Stocking suggestions

Hi all,

I'm a newbie with only my second ever aquarium. I am currently 8 weeks into the cycle and have had a bacterial bloom for the past 2 weeks. Once things settle down I shall start to (slowly) complete my stocking levels.

So what I have is an Aquience 1200 bow-front running the Aquis advance canister 1250 that came with. Approximately 250L and around 4 ft long. Low-tech (i.e. no CO2 thats just crazy talk for a newbie!), planted.

Current fish stock are, 2 teeny tiny peppermints, 5 khulis, 2 Oto's, 8 cardinals and 1 dwarf gourami. I have recently come across Endlers but there is much argument about purity and I am wary of paying too much for a guppy being passed off as one I am interested if anyone has any stocking suggestions for this community tank?

Other water parameters are - Adelaide water is pretty hard so trying to shift pH chemically is difficult. Obviously I have driftwood in place but pH is generally around 7. temp is currently 24C.

The best stocking calculator is www.aqadvisor.com

You can put in all the details of the tank (size, filtration and fish) and it will print out all of the vital details including stocking levels and reccommended water changes.

Yeah I've been using that calculator to determine what room I have left once everyone grows :o

So accordingly, I'm 60% stocked. Heaps of room :bounce:

Theres plenty of endlers around if you know who to ask. If your looking for some pure endlers then youll be paying big bucks (if you can find them) otherwise there are a few adelaide members here who have some and will probably sell a few. I have a few but they arent ready for selling :| The only LFS i know with decent endlers is Aggies and altho they are pricey @ $12 a pair id have to admit iv purchased a couple pairs from them, they are stunning specimens 'Little Red' an endler pictured in my 3ft shrimp tank thread came from Aggies

Hiya,

Yeah I've read various and quite heated arguments about whether or not pure Endlers exist in Oz. Personally, I just like to pay for what I'm getting, if it's a guppy I'll pay for a guppy I've nothing against them . As is, I've found a local source for them.

Any other suggestions for this rather large (well to me it is), deep, community tank? The only issue I have is there are a couple of Clown Loaches currently in there although the plan is to move them on, so no shrimp for me yet!

At least not until I can talk the husband into a second tank

don't know if you get them over in OZ but Apistogrammers, theres loads of different forms of them over hear and there great fish...although proberbly would only have 1 m and 1 fm,

Has anyone had any success breeding brislenose and keeping other types of fish in the same tank?

Hi Kdawg,

In my previous community tank my bristlenose bred prolifically, despite the presence of a black ghost knife fish!
So the answer is yes, although you will loose some fry to larger fish.

Anyone else want to comment?

Finally my tank has cleared after the addition on a new Eheim filter, currently running conjointly with the AquaOne so I will be stocking soon. Although the Endler's I got from Doug have increased from 5 to 15 (that I can find, sneaky little fish) I still have room. In keeping with the smaller fish I was considering perhaps some Congo Tetras.

Davew we do get Apistogrammers here and they are something I would consider, although from what I've read they can be a bit aggressive?

Currently my peppermints look like a male and female, although they are still too tiny to be sure. It also looks like I may be gifted a 4ft aquarium, not quite what I'd had in mind for a second breeding tank but I'm sure I'll cope!

Cheers Fish Egg,

What type of fish did you have in there arpart from the ghostknife?

I had a few clowns in my tank they are about 100 fry in acouple days so there out.

I keep mine in the misses community tank, with clown loach, rummy tetra, neon tetra, gorami's, danio's, cory juli, pleco, lamp eye, and i'm sure i've forgot something but they all get along fine, no real aggression from him, well only a little towards his other half but i bought them in a pair

other fish to keep with plec's, just about anything as above, i usally keep some grow out fry with mine in most of the tanks or my SR tank and a breeding group of sterbai in it.....

SR's get an expensive lunch if i'm not fast enough when they spawn, lol

for every book there is telling you what you cannot keep there's probably 100's of people doing the opposite, as long as theres room then i would try what ever fish fit the bracket.....

I leave my fry in the tank so theres a high chance they will get lunched, I wish I wish I could hvae loaches but I have tried a few times and never any luck, they either go in the pipe eat eggs or eat fry, so anoying!
I have 6.5 Foot tank by 2 foot so heaps of room but yer I guess I will just have to try a few things, should probley reduce the amount of bristle nose in there, I have about 50 adults lol