fish selections.... 10 gal, going to 55 gal soon.

[public servant]

...the cichlids looks cool.

Keep in mind that you generally cannot mix the African with the South American.

 

[jkaetz]

a few questions I haven't seen answered:
Oscars are aggressive and will eat anything that will fit into their mouths. I had one that even tried to eat a 9" plecostomus. He got the pleco by the tail though so that didn't work. They will also grow to be 10 - 12" from nose to tail. Most recommend 100 - 200+ gallon tanks for multiple oscars.

African and South American cichlids are also agressive and will eat or chase anything else to death. We tried to start a tank of African cichlids but still ended up with only one in a 40 gallon tank. Still a fun fish to watch. Very active, fights with our cats when they walk past, rearranges all gravel in the tank, and will take food from you.

While you can only have one beta fish in a tank, they will get along with other docile fish. Guppies, platies, gouramis, barbs, and tetras will all coexist with betas.

 

[Caleb]

a few questions I haven't seen answered:
Oscars are aggressive and will eat anything that will fit into their mouths. I had one that even tried to eat a 9" plecostomus. He got the pleco by the tail though so that didn't work. They will also grow to be 10 - 12" from nose to tail. Most recommend 100 - 200+ gallon tanks for multiple oscars.

African and South American cichlids are also agressive and will eat or chase anything else to death. We tried to start a tank of African cichlids but still ended up with only one in a 40 gallon tank. Still a fun fish to watch. Very active, fights with our cats when they walk past, rearranges all gravel in the tank, and will take food from you.

While you can only have one beta fish in a tank, they will get along with other docile fish. Guppies, platies, gouramis, barbs, and tetras will all coexist with betas.

cichlids don't get another with other fish as well? How big do they get?

 

[88GT]

if you like alot of activity go with schools of small fish, like platys or barbs or something...platys are really easy to care for, and may end up breeding in the tank

Yep, the schooling fish are constantly "on" in our tank. We've had neon tetra, danios, tiger barbs, platys, mollies, guppies, gouramis. We also always have a red tailed shark and a pleco.

It helps to know your water chemistry too. Some fish are extremely sensitive to changes, or only thrive in narrow ranges of temp/pH/hardness, etc. Temp is fairly easy to regulate, but hardness can be a ***** to change and pH is resistant to change the higher the hardness is. Some of the other chemistry parameters are less affected, but still influenced by, the temp/pH/hardness.

 

[Caleb]

too many choices...hmm

 

[Brandon]

My dream tank would be my 90 gallon with just a couple of fish. A lion fish as the main fish with maybe a few clowns.

 

[7.62]

I personally love Tinfoil Barbs they are very active

 

[Caleb]

I come across another fish I find interesting....Red-tailed black shark.

semi-aggressive chaser but doesn't bite or attack...possible to add some fish that could be compatible?

 

[Brandon]

ghost knifes are pretty cool if you can keep them alive.
They also will eat out of your hand.

 

[CindyE]

ghost knifes are pretty cool if you can keep them alive.
They also will eat out of your hand.

We've had several types of knives. We had a black and a brown ghost knife, a clown knife, and I don't remember the other. Eels are also cool and you can get them to eat from your hand too, but you'd better have a really secure tank, I found one dried up on the floor one morning. Really, any of the bigger fish should also have a secure lid, we have had Oscars get out, too. We had to start keeping a rock on the hood of the tank. Arowana are cool, but they do get big. We also had a discus tank at one point, I really liked them, but they can be a little delicate and prefer a brackish water.

 

[Caleb]

I think I'm leaning towards the red tail black shark as noted above, I really think my daughter would love having a "shark" in the tank...now just need to find some decent tankmates...

 

[CindyE]

It's also important to find a good, reputable store to buy them from. They can help you select fish that will get along, and help prevent diseases that can wipe out your whole tank. It sucks to have a well-established tank, and bring in a new fish that has a parasite or disease, and lose most of the fish. Not to scare you, but it is something to consider. We lost most of our Discus tank that way.

 

[Caleb]

It's also important to find a good, reputable store to buy them from. They can help you select fish that will get along, and help prevent diseases that can wipe out your whole tank. It sucks to have a well-established tank, and bring in a new fish that has a parasite or disease, and lose most of the fish. Not to scare you, but it is something to consider. We lost most of our Discus tank that way.

Anybody know of any really good(non-petco and non-petsmart) fish stores in bloomington, greenwood, and maybe indy? I probably get the 55 gal tank cycled then start my purchase with a RTBS, then add other fish along the way.

 

[Oliver]

Any reason you would stay away from salt?

 

[Caleb]

Any reason you would stay away from salt?

Talking to me, or another member?

 

[public servant]

I think I'm leaning towards the red tail black shark as noted above, I really think my daughter would love having a "shark" in the tank...now just need to find some decent tankmates...

Those sharks are actually more like cat fish. They are bottom feeders. If you put them with cichlids give them plenty of places to escape from the more aggressive cichlids.

We always had a couple in our tanks. As long as they have places to hide, they should do fine. And by chance of they do get eaten, they are cheap enough to replace.

I always kept a couple of "convicts" in the cichlid tank. Pretty cool fish but they will rearrange everything in the tank including the gravel they will turn into a nest. And they are pretty aggressive. Any of the cichlids need to be roughly the same size when you introduce them together.

If you go with the "sharks" get them bigger than the cichlids you introduce.

Salt water tanks are really neat but take a lot of maintenance and should you screw up and kill the entire population it can get pricey. Although I'm sure salt water tanks are easier to maintain than they used to be.

 

[Caleb]

should I get the RTBS and the cichlids at the same time? or get RTBS first and let him grow before cichlids?

 

[88GT]

I come across another fish I find interesting....Red-tailed black shark.

semi-aggressive chaser but doesn't bite or attack...possible to add some fish that could be compatible?

We've had one of those with just about every species of community/schooling fish: tetras, danios, barbs, goldfish, mollies, platys, etc. Nary a problem. Right now ours likes to "exercise" with the tiger barbs. They are bottom feeders so they do a good job of cleaning up the crap left over from surface feeders. Easy to keep. Somewhat susceptible to tank chemistry issues, but not the most sensitive either.

 

[Caleb]

Would a RTBS, some tiger barbs, and some cichlids handle each other in a tank?

 

[88GT]

Anybody know of any really good(non-petco and non-petsmart) fish stores in bloomington, greenwood, and maybe indy? I probably get the 55 gal tank cycled then start my purchase with a RTBS, then add other fish along the way.

I've always purchased my fish from Petsmart or Petco. They have a 14-day guarantee on their fish. And if the fish live that long but die shortly after, chances are it's your tank set-up, not the fish. They will also do a water chem analysis for free. But I've found that it's worth the extra few dollars to have my own chem test capabilities. Just stay away from tanks that have floaters, sickly/lethargic fish, or ones with obvious physical ailments (dropsy, ich, etc). You can always quarantine new purchases in a hospital tank. But I've never bothered. I usually just acclimate temps and do a 50/50 mix of water before tossing the new purchase in. (One thing: do NOT dump the new fish in with the store aquarium water. When doing a water mix, pour your tank water into the bag. Then when transferring the fish, use a net.)

I've always been more knowledgeable than the staff too. They always treat me like this is my first time keeping fish. I just smile and nod and politely tell them I've been keeping fish for 15 years and this isn't my first rodeo.