Will My Fish Be Okay Together?

[fisshboy]

I have :

12x Neon Tetra
2x Altum Angelfish
3x Aquatic Frogs
4x Tiger Barbs
2x Amano Shrimp
2x Small Silver Shark (not XL)
3x Gold Algea Eater

all kept in a 200L tank

I have read that my angel fish will eat my shrimp or Tetras but the Angelfish are only the the size of a pound coin at the minute is this true?

also how hard are Discus to keep ? could i mix one with my fish ?

many thanks

 

[leighton_87]

No expert by any means but here's my thoughts.

You Angels might be small now but may eat your neons when fully grown - I've heard mixed reports on this but in reality anything that could fit in a fully grown Angels mouth will end up in there.

You tiger barbs will get too aggressive in a shoal of 4 - they should be in a group of at least 8-10 an even then I'm not sure how they will do with the long fins of an angel. They can be vey nippy fish.

Your tank is too small for silver sharks - they might be small now but they will grow to 30cms and need to be kept in shoals of at least 6 - you really need an 8 foot tank for silver sharks. The XL is just the size you buy them from the shop not the size they will eventually grow.

Also I've had no experience at all with aquatic frogs but heard they can easily get outcompeted for food so try and see if they are getting their fair share.

With regards to discuss I think they key issue is the very specific water requirements they have and or that reason there not easy to keep or to mix with most community fish.

 

[Questions?]

discus are hard to keep fish, they need low ph, are very messy, get to be a good size, need a big tank, need pristine water condtions, and are schooling fish, so you would need approx. 3 or more, preferably 6, and they cost a lot of money to keep, buy, and maintain. everything in that tank will out compete the frogs for food. the angels when bigger will eat the neon, snce that s thier natural food in the wild.leighton is right and tiger barbs would be to nippy for angelfish in that size of school, so preferably you would need 6 or more, and the silver sharks will definelty outgro the tank. and yes the altum angels will also eat the shrimp idk about the gold algea eater though. f you want etras you could try rummynose tetras, congo tetras, lemon tetras, emperor tetras, etc as long as they are too big for the angels to eat. you could up the school of tiger barbs to 6 or more. then rehome/return the silver sharks, neon tetras, shrimp, and frogs. i do not mean to sound rough, sorry if you take it lke that. but i do love ngelfish, and you have a lot of potental n a 200l tank.

 

[fisshboy]

Thanks for the fast reply and advise im still getting my head around this tropical aquarium stuff, Im planning on getting at least another 4 tiger barbs im still in the process of stocking the tank im doing it 4-5 fish a week. I think im going to donate the sharks to my local aquatic store before they get too big! I only had a 68L tank before and the women sold me 2 bala's and 2 angel's after asking what tank and fish i have good job iv upgraded really.

My water has a PH of 6.5, 0 nitrate and is 27 Celsius would a discus survive?

 

[Questions?]

well it really depends, i have never kept discus before, but from what i have read you need to be on top of water changes, i think t is 25% weekly? and you need to have very strong filtration, i think 6 or 7 times the amount of water, ex for you it would be 1200l per hour or more. the ph seems right to me, and so does the temperature. but i don't know how they would do wth angels or anyo of the other fish you are keeping n the tank. and they like a lot of bog, broad leaved, live plants, etc. if you want more detailed information you can ask DevotedToDiscus he is tryng to breed them rght now, and he has a lot of discus, i hope this helps

 

[Tuxyu3]

Discus in a community tank? I wouldn't go there unless you enjoy seeing money and time thrown into a big black hole which will proceed to chew them up, spit them out and laugh at your efforts. Everything else has been covered pretty well except these 'gold algae eaters', are these the same as Chinese Algae Eaters? If so I would cut them off the list or you may end up with some seriously unhappy fish due to them becoming aggressive.

 

[eaglesaquarium]

Hi and welcome to the forum!

0 Nitrate? How long has this tank been set-up? Something tells me that it has been a very short time.


I fear that your tank is not cycled, and that you are going to be very unhappy very soon. If it is uncycled, you will be needing to do massive water changes daily (more than likely multiple times a day) with that heavy stocking load.

Have a read through the links in my sig.

 

[Questions?]

