yea right.)Oh and I'd really like to know if this is the right section for Angel fish. can someone please tell me lol

 

[loachman]

b]Oh and I'd really like to know if this is the right section for Angel fish. can someone please tell me lol[/b]

American Cichlids / New World Cichlids

 

[Amina]

I knew it...

 

[parker313]

WOW! I just googled german Blue Rams....they are soo pretty! I also look up the rainbows, and it says they get up to like 4inches. and that would probrably be to much for my tank with 6 of them >.< also says they can become nippy.I think im going to order the german blue rams. Should I find them online and have them shipped to my home? otherwise they'll be put in with other chichlids at the pet store and i'll risk diseases and what not. Also there arent any pet stores around here who know ANYTHING about fish. nor do they care about their customers.... my ordered fish would be sold before I could pick them up...... (It's happend before, I ordered a panada oranda...and it was sold when I got there...even tho I pre-ordered it, and payed them NOT to sell it to someone else...."Customer satisfaction os our number one Priority!" ....yea right

I have had a hard time getting good quality german blue rams, I've had much better luck with Bolivians. Blue Rams have been overbred to the point that most commercially available rams are pretty weak. Your best bet is to find someone who specializes in breeding rams for hardiness.

 

[Amina]

wonder where im gonna find one of those lol

 

[murphyk32]

http/www.timstropicals.com/FreshwaterFis...lfish/Angel.asp

 

[parker313]

http/www.timstropicals.com/FreshwaterFis...lfish/Angel.asp

He listed serpae tetras as good tankmates for angels