Best Colorful & Peaceful choices for new 65g?

saganco

saganco

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Oct 29, 2006
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saganco
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Join Date: Nov 2006
Posts: 53

Default Best peaceful and colorful small choices
I am setting up a new 65g and want some very colorful breeding stock (something that is perhaps easy to sell or trade) - peaceful (no eating, wounding, or killing), and up to 4" or thereabouts (5 is acceptable, 3 is as small as I am willing to go). What do you guys recommend for a good combination of fish for this tank (36x18 footprint with 24 high), a fluval 405 canister, ph is 7.8, some plants in pots should help me keep the levels good like my 55g livebearer tank where all numbers are zeros all the time. My KH is 5 and GH is 9. Our well water doesn't have any chlorine in it, but we need to find out if they add chloramines to it. I read online: "Chloramines are produced by the addition of ammonia to water containing free chlorine at a pH of 7.0 or higher" - so if my tap water reads zero for ammonia, I can assume that I don't have any chloramine issue?

So if you kind folks could give me some suggestions for good peaceful, colorful (tank is a showpiece in the living room), and relatively small (grown size of 4") cichlids and compatible colorful tank mates - I would be ever so thankful! I would like to have "more rather than less" fish in the tank overall though.

Thanks in advance,
Sharon
 
Hey, any of the Neolamprologus varieties from Lake Tangyanika would do great, and they spawn like crazy--the older babies take care of the new babies!! In the wild they shoal in huge groups; you could develop this, but take care to only get one specie as otherwise they WILL be aggressive. I have a pair of Brichardi, taupe with the black/blue mask, small but beautiful with lyre-like finnage, but when in the 55g with the peacocks, they owned half the tank.
http://images.ask.com/pictures?q=Neolamprologus&qsrc=2072&tool=img

With a 65 gallon, you could also go with any of the peacock cichlids from Lake Malawi. However, even though the males color up brilliantly, the females remain silver or gray with black or brown vertical stripes. Also, if you are wanting to possibly breed any fish in the tank for resale, you need to commit to one specie as they will crossbreed. Or you could just get alot of all males; any females will be cause for fighting. If a mix, one male to 4 females or they will stress them to death by over-zealous chasing.

You could also do a colorful combo of Yellow Labs (4-6") and Cobalt Blues (same). They are the more peaceful of the mbuna in Malawi; I started out with 7 or 8 (accidently killed them all with a sponge of testkit spill wipeup, fell into filter hole :() The colors are beautiful and you can even get mystery snails in same colors. Lots and lots of rocks, sand/gravel substrate, they'll amuse you with hours of moving rock and sand--carry spit carry a "boulder" drop. I'm sure there will be plenty of other ideas; I'm just working off of what I know. Have fun!!!!
That's just my 2 taters worth on a windy rainy morning!! (with a tornado thrown in--scary!!) :dive2:
 
if you want a mixed community you could try something like what's in my signature.
 
Glad you made it, man... I've got some people "over there" now and it's a real worry.
 
jeffs99dime - glad you are home too. Sanganco mentioned a pH of 7.8. Are you sure that's not too high for keyholes? I had always thought keyholes did better in softer water with nuetral/slightly acid pH... they are cool but shy fish.

A colony of shellies would be fun to watch, but they aren't as eyecatching as the peacocks though. The peacocks can also get a bit chasy, but they are colorful and active swimmers so your tank would have lots of movement. There are some very brightly colored ones out there and though they chase each other a bit, there is never any nipped fins.

Cathy
 
I've got 3 full grown peacock males--since there are females, one is not dominant. It's been pretty cool to watch the Taiwan Reef and the OB square of, in mid water, dart back and forth in threatening moves, then go round in circles and lip lock. Never hurt each other, but it's quite a sight. If I were to go again, I'd get only males.
 
Thanks for all the great ideas everyone! After researching, seems the peacocks and labs are a little more aggressive than I'm looking for (though SOOOO beautiful and tempting nonetheless).

If I were to have a pair of rainbow cichlids and a pair of t-bar cichlids, with a 65g (36x18 footprint) - would you guys recommend any other pairs in there or stick with only 2 pair?

Also, with these two pairs, what good compatible and colorful dithers would you recommend? I was thinking about some bosemani rainbows and possibly rainbow sharks (seem stuck on the word "rainbow" here!). Would these be a good choice? I like the gourami's, but afraid the cichlids would do in the pretty "antennae's" that the gourami's have. Tetras maybe a possibility as well, or maybe some types of barbs.

Cleaning crew: some yoyo loaches, gold algae eaters, or maybe siamese algae eaters. I keep hearing that many of the catfish eat the fry of the cichlids. I'm not turning into a breeder by any means, but would like the fry to survive and not get eaten any more than possible.

More thoughts for me??
 
Forgot to ask if a pair of Bolivian Rams might work with a pair of each of the rainbow cichlids and t-bar cichlids in the 65g... any feedback?
 
if you're looking to sell/trade around CO, I'd pass on the T-Bars. Trust me, they're not that easy to get rid of here. HOWEVER, get some Honduran Red Points, and you're in business. They're very close cousins of the T-bar, even easier to breed, and still beautiful fish. Go check out this webpage cichlidae.com, go to the catalogue, central american, and then cryptoheros. This is what the T-Bars are. You can see what some of the others look like.
 
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