Discus in a community tank? I wouldn't go there unless you enjoy seeing money and time thrown into a big black hole which will proceed to chew them up, spit them out and laugh at your efforts. Everything else has been covered pretty well except these 'gold algae eaters', are these the same as Chinese Algae Eaters? If so I would cut them off the list or you may end up with some seriously unhappy fish due to them becoming aggressive.

if they are chinese algea eaters, not only would they be agressive, but they eat the slime coat on fish (snce it is hghly nutritous) which would open that fish up to all sorts of diseases

 

[DevotedToDiscus]

Fisshboy, Discus are beautiful, majestic fish IMO, but they require a high level of care. I wouldn't call it difficult, but you need a very good understanding of keeping fish. If they are even slightly under cared for they can very quickly succumb to diseases from which they will struggle to recover. So all in all, not a fish recommended for cutting your teeth on. Plenty of info out there on Discus set-ups, take a look, and later you can decide if you want to go down that route, but for now I have to say don't mix them with your current tank.

 

[fisshboy]

I say 0 its between 0 and the next level up on the chart, the test is pretty much clear just a trace if any, the tanks been cycled with old filter media from my other tank.

Iv taken your advise and upped my tiger barbs to 12 they swim around a lot more now.

When i got the tigers i spoke with my local shop and they said to keep hold of my bala sharks then when they get a bit big take them in and swap them for babies and keep doing this so i always have small ones.

With the angels and the tetrasvim going to leave them and see how they cope growing up with the angels so fingers crossed

 

[fisshboy]

heres a quick pic of my tank, looks so bare with all the small fish

also the best picture i can get at the min of the algae eater can anyone tell me anymore from the poor picture ?

 

[JenJ]

I say 0 its between 0 and the next level up on the chart, the test is pretty much clear just a trace if any, the tanks been cycled with old filter media from my other tank.

Iv taken your advise and upped my tiger barbs to 12 they swim around a lot more now.

When i got the tigers i spoke with my local shop and they said to keep hold of my bala sharks then when they get a bit big take them in and swap them for babies and keep doing this so i always have small ones.

With the angels and the tetrasvim going to leave them and see how they cope growing up with the angels so fingers crossed

The Bala sharks should be kept in a group of at least six rather than two, regardless of size, so maybe when you take these ones in don't get more?

I notice you say 3 tiger barbs, but have 12 in your sig. Have you had problems with some?

 

[fisshboy]

I posted earlier iv taken peoples advise and upped them to 12 this afternon

 

[leighton_87]

I'm sure your tigers will be a lot happier now - they are great fish when kept in good size groups and so much fun to watch. Keep an eye on your Angels find though - any sign of trouble and you'll have to lose either the Angels or the Tigers.

As for the sharks the questions you have to ask yourself is a) are you confident your shop will stick to this agreement in the future and b) would you buy a puppy and take it back when it becomes a dog and swap it for another puppy - IMHO as fish keepers we take on responsibility for these animals and should be willing to look after them in the right conditions for their full lives.

 

[greenmumma141]

No expert by any means but here's my thoughts.

You Angels might be small now but may eat your neons when fully grown - I've heard mixed reports on this but in reality anything that could fit in a fully grown Angels mouth will end up in there.

You tiger barbs will get too aggressive in a shoal of 4 - they should be in a group of at least 8-10 an even then I'm not sure how they will do with the long fins of an angel. They can be vey nippy fish.

Your tank is too small for silver sharks - they might be small now but they will grow to 30cms and need to be kept in shoals of at least 6 - you really need an 8 foot tank for silver sharks. The XL is just the size you buy them from the shop not the size they will eventually grow.

Also I've had no experience at all with aquatic frogs but heard they can easily get outcompeted for food so try and see if they are getting their fair share.

With regards to discuss I think they key issue is the very specific water requirements they have and or that reason there not easy to keep or to mix with most community fish.

I agree with all of this except for the part about the tigers. As this may be true in some situations, I have always kept tigers in small groups (3-7) and mine have never become aggressive. They have a squabble between themselves every now and then, but nothing violent or even close. And they certainly are never aggressive towards my other fish ( 1 angel, cories, plecos.. Ive even kept them with platies and guppies)

I would advize against the sharks as well. GL!!!!