Your Ideal Tropical Community Set Up

[Tabbiespice]

I would find it really interesting (and useful) if you all could describe the perfect community tropical set up.

What fish worked for you?
What fish to avoid in a community setting?

What would be an ideal set up?

I have a 36x12x12 and am desperate for ideas

I would like all areas of the tank utilised and for it to be a colourful display with maybe a couple specimen fish as a talking point. Dont want much do I? smile.gif

What about plants? Goodies? Baddies?
Other decor?

It will have a fluval filter and a fine gravel substrate. I have a little slate I could use but basically I am starting from scratch.

I know about cycling the tank first of course. I am prepared to wait for plants to establish and the water quality to be perfect before introducing fish.

I just need ideas....please


Thanks in anticipation

I also have a 18" tank..what could I do with that?

Jacqueline
xxxxxxx

 

[Weaver]

When I started my 3ft I put in a Bolivian ram and some peppered cory at the bottom,2 pearl gourami for the middle as the showfish and had a school of harlequin rasbora at the top and a half dozen zebra danio zipping about the very top
Avoid fish like tiger barbs which nip/chinese algae eaters who are usually aggressive and rosy barbs /buenos aries tetra/silver dollars which will eat your plants
RE plants.You can try java moss&java fern which are practically impossible to kill.These are usually tied to bogwood/rocks and after a few weeks they have become attached.Java moss growing on bogwood looks really great.Vallis,hornwort and crypts are really easy to grow too
Really there are so many choices of both fish and plants that its impossible to give more than a brief outline.Nothing beats a bit of research as its terrible to buy incompatible fish or plantswhich die within a week or two
Try looking at the members aquarium section and this may give you more ideas
Hope Ive been a little bit of help and good luck

 

[OMA]

Hi, I'm fairly new to fishkeeping myself and have a 3 foot tank. I can tell you my experience but others may tell you otherwise, prob be best to go with them. All i can say is don't buy any fish without researching or asking a fishshop guy who actually knows something (there are a lot that don't). And don't impulse buy it's an easy way to overstock and kill fish which just ain't nice.

when i started i got Guppies for the cycle (maybe shoulda fishless cycled but they're all fine, didn't lose one)
I then started to add fish and get babies from the guppies (they're like rabbits and will stock your tank fast)

Personally i like tetra as they are so calm and rummies in particular scholl well and move around plenty to provide a little movement in the tank to between 5 and 10 is recommended, no less or they get unhappy

you will then want to get some bigger fish i imagine so i would recommend dwarf gourami's but beware that they are easy to lose and preffer a mature tank and hiding places. I just lost one of mine and i fear for the other

An almost definate for any tank i feel is a red finned shark. They're great darting around being inquisitive about everything including other fish following and chasing them but never violently.

Angels are lovely but i recommend smaller ones as angels can be pretty terratorial when larger and can become agressive on occasion. My two do whenever new fish are introduced but a bit of time in an isolation tank sorts them out.

You may be tempted to get barbs as i was. but don't if you have any longfinned fish cos they nip and chase other fish (my brothers didn't when he got them but now that they're old he introduced an angel and they terrorised the little thing untill it got together with the other 2 larger angels). Also not good for breeders of other cos they eat all the babies like the angels will.

Probably the most expensive fish i have is my plec (Glitter Plec) at £25 but he's lovely and with serve to clean my tank. also a must have
I also have khullie loaches which are also really cool slithering around the tank. They also need hiding spots and can be less hardy then other fish due to the lack of scales (they will die in salt btw)

I always feel that a crustacean or a frog help to even out a tank.
My brother opted for a crab but as cool as he is (and he is really cool) he will try to eat everyfish you have unsuccessfully at current, as well as rip up your plants and try to escape. (he will also scare the hell out of you when he sheds his skin leaving a replica of himself making you think that he is dead when he's behind the rock sniggering away at you
I opted for a shrimp (attya gabbonese). 2 actually and they don't rip up the plant but they also don't like coming out, seeing them is a rarity if you provide hiding spots (don't give them a lack of spots just so you can see them, It's not fair play and it's not good for them. The ones i have are filter feeders sticking out sieves in the water and harvesting bits in the water. Not killing the kish.

