What should we add - top-dwellers, or something colorful?

[namukoby]

We have a 120 g tank with the following residents:
13 pristella tetras
6 black skirt tetra
5 otos
4 panda cories
1 pleco (now 1.5")

3 3" angel fish (1 german blue blusher, 1 marble, and 1 black)
1 upside down catfish
2 cardinal tetras

The last 6 fish are long term (probably permanent) visiters from my sister-in-law who is renovating her house. All of the first set are still jeuveniles. By my calculations, giving the angelfish and the pleco 10 g each, we still have room for about 20" of fish.

Maybe something very colorful, since the tank is almost completely silver and black - like red iranian rainbows. Rainbows are mid-levelfish, as are most of our fish, so maybe it would be better to get something for the top. My LFS is supposed to be getting marble hatchetfish on Monday - which would be kind of fun - but they are also silver and black.

Any suggestions? What do you think of an all silver/black tank? Are there any other colorful top-dwellers that would get along with what we've got? Is the mid-level too full?

 

[Lotus]

I'm not much of a fan of the whole top/middle/bottom plans. I find most fish swim in a lot of other areas in the tank. I wouldn't really advise a black and silver theme. It sounds nice in theory, but generally doesn't give the most interesting looking tank. For a good display, you definitely need some colors in there.

I would probably add more cardinals, as they need to be in a larger school to feel comfortable. I'd personally add more panda cories, as the larger the shoal, the more fun they are. A group of 6 or 8 will make much more of an impact and be more amusing to watch. Hatchets would be a good addition, but a group of 6 or more is recommended. Rainbows would probably be a good addition, too.

Whatever you choose to add, I would advise a quarantine tank for a few weeks first. Cardinals and hatchets are both disease prone when new (but usually fine when they're settled in), and any fish can bring disease to the tank. I'm sure you don't want to put the whole community at risk, or spend a ton of cash on treating 120g of water.

You may eventually have problems with 3 angels if two of them pair off. The pair will harass the "third wheel" possibly to the point of killing it. Keep an eye out, it's always possible you have 3 of the same sex.

 

[FroggyFox]

I wish I could have found some marbled hatchetfish for my tank, they are very cool little fish...but my silver (normal) hatchets are a lot of fun. They really do stay within a few inches of the top all the time and usually only eat flakes or food floating on the top. They dont get very big...so I think a school of 6-8 would go well in your tank. Although, like Lotus said if you're going for color...making that school of cardinals larger might be the way you want to go. They are very pretty when you get a nice big school of them together...and because they stay so small you could probably add 10-15 more with not much trouble. Actually....With a tank that large and mostly fish that stay small...I think you could probably fit more than 20 inches in there. Maybe pick one to add and then wait a few months and see if you want to get something else. Oh...and might I suggest an apple snail JUST ONE...they're a fun add to a tank...I love mine and I never thought I'd say something favorable about a snail haha

 

[namukoby]

I would probably add more cardinals, as they need to be in a larger school to feel comfortable. I'd personally add more panda cories, as the larger the shoal, the more fun they are. A group of 6 or 8 will make much more of an impact and be more amusing to watch. Hatchets would be a good addition, but a group of 6 or more is recommended. Rainbows would probably be a good addition, too.

It is good to hear that the levels thing isn't that important. One girl at the lfs really seemed to stress that it was. Maybe top-dwellers are more expensive! You are right that an all silver/black tank is a bit dull. It was not intentional - our kids each got to choose 1 type of fish, and one child insisted on getting the pandas, and another insisted on the black skirts. We cycled the tank with the pristellas, so we already had them, and the angels were given to us. We do have interesting shapes, though, and the kids love to find differences in the way the differen species behave, and school.

I like the idea of having more cardinals. The 2 we have are the remnants of a school of 12 that my sister in law had, and are apparently quite old, so we thought maybe we'd just let them be, and get something a bit showier, but a big school could also be impressive. . . . As for the pandas, I do want to get a larger school - we just lost 2, so we'll at least replace them - but the lfs doesn't get them often.

Whatever you choose to add, I would advise a quarantine tank for a few weeks first. Cardinals and hatchets are both disease prone when new (but usually fine when they're settled in), and any fish can bring disease to the tank. I'm sure you don't want to put the whole community at risk, or spend a ton of cash on treating 120g of water.

You may eventually have problems with 3 angels if two of them pair off. The pair will harass the "third wheel" possibly to the point of killing it. Keep an eye out, it's always possible you have 3 of the same sex.

