48" X 18" X 18" TANK

"Shrimp Thingies" – Freshwater shrimp.

Local availability varies greatly with location. Some cites have tons of LFS's with tons of shrimp, some have basically none. Its kind of hit or miss.

The 2 most common varieties are "Ghost Shrimp" and "Amano Shrimp." watch out for "Algae eating shrimp" as both are commonly sold under this name. Amano shrimp are well known for grazing on algae, ghost shrimp are NOT. Do a search in the forums for more info.

Even if they don’t eat algae, ghost shrimp still have several advantages: They are more available and generally are MUCH cheaper, many LFS's stock ghost shrimp as feeders. They don’t live quite as long and don’t look quite as cool, but they are much more suited as a "first shrimp." They are scavengers and will eat pretty much anything. (except for live plants, algae etc)

"Oto's" -

Otos are small algae eating fish. Very cute critters. A quick google search came up with this link: http://petfish.net/oto.htm Otos are peaceful and are generally not picked on too bad. Better suited to many aquariums over "Pleco's" because they wont outgrow your tanks, they don’t dig stuff up, and they are not nocturnal so you can watch them work all day long. They also don’t don’t seem to over poop (my pleco is a poop factory) Did I mention how cute they are?

"Lemon tetra's" -

I dunno, they're tetras?

Its been done many times before, but this would be real, real clean:

10-15 Cardnals
10 pygmy corys
6 otos
20+ ghost shrimp, 'specially if you can get em cheap
2 or 3 purdy gouramis (pearl or 3 spot etc) – slightly less aggressive than angels, particularly if you or the LFS can sex them and give you females.
 
Corys Panda x 8, Bottom Dwellers
Cardinals x 15, Middle Dwellers
Lemon Tetra x 10, Bottom/Middle Dwellers
Cochus Blue Tetra x 10, Middle/Top Dwellers
Rummy Nose Terta x 10, Middle Dwellers
Bristlenose Catfish x 1, Bottom Dwellers
Otocinclus catfish x 3, and Bottom Dwellers
Amano Shrimp x 10. Bottom Scavengers

Alright, getting there. Can anyone confirm/deny the above dwelling information, are they pretty much all middle dwellers or are some of those top dwellers as well.

otocunnilingus said:
2 or 3 purdy gouramis (pearl or 3 spot etc) – slightly less aggressive than angels, particularly if you or the LFS can sex them and give you females.
Click to expand...

Aren't they from Asia? I am going for a South American Biotype, so that would count out the Gouramis, they will go into my yet to be setup Asian tank. That is my next forum question, want to finalise my big tank first.
 
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coolwade said:
Aren't they from Asia? I am going for a South American Biotype, so that would count out the Gouramis, they will go into my yet to be setup Asian tank. That is my next forum question, want to finalise my big tank first.
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You are correct. I totally forgot about this being a biotype, my bad.

I guess techinally the Amano shrimp shouldnt be their either - they also come from asia. I think ghost shrimp are from North America, which is alot closer. (but still not South America)
 
Thanks otocunnilingus (love the name, really rolls off the tongue :) !), I won't add the Shrimp then.

Corys Panda x 8, Bottom Dwellers
Cardinals x 15, Middle Dwellers
Lemon Tetra x 10, Bottom/Middle Dwellers
Cochus Blue Tetra x 10, Middle/Top Dwellers
Rummy Nose Terta x 10, Middle Dwellers
Bristlenose Catfish x 1, Bottom Dwellers
Otocinclus catfish x 3, and Bottom Dwellers

Looks good to me.
 
Thanks,

BTW your name does not offend me.

Oh, I once new a Linguist, I asked him if he was cunning, he didn't get it :( !
 
Oto or otos is the common name. Otoclinclus is the genus, many species, but one is commonest in the trade. they are Amanozonian. They are rarely found on the bottom of the tank -they are not bottom feeders - they are commonly found on the plants, or on the glass under a plant's shadow. They specialize in diatoms (FW brown algae) and soft green algae. Neither Otos nor bristlenose can or will eat any filamentous algae at all - so you will have a bit of a caretaker gap there.

Ghost shrimp are scavengers. Amano shrimp are first algae eater, scavengers only if insufficient algae is present. They prefer filamentous algae, but also will eat any soft green algae. There are undoubtedly Amazonian algae-eating shrimp but no one to date has done the sort of systematic survey of them that Mr. Amano did for native Japanese shrimps to find the best, most broad-spectrum, algae eater. The only SA shrimp imported commonly are the Macrobrachium shrimp, and they are largely from the Pacific coastal regions, not the Amazon, and are not algae eaters at all. You may well succeed and I hope you do, but if you develop any algae issues, you will find that all the known and proven broad-spectrum algae grazers are Asian. So while you are shopping, keep an eye out for Amano availablity in case of need.

Congo Tetras are not South American either.
 
Thanks RTR, maybe I will 'cheat' alittle and add a couple of amano shrip to help the tank.

RTR said:
Congo Tetras are not South American either.
Click to expand...

I am going with Cochus Blue Tetra which are South American. Did someone else suggest Congo Tetras?
 
stocking levels

for a 70gal...i consider that very understocked. I am thinking about starting a 90 gal 48l*24h*18w

right now i am thinking:
30 cardinals
18 black phantoms
15 priscilla tetras (X-ray tetras???) (sp?)
6 or 5 pearl gouramis
6 dwarf gouramis
3 keyhole cichlids
8 kulii loaches
6 corys
6 gaint danios


20% w/c every week 20% tap, 80% RO water

what do you guys think?
 
coolwade said:
Thanks otocunnilingus (love the name, really rolls off the tongue :) !), I won't add the Shrimp then.

Corys Panda x 8, Bottom Dwellers
Cardinals x 15, Middle Dwellers
Lemon Tetra x 10, Bottom/Middle Dwellers
Cochus Blue Tetra x 10, Middle/Top Dwellers
Rummy Nose Terta x 10, Middle Dwellers
Bristlenose Catfish x 1, Bottom Dwellers
Otocinclus catfish x 3, and Bottom Dwellers

Looks good to me.
Click to expand...


lemon tetras are really nippy
 
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