40 US Gal Stocking Ideas!

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danielh144

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Jul 5, 2010
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Hi All I'm soon to be the proud owner of a 40 Gallon/150 liter Aqualantis Evasion Column (can't wait)

I'm looking for some additional stocking ideas to go along with my SAP and Bristlenose catfish. I know i'd like to add another puffer as these guys are so cute and normally prefer company.

So what would you suggest? I'd like something a little different so i'm trying to think out of the box!

Cheers!
 
I agree ^^

Puffers also need a tank that is more long than tall.
 
What kind of puffer? The common ones I see in stores are not compatible with anything except maybe otocinclus. This is one puffer I've heard can (doesn't mean will be!) be community friendly:
http://www.seriouslyfish.com/profile.php?genus=Carinotetraodon&species=irrubesco&id=860

Speaking of, here's some puffer community examples:
http://homepage.mac.com/nmonks/Projects/pufferfish.html

Are you in the UK? I'm unfamiliar with this tank, but column tanks really limit stocking. Maybe some dwarf cichlids?
 
Yeah I'm in the UK, sorry I was typing short SAP = Colomesus asellus / Amazon Puffer, Which I did a lot of research on before I got him so I know this type of puffer is more community tank friendly than say a red eye puffer. (Granted that some fin nipping may happen at feeding time, and it does depend on the temperament of the puffer).

I've been lucky with Bumble bee and he is timid to the catfish but very affectionate towards me!

I'd rather not get into a debate on if this puffer is community friendly as we would be covering ground already discussed on other forums and threads and there are cases for and against. But i think it would be great to know what if any other fish people have housed with the Amazon puffers. Obviously I'm not going to do it if the majority of people have had bad experience I'm just interested.

Yes this tank is a column design more of a cube actually but it does have a 0.5m squared footprint which would be fine for him - obviously the more the better but i don't have the space for anything much bigger.

Cheers guys
 
This is what I found.

Tankmates
Whether or not the South American pufferfish is a good community fish can be argued both ways. On the one hand, it is not aggressive and it doesn't view live fish as food, except perhaps livebearer fry But on the other hand the South American puffer is a confirmed fin-nipper. When hungry it will view the fins of slow-moving and long-finned fish as food. While not unusual in this regard (many tetras and barbs behave the same way) this does mean that it can't be kept with many of the most popular community fish. Angelfish, gouramis, Congo tetras, livebearers, Corydoras and so on are all likely to be nipped.


In my experience, the safest tankmates are those that hide all day (like Synodontis catfish) and those that are very fast swimmers (such as glassfish and bleeding heart tetras). But if this approach is to work the tank will need to be reasonably large so that these fish can keep out the way of the puffers.


The ideal situation though is surely to keep a group of South American puffers by themselves. Being nicely coloured, constantly active, and not too big, a pack of half a dozen specimens would look great in a 125-180 litre/33-44 gallon tank.
Click to expand...
Taken from: http://www.wetwebmedia.com/fwsubwebindex/ColomesusartNeale.htm


What I take from that and the style of your tank, I would only add another puffer. There just isn't enough space for more IMO.
 
Thanks Taysius I found that article quite interesting and i'd agree with your suggestion of another puffer.

I'd never see glass fish before but when I was in Petsathome - (our crap fish chain where i would personally not purchase a fish) they had in a tank which looked a max of 60 liters an amazon puffer in with some bleeding heart tetras and if a shoal of fish could looked scarred then these sure did! The only thing that didn't look scarred or nipped was the red tale shark which was also in the tank!

I think it totally depends on the puffer tbh.
 
That second link I sent you, was the home page of Neale Monks - the same person as wrote the comments in the link Taysius provided :)

You should try writing the WWM crew and asking Neale for suggestions:
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/wwmadminsubwebindex/question_page.htm

You might mention where in the UK you are. Neale is from Hertfordshire and might know some of the best places in your area to look for fish.

Only thing is...be sure and use proper capitalization and spelling ;) Rather quaintly, WWM crew is strict about this and will mention it if you don't, for example, have all your personal pronoun Is capitalized :o
 
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