Last but not least, my favourite(est) fishies and my newest are my 2 German Blue Rams
http/www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_Di...cfm?pCatId=1084
i love the colours, they love to chill with my guppies and are not badtempered at all so far, (apparently they can be when breeding). Only thing is, my angels took offense to their prescence at first but have warmed up to them now.
My shark also chases them purely because they start to run so he thinks they're scared and can chase them, if they stayed still he wouldn't care, oh well

PS: i find that site very handy as well as the graph that it has
http/www.liveaquaria.com/general/fwcompatibility_chart.cfm

Goodluck and keep us informed on how you do, i love hearing about other ppls tanks

 

[dwarfgourami]

O.M.A. you need to be a bit careful with the advice you dish out. You not appear to have noticed that this is a 22 gallon tank, which means that a lot of your suggestions would not work.

An almost definate for any tank i feel is a red finned shark. They're great darting around being inquisitive about everything including other fish following and chasing them but never violently.[quote

You do not mention that these can be both aggressive and territorial and will outgrow a 22 gallon tank.

[quote Angels are lovely but i recommend smaller ones as angels can be pretty terratorial when larger and can become agressive on occasion.[quote

But how does the poster prevent small angels from growing into large angels? Again, a 22 gallon will be too small.

[quote
Probably the most expensive fish i have is my plec (Glitter Plec) at £25 but he's lovely and with serve to clean my tank. also a must have[quote

Is this really suitable for the tank in question?

 

[smithy05]

hiya im a tetra fan meself my current tank is bout 2 1/2 - 3 ft by 1 1/2ft by bout 2ft high im upgrading at weekend though as i am very close if not just over full capacity, i currently have the following

3 black widow tetra (also called black skirts)
5 serpai tetra
3 glass cats,
2 Z danios & 2 leopard danios (1 the L danios is long finned)
and to finish off and eat some algae got a sucking loach.

my tanks fairly well planted at 1 end, a long cave with sandstone pillars n slate roof (catfish love it), and under the filter have smaller cave with slate lower down mayb couple inch above gravel, (enuff room for couple of the glass cats to rest in)

the danios give a bit of livliness to the tank i find and the glass cats are good talking point.

most of the ppl here can better advise than me but these are the fish i have at present. when they have gone into the new tank after its ready i wanna finish off with few khulis and some corys to keep bottom clean and mayb get another sucking loach so he has company.

 

[emma12321]

Hi,

In a tank that size i would have a group of corys for the bottom if you can find them get one of the dwarf varieties (habrosus, haststus or pygmeous) as this allows you to have twice as many. For algae eating 3 otocinclus then a group of either harlequin rasboras or tetras which grow 2 inches ( my favourites are cardinal tetras and rummy nose tetras) to swim in the middle of the tank. Then you could get some dwarf or honey gourami for the top (get a male and 2 females so they all get along).

Aim to stay within the general guideline of 1 inch of adult fish per gallon of water and research any fish you plan to buy to check they are compatible. If you get some ottos add them last as they like mature tanks which have been running 6 months or more. Let us know what you choose to buy.

Emma


Glass cats

I wouldn't add any more sucking loaches if i were you as they are territorial. They will grow 10 inches long and suck the slime off your other fish. Have a read in the fish profiles under chinese algae eater or use the search button the look through past posts for peoples oppinions of them.

 

[OMA]

see my info was wrong, i have these fish in such a tank with a plan to upgrade my tank that shall not falter.

My point was that when small they're nice.
correct me if i'm wrong but a lot of fish never reach full size (if the do it can take a long time) and have incredible adaptability to water availability if thats the right term.

Granted maybe not an idea to get these fish if you won't upgrade your tank, but i did state that i ain't the longest livin fish keeper out there. i respect this forum for it's knowledge and peoples advise, just thought i'd try to help myself to give back a little, my bad