ok we scored another 55 gallon tank this weekend, it came with everything for only 50 bucks. Cool stuff!

Anyway, we really dont know what to do with this tank. We have our 10 gallon tank for our one betta and a 55 gallon tank for our tropical community... now what? Just one requirement, we want to stay freshwater.

Take the cichlid dip :D

i dont know if we are ready to up our level to "intermediate". :laugh:

:laugh:

ahh, come on.... sure you are!

that would make a nice home for a jack dempsey(very hardy and handsome) and some dither fish. or you could throw a few bolivian rams in there with some community fish, and plant it. :drunk:

Yeah definitely cichlids you could make a real cool rift lake take. Aqua scape with some rocks on one side to make a bunch of little nooks and caves and a sandy bottom on the other side. That's the next tank i think i am gonna set up once i get some more $

tbh, the best method is to look in books, net etc and find a fish you REALLY like, read up on it, and plan a tank around it!

if not go oddballs XD

great advice Oddy.:tup:

research is a key component to a successful tank.:)

Tell you what, post some fish you like and perhaps we can help you sort out a tank around them, maybe give some suggestions, not all "intermidate" and "advanced" fish are as hard as you think!

we were scoping out fish the other night. here is what we like:

Jack demsey cichlid
Red finned tin foil barb
bala shark
four line catfish

those are four fish that kinda stuck out to us. Right now our new tank is just about ready for fish. We have a few danios breaking in the tank, we will be taking them out before the new fish go in.

just a note on the dempsey, they tend to get shy as they age. if you have dither fish like the danio's it may not be as bad. JD's are beautiful fish and well worth keeping in my opinion. i would stay away from the bala sharks they get large are skittish and need to be kept in groups. same goes for the tin foils. is the four line a "Four-lined Pimodella". planet catfish says these guys get to around 10" and are peaceful just provide hides on either end of the tank for when they get spooked.

yes thats the cat fish we were looking at. What would be some good fish to keep with the JD? Should we keep more than one JD? What are dither fish?


so for the new tank we are looking at a four lined catfish and a JD.

dither fish are fish kept in a tank to ease or coax a shy fish out of hiding. alot of fish take their cues from their surroundings. so for example if you kept the danios in there the Dempsey would see them swimming about and figure hey it's safe i can come out now. i have used giant danios in the past with some success. you could try adding a firemouth or a single convict to the mix as well. also i would like to add that i have no experience with the catfish you inquired about other than what i have read. the JD may or may not harass it. you may want to wait for oddball or another catfish fanatic to chime in on that one. a single jack is what i would recommend, if you went with a pair i would suggest a 75 gallon tank.

this is a firemouth?


and this is a convict?


this is pretty cool, ive never seen these fish before, you think they will do well with the jack?

yep that is a firemouth and the other is a convict.:)

i think you could probably get away with one of each with a jack in a 55. i would use target fish though such as tiger barbs.

hey on a side note do you have permission to use those photos? if not i would like to suggest you just provide a link to the site they are posted on. or ask permission from the owner to use them.

Dunno found them on google.

okay i apparently misinformed you. when you post a direct link to the pic this is called hotlinking i believe and it uses the hosting sites bandwidth. so to ease my mind about the whole deal i edited you post to include some pics of mine. sorry for being such a worry wart but hey i don't want any hard feelings from another site or photographer.

oh. Didn't mean to step on any ones toes, just trying to find some fish.

BTW. :kewl:

no, i know you weren't being malicious about it. you were just trying to find info on some fish you found and that's cool. some people get upset if their pics are used without their consent so i wanted to protect you and the forum from any sort of repurcussions. once again i may be acting a little prematurely here but it covers all of us. no worries okay.:)

thanks i no longer have that convict but he was one of the nicer looking ones i've kept.

so how's the tank doing? has it completed it's cycle yet?

its getting there, should be another week or two.

btw what kind of decor do the cichlids like? I noticed something a little different in your second picture.

Cichlids will deal with anything you provide them. If you are aiming for natural then let us know which fish you are intending.

Otherwise I would supply a lot of cover for Africans or larger pathways for Americans.

were probably going to go with the fish cich1 recommended. We checked them out at the LPS today and they are very nice looking fish.

Jack demsey
Firemouth
Convict
and tara wanted a catfish.


Maybe a few "dither" fish. (now that i know what that means. lol)

the combo you are going for is one that has worked well for me. still they are cichlids and you may notice some bickering at times. the use of target fish will greatly reduce this in my opinion and the targets will double as dithers for your JD. how many and what species of danio do you have? i have a load of guppies in with my current set up and they are all doing well together. i also have some scissor tail rasboras that have been in that tank in the past.

here's a pic of how my 75 is set up.

Just two zebra danios.

im guessing target fish are something that the cichlids can focus there attention on instead of one another?

yep you got it.

you could pick up some giant danios, 6 or 8 i think would make a good schoal. make sure you have a tight fitting lid.

HEHE! ive been on holiday! Hurray!

Anyway four line catfish, i cant say for sure but i think its one of two species of fish

the first is Pimoledela pictus



and the second Pimoledela ornatus



Either case these catfish are best kept in a group and are diurnal, meaning more active in the twilight periods of the day. They are predators and will readilly seek out smaller fish to gulp up when they sleep!

This also means that feeding them ona meaty diet such as earthworms and bloodworm would be advisable.

These catfish must have a hiding place over night, and both species can in the right conditions reach 8-10inches in length dependant on their gender!

These catfish dont appreciate aggression from other fish and can easilly become stressed out from unwanted attnetion and stop feeding.

I have never had much look with P.pictus but i am happilly keeping a pair of ornatus in a 170 litre tank with some geophagus brasiliensis, two large polypterus (weeksii and an ornatapinis) two dischotodius sexfasciatus (silver flagtailed prochilodus) 1 synodontus eupterus and 1 Datnoids microlepsis!

This proves that they can be kept with larger and somewhat more aggresive fish if you can get the balance and territory right.

Id suggest abotu 50% of the tank to be heavilly vegetated so they can hide and forage and then when the light fails they can cruise around doing their nightly raids. As for substrate they do appreciate a soft sandy floor, but gravel with no sharp edges will suffice as it damages their barbels otherwise, sorry for the untimely reply, yours as ever.

Oddy :crazy:

EEEK! we bought the first one P. Pictus. I guess we will have to see how it goes.

We have 5 tiger barbs for target fish and we are still trying to get the danios out of the tank and back into the community tank.

we just added a convict and a jack dempsey today, they are just little ones right now, maybe an inch, the tiger barbs a little bigger than they are. Still looking for a firemouth.

I hope that catfish will be ok with these guys. We have noticed that he hides in one of the many hiding spots during the day and likes to swim around at night.