Need stocking advice for a 3 feet planted tank

[hebi]

hi guys,

as stated in the topic, which is better and more suited for a 3ft? currently i have 10 white cloud mountain minnow and thinking of adding corydoras but im afraid they will mess up the sand since they are bottom feeder right?.

im also thinking of boraras brigittae but are they fine with white cloud mountain minnow? assuming i only keep 10 white cloud mountain minnow, how many b.brigittae can i keep in my 3ft tank? its pretty densely planted.

(Edit: Your sighting request has been moved here, http://www.aquaticquotient.com/forum...ad.php?t=39199)

[illumnae]

my personal opinion is that boraras brigittae will tend to disappear in a 3ft tank as they're so small. corydoras will be fine in a sand base. the only concern is that they may uproot your plants, so only introduce them after your plants have rooted firmly.

it seems that you would like schoolers in your tank...consider perhaps tetras such as cardinal or rummy nose tetras? or my personal favourite is a school of Trig, espei. the deep copper colouration with the black "triangle" provides a very good contrast to the lush green foilage in your densely planted tank imo. they're also not shy fish, so you'll see them out more often than hiding in the plant mass.

if you want feature fish, consider a pair of Apistos or Rams to be the "royalty" of your tank...king and queen, with the schoolers as their "subjects"

[hebi]

hmm which corydoras is the best in terms of schooling? haha i just love to see fishes that schools. but will they disturb the moss i tied to rocks cause the moss are abit loose.

just now i went to polyart and hand itchy when i saw white cloud mountain minnow for sale at a very cheap price compared to cardinal. 1 cardinal=6 white cloud mountain minnow, so i bought 18. so now my tank has 28 white cloud mountain minnow, 5 guppies from previous setup.

you are right illumnae, maybe what i need now is a feature fish haha. maybe when that will make the white cloud school more tightly. are rams or apistos hard to keep or aggressive?

edit: i doubt i can keep apisto. my tank's ph with co2 on is 7.2 and they need low ph. dont wish to use ketapang leaves too as i prefer clear water.

[illumnae]

the hardier apisto species such as cacatuoides, agassizii and trifasciata don't absolutely require acidic ph, especially the farm bred ones which are likely to have been raised in tap water. you could consider those. these apistos and rams are not hard to keep.

alternatively, consider a small group of 5 angelfish? the Pterophyllum scalare bred variants don't grow that large (as opposed to the altums or wild scalares) and would be good for a 3ft i think

[hebi]

i have thought about getting angelfish before, but previous bad experience made me think twice. last time when i kept them, i always found a few without their eyes.

which is more interesting to observe? the idea of getting a male and female apisto and seeing them breed and protect territory seems great to me(btw why do people always choose to get a pair?)

if i were to get a pair, is it a must to get a cave for them?

how do i differentiate the different species lol. they all seems the same to me.


lastly, mind telling me the price range?

[illumnae]

a cave is not a must, i have a wild pair raising fry in my tank with no caves now. as for species, you can read up in our cichlids subforum - majority of the posts there are about apistos. you can also pick up some tips on keeping them from that subforum.

pricewise, what i'll say is you pay for what you get. you can get a pair at a low cost, but invariably they will not be of a good standard.

[hebi]

thanks bro, think i will consider for awhile before getting one. but what is the cheapest price i can get for a pair? maybe just to try out before investing in those of better standard.

also, i read some posts,including yours haha and notice apisto usually jump out of water. is it due to the quality of the water or natural behaviour?

edit: one more thing, i read that apisto prefer low current, but the water at the bottom level have pretty strong current as i use a rainbar to blow CO2 bubbles across the tank from right to left side. will these affect the apisto?

[illumnae]

my personal advice is that "getting a cheap pair to try out before investing" will end up with you spending more money in the long run. the better quality (more expensive) ones probably have a stronger constitution, and of course they are more beautiful. and trust me, once you are into the hobby, you *will* get more notice alot of "complaints" by apisto hobbyists are: not enough tanks! so may as well save your time/money/space and just zoom straight in on a good pair right from the start. you will end up at this stage anyway, might as well skip the "try out" part and have the headache of how to get rid of the lower quality fish.

as for jumping. i've had 1 apisto that jumped...and of course that's 1 too many! but generally speaking, apistos are bottom dwellers, and i still think it was a freak accident that mine jumped. he was probably chased to the top by the female who was guarding eggs then jumped as he was unfamiliar with the surroundings or "overshot" the water surface when he was dashing away from her. i don't feel apistos are jumpers like bettas. rather, the chance of them jumping is the same as your tetras or minnows jumping.

current wise, i have no experience with apistos in a super strong flow, so i can't comment. the closest experience i have is that my eden 501 is slightly too strong for my 1ft cube and so i face it towards the tank wall. the apisto just stays away from the outlet

[doppelbanddwarf]

You can probably buy a more expensive pair AND choose a hardier species from that price range. For example, you could get a good pair of A. cacatuoides "triple red" which has beautiful colours and striking finnage, as well as being one of the so called beginner Apisto species. Of course that is just an example and there are lots of species to choose from.

[hebi]

i see. i always thought nicer looking= nicer price tag didnt know it also means stronger constitution.

regarding the strong current, i think i can remove the rainbar. anyone else have any experience with keeping apisto in strong current?

most likely i will pick A.cacatuoides for a start. how expensive can a 'good and quality' pair get? in one of the old threads, i saw a bro mention $89 for a pair!!

[illumnae]

why don't you PM biotopeshop and ask them what they recommend to you?

[hebi]

haha i pm-ed them already. maybe going down to get a pair of A.cacatuiodes sometime this week.

but before that, maybe sort out something first.
do they prefer live or dried food? dried as in those kind of pellets. live im refering to bloodworms and etc. cause im enlisting next thurs so if live food is prefered, i may have to delay buying them in case nobody feeds them.

and also if i wish to achieve the optimum ph of around 6 using sera peat, will the sera peat colour the water? if so using purigen should clear it up right?

[illumnae]

biotope takes tender loving care of their fish and the fish are acclimitized to both dry and live feeds. i believe they specifically use tetra pro colour as their dry feed, but my fish from there immediately adapt and eat my NLS and decap bs eggs with no fuss.

as for peat, i'm not 100% sure as i only use very small amounts of peat in my water to release some tannins and make the fish more comfortable. 1/4 my eden 501 worth of peat doesn't stain the water noticeably

[hebi]

i just got myself a pair of A.cacatuoides yesterday at biotope. lol dont know if im lucky or what cause when i went there, only left a female and 3 males.

i acclimatize them using drip method for 2 hours and in the tank, the black lines of the female suddenly became very obvious.

i want to ask, is it normal for them to move around the tank initially, as in exploring? they dont seem to be hiding much or have a territory.

during feeding, i also notice they didnt eat, but rather they move around the bottom and pick the sand and expel them through their gills. im feeding them the food biotope feed them by the way. somehow i feel they will prefer 'real' food more

will post a pic of them soon

[stormhawk]

Yes it is normal for the pair to "patrol" the whole tank and explore their new surroundings. Give them some time and they will start forming a territory.

On the feeding bit, sometimes they will pick through fine sand for bits of food, and expel the sand through the gills. I've seen this before, not only with cichlids, but with corydoras as well. It is a sight to see.