Are these fishes compatible?

[yhbae]

Finally, my 25g got fully cycled: (took 28 days)

- Ammonia = 0
- Nitrite = 0
- Nitrate = between 5 and 10.

I currently have 3 platies, which all appears to be healthy. (The two females look pregnant - very fat!)

Here's my plan:

- 3 X Platies (which I have already)
- 3 X Blue Rams (they seem rather small, at less than 1 inch each)
- 4 X Panda Cories
- 2 X Ottos
- 6 X Harlequin Rasboras

Are these fishes compatible? (Not quite sure about the rams)

So in what order should I be adding them to the tank? From what I have read, rams are picky with water condition, so are cories, and ottos... :rolleyes: That leaves rasboras which are perceived to be pretty hardy. How about 3 rasboras this week, and wait for a week and monitor the water chemistry?

[Andy16]

The blue rams will get 3 inches long. Not big but a lot bigger then they are now, just warning you. They are peaceful and shy. The need warmer water though. Like 78-82 would be the best bet. All of the fish should be fine, and compatible. The order i would do would be the ottos, cories, rasoboras, and blue rams. I would put the blue rams last just because i have kept "peaceful" cichlids that havent turned out very peaceful. Also the water shoud be acidic, like a pH lever of around 6.3- 7.0.


HTH

[yhbae]

I will try to stay around pH of 7.0, or tad below that... Hopefully it will be good for all of them. I hear platies don't enjoy acidic water...

Do yo think I will be overstocked when they become mature? I do have other tanks that will be setup soon, so theoretically, I can remove any of them if necessary or they get mature.

Do I have a room in this tank to replace say, ottos with a pair of bristlenose pleco? I hear they are real messy for their size... I have yet to see SAE in any of the LFSes...

[ChilDawg]

I wouldn't put a pair of BNs in a 20 gallon...sticking with the Ottos is your best bet unless some SAEs come along...

[demon_surfer]

sounds like a nice looking tank!

give us pics
give us pics
give us pics!


or ill sic the chilDawg on you Rawr!:D

[ChilDawg]

Sic? No, but my nose is a little dry.

[demon_surfer]

bah your joke wasnt as funny as mine =P

[ChilDawg]

Yeah, yours wasn't stolen from Dilbert either. shut up. :)

[demon_surfer]

lol


go dilbert omg! wish my supervisor was as intelligent as dilberts boss :D

[yhbae]

Lets get serious people... :D

So by the time I'm done stocking all of the above, and if I loose even one fish, I'll blame on both of you, ChilDawg and demon_surfer... :D

Kidding of course... I've been following the surface rule, and I assumed platies and rams have higher bioload relative to their size. Still looks ok even when they eventually become mature...

Agree or disagree? :confused:

[ChilDawg]

I agree.

[demon_surfer]

i say blame it entirely on me if it goes perfect and entirely in chilli if it goes bad!!


oh and post us some pics :D

[yhbae]

demon_surfer, I guess you may have seen my other thread I started - I am trying to learn how to take good pictures... I produce so many blurry ones even though the camera is ok...

I'm working on posting my first picture soon...

In any case, you don't want to see a picture of a tank with only platies and ottos and a ball of java moss... :D (I just added a pair of otto today, they seem to be behaving ok so far...). May be in a month, it might look alot better...

[ChilDawg]

Don't let him take too much credit if it works...

[demon_surfer]

lol

[mt_marcy]

for a 25 gallon, a few rasboras, ottos, and panda corries seem good to me. have fun and good luck,
mt_marcy!

[sparky]

I have a 38 g tank with similar occupants (cories, rasboras, otos and rams; no tetras) and can confirm that rams aren't always peaceful. My male ram is quite aggressive--tore the female's tailfin and even butts the cories (which tend to ignore him).

[rich]

how bout this line up for a 29 gal?

