I have a 55 gallon tank that currently houses 4 buenos aries tetras, 2 pictus cats, and a red tailed black shark. It's probably going to end up with two giant danios as well if neither of the pet stores in town will take them. I'm interested in either adding 3 angelfish or a school of 10-12 something or others. I'd like to go with the angels, but from what I've read, buenos aries can be somewhat nippy, and my rtbs goes through spouts of hating everyone else in the tank. So right now I'm leaning towards the school. I'd like to add some rummynose tetras, but the only place around here that I've ever seen them is Petco. I have seen them in tanks in stores that are further away where they appeared to be 2 1/2-3 inches, but some sources I've seen online say they only get to 2 inches. Will they get big enough for the pictus to not eat? The two pictus I have are only 2 inches now, so I don't think that they're big enough to eat any rummynose yet. Today, I was looking around in a pet store and saw some celebese rainbow fish. They were in freshwater tanks there, but one website I saw online said they need brackish water. Does anybody have any experience with these fish, and do they school? If anybody has any suggestions on another type of fish, feel free to express them. Thanks.
Fish suggestions
- Thread starter vaheelsfan
- Start date
I'm not positive but I don't think the angels would be good with the RTBS or the Buenos Aries for the reasons you stated. I've never had buenos aries but from what I read, they can get to be bullies and watching them at LFS's, I'd have to agree. I've only had 2 RTBS's and they were both very aggressive towards everