Setting up a 55 Gallon Tang Tank. Questions

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bradlgt21

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I am setting up a 55 gallon tank. Just wanted to check my stocking and ask a couple questions.

2-3 Alto Calvus or Comps (black calvus is my favorite fish)
1 Neo. Leleupi
1 Juli. Regani
1 eret. Cyanostictus (gobie)
4-6 Syno Petricola (I already have 4 in another tank I am moving into this tank)

The fish that needs to go in this tank is a black calvus. I love the fish but read that all calvus should have dark substrate to make there spots and stripes pop. I also read that Leleupi has to have light substrate or they wash out and look dark and ugly. Then the gobie I read needs sand for digestion. So my problem is white sand will wash out the calvus, black sand will wash out the leleupi and if I don't get sand the gobie won't be healthy. Problem is the only cheap sand is white and black is either very expensive or impossible to find. I can find dark gravel but that will cause problems for the leleupi and gobie.

So my questions are has anyone kept black gobies over pea gravel and not had problems? Has anyone kept Leleupi over dark substrate, did they look dark and uncolorful? Has anyone kept calvus over white sand, did there spots and stripes pop?
 

Pittbull

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Your reading too much into it go with what you like and the fish will be fine, I keep white type sands in all of my setups and i have had all the fish in your list with no issues.. The only issue that i can see is that you are keeping a Gobie which needs a veggie diet and the others need a high protein diet, if you keep the Gobie keep an eye on bloat issues.. I would up the numbers to 3 each on the Lelupi and Regani.. Provide plenty of caves and escapes for the fish..
 

Fishfiles1

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i had a set up kinda like this, i used white sand. The biggest issue was the lelupi, that thing would kill any fish in the tank. He killed my calvus, my Heculi, marienguinsis, he killed everything in till i upped the numbers. As you raise the numbers of one species, you must account for the space that they take up, doing so will limit what you can put into the aquarium. Watch your stocking, most of these fish will live in the lower bottom and lower middle of the aquarium, each fish will take a territory, if you do not give them enough rocks to hide and to run away, some fish might end up meeting there maker.
 

Fishbreeder101

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true some of these cichlids are very aggressive and will kill each other off if there is more than one male of he same species and not enough females and if you have males from opposite species that look alike these fish will fight to the death if kept with many males but if you have females for them they will be fine. and if you want them to tolerate each other get multiple juveniles and introduce them all at the same time this will lower aggression to some extent
 

Fishfiles1

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with all of this we could write a well laid out book on how to keep tangs :)
 

bradlgt21

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So I started getting some fish locally, just picked up a couple black calvus and someone had chalinochromis brichardi which are cool and supposed to be much less aggressive then other brichardi. I asked the guy for 3 and he said they mate for life so once they pair up the 3rd will be killed male or female it doesnt matter.
So why do you guys suggest 3? Is this guy lying? Should I be making sure its only 1 male per trio? Am I getting 3 to overcrowd the tank right? If that is the case cant I just get different fish to which will both crowd and keep innerspecies aggresion down?
 

Pittbull

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Its all a hit or miss situation when it comes to Tang's if your tank is big enough and you have a lot of retreats for the fish to escape shouldn't be any issues but nothing is never 100% its when a hobbyist tries to place a lot of fish in a smaller tank is where the problems come in..
 

bradlgt21

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Hopefully this is my final stock list if it looks good. I am trying to avoid aggressive fish so here we go.

2 Black Calvus (already own them, they are 1", sitting in a QT tank now)
2 White Calvus (have pre ordered them to pickup sunday at a local swap)
2 Chalinochromis Brichardi (have pre ordered them to pickup sunday at local swap)
2 Julidochromis (I haven't ordered these because they are supposed to be the most aggressive, I wanted to let the others settle in a little bit, I also plan on getting the smaller versions so no Regani, or Marlieri)
4-6 Synodontis Petricola (I already own 4 synos, and will probably get 2 more)

I hope I crowded enough, 8 rock dwelling fish instead of 9 like you suggested, but more then I tried originally.
 

Pittbull

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It should work out if you start them out small enough they can grow up together..
 
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