5 lemon tetra
5 black neon tetra
5 albino or panda cories
1 banjo cat
1 kuhli loach
1 rainbow shark (i know this guy can get a bit aggresive but i thought hed be agood center piece. if anyone knows of another flashy solo type fish that would work well with the others please give me an option!)
i was thinkin 5 barbs instead of one of the little schools of tetra but i read that the tigers i was lookin at were little bullies so i dont think ill get those. mabye theres another nicely vibrant peacefull barb i could use in place of some of the tetra.

also will 2 differant types of tetra school together?

[ChilDawg]

Rich, would you please just start a new thread rather than hijack yhbae's?

[yhbae]

Originally posted by sparky
I have a 38 g tank with similar occupants (cories, rasboras, otos and rams; no tetras) and can confirm that rams aren't always peaceful. My male ram is quite aggressive--tore the female's tailfin and even butts the cories (which tend to ignore him).

Well, I can always chicken out at the last moment and get a pair of Pearl Gouramies... :D

Does it help if I get small ones, and add it last to the tank? (Rams that is...)

[rich]

oh, sorry... wasnt attempting to hijak the thread, just thought yhbae was getting answers and my questions fit well under the thread "are these fish compatible." ill just start a new one next time. sorry yhbae if i was steppin on your topic toes

[ChilDawg]

That's all right, we'd just been discussing the idea of hijacking a little bit ago and I was paranoid...

[sparky]

Well, my rams were added last, and they started out fairly small, but the male still became a bully pretty fast!

[yhbae]

Originally posted by rich
oh, sorry... wasnt attempting to hijak the thread, just thought yhbae was getting answers and my questions fit well under the thread "are these fish compatible." ill just start a new one next time. sorry yhbae if i was steppin on your topic toes

Don't worry about it - I didn't take any offense over it anyways... :D

[yhbae]

Originally posted by sparky
Well, my rams were added last, and they started out fairly small, but the male still became a bully pretty fast!

Arrgg.....

In the worst case, I can separeate the male to another tank if necessary... I do have that used 33g tank I purchased recently that has been sitting full of water... (I wanted to use it to breed & grow some species. Its sponge media is floating around in the cycled tank, hoping to pick up some bacteria.). Come to think of it, it did come with 120w of light equipment as well (good for a nice plated tank?) - may be I should turn this into a second community tank and buy another tank without lights for this purpose? (hehe that means I will end up with 4 tanks! :D )

[yhbae]

Alright! - I added 2 otos (only 1 inch each) 3 days ago, and noticed this morning that ammonia and nitrite are still at dead zero. Nitrate also seems to have settled at around 5ppm. So this afternoon, I added 3 panda cories (each only at 3/4 inch, probably will end up with 4 at the end). They seem to be doing very well so far, started searching for food at the bottom all over the tank... I spent 20 mins floating the bag, adding little water every few minutes. Looks like it worked ok... They have very interesting behaviours - they ocasionally shoot real fast towards the surface of the water, then comes down just as fast... Then in few seconds, I see two little bubbles that comes out of their mouth and floats up... It was funny when I saw it the first time... (Is there any practical purpose of doing this?)

Platies seem healthy (real pig during feeding time), Otos seem healthy (eating all the time), and cories seem to be ok too so far... Happy... :D

I have one question though - I took the sponge filter media out of my other tank that hasn't been cycled yet (it has Aqua Clear 300). I left it floating in the cycled tank for over a week now. It seems to stay submerged about 3/4 of it's volume. The question is, since bacteria is obviously growing here, will removing it back to the new tank cause problem in the cycled one? I am breaking the equilibrium in the short term by moving significant amount of bacteria.... No?

[ChilDawg]

I think that you would possibly be running into that equilibrium break. If you can get another sponge ready for the other tank, that might be your best bet...

[yhbae]

So if that is the case, when can I remove it? :D

Just to be clear, I do have 1 inch of gravel in the tank along with Aqua Clear 200's sponge media in the filter already and some live and plastic plants... What I cannot figure out is what propotion of the total bacteria lives in the Aqua Clear 300's sponge. If this is small, then I guess I can take it out and start the cycling process on the other tank with minimal risk. Otherwise.. Hmm...

[ChilDawg]

Oh, with all that other media in the tank then, the sponge holds but a small proportion. You should be okay.