Maybe we should hold off on stocking up the tank for a while. I've been looking for a used tank for quarantine (and then to house the subdominant angel), but since we are in a fairly remote, rural area, they aren't easy to find. As for the angels, we have already had problems. THe odd man out was often forced to hide in the corners under the plants, and his fins were quite tattered. The aggression has calmed down somewhat since we moved them here - the weaker ones' fins are starting to grow back, and unless the other 2 are spawning, he is out of his corners often.

I wish I could have found some marbled hatchetfish for my tank, they are very cool little fish...but my silver (normal) hatchets are a lot of fun. They really do stay within a few inches of the top all the time and usually only eat flakes or food floating on the top. They dont get very big...so I think a school of 6-8 would go well in your tank. Although, like Lotus said if you're going for color...making that school of cardinals larger might be the way you want to go. They are very pretty when you get a nice big school of them together...and because they stay so small you could probably add 10-15 more with not much trouble. Actually....With a tank that large and mostly fish that stay small...I think you could probably fit more than 20 inches in there. Maybe pick one to add and then wait a few months and see if you want to get something else. Oh...and might I suggest an apple snail JUST ONE...they're a fun add to a tank...I love mine and I never thought I'd say something favorable about a snail haha

So hatchetfish do eat flakes - they said at the lfs that they eat live crickets, or mosquitos. That concerned me a bit - as does the jumping. The kids don't put the cover back in place after feeding, so the cat might get a few unexpected treats. *twirlysmi I think hatchetfish are incredibly unique and fun looking fish. I like the idea of a snail, too. How much do snails add to a bio-load?

 

[FroggyFox]

Oh yeah...my hatchets gobble them up. I feed tetramin tropical crisps...so they may not take some ordinary flake foods? They definitely like the frozen bloodworms and krill that the rest of the tank do, but they prefer things that float on the top (as a bug would in real life after drowning or whatever) I haven't had any jump, but have heard that they're notorious jumpers, so if you don't have the top on I might be afraid of that. Not so afraid of the cat getting into the tank...more of just the fish jumping out.

Snails...not a tremendous amount of bioload. There's not really a 'calculation' for it. The reason I said ONE is because apple snails need a male and a female to reproduce and if they lay eggs and you let them hatch in your tank you'll have a mess. Most of them lay their eggs above the waterline so you'd definitely notice it and could avoid it...but I figure better safe than sorry after curiosity got the better of me when I found a big batch of snail eggs and let them hatch...what a mess. I finally got rid of all of them, giving some to every person I know with a tank, some to my parents who have ponds...and I'm down to one for each of mine and my roommate's tanks out of like 200. Apple snails are cool...they get so big...I have two now that are larger than golf balls! and I think they're a ton of fun to watch. Usually in the stores you'll see the yellow kind or the black kind (gold or black mystery snails = apple snails) and if you want more info try here www.applesnail.net they have all the info you could ever need

 

[lurkerj]

Snails are great to add to a fish tank. Tho you said you have plants, you will have to worry about the ones you get. My recomendation "Apple Snails" P. Bridgesii, they won't eat the plants, come in many great colors, they actually can move faster than one would think, easy to control the population and have neat little faces. But you also have ottos and corries so there may be a bit of competition for food there. Also they are easy targets, if you miss a feeding one or two may go m.i.a. One site I do have to recomend is www.applesnail.net you can see all the different types. If you do decide to add them, look around on www.aquabid.com and sometimes on www.ebay.com and you can get them pretty cheap. As for bio-load, that I dont know if they create much of one they are doing the house keeping.

hope that helps.

 

[revfred]

Yes, additional Cardinals would be very effective. Quarantining them and the hatchets is is a must, I've found. Cardinals will live long too once they settle in and get nice and fat which really accentuates their colors. If the kids don't keep the cover closed ... the Hatchets are going to be a problem. They are jumpers and a nice big tank like that gives them plenty of "runway" to take off. If you do get them, as mentioned, dry food will work fine ... unless you can get the kids to catch mosquitoes.

 

[namukoby]

I'm starting to like the idea of adding more cardinals - but I still think hatchetfish are cool. I think I've figured out a way to get nice sized schools of both.

Since quarantining both hatchets and cardinals is so important, I'll hold off on adding to the tank until I can find a 20g quarantine tank. I'll just get a snail for now. Once we've quarantined and added these fish to the big tank, I'll move the breeding pair of angels into their own tank, and see if they can figure out how to raise their own fry. That will give us 20 more inches of fish in the 120 - enough for a second school. Ten more cardinals and maybe 8-10 hatchetfish would be about 30", and we'll still be at a decent stocking level. How does this plan sound?

 

[revfred]

Sounds like a good plan IMO. If you are going to use the quarantine tank eventually for the angels for a time ... make sure that you get a 20G regular which is higher than a 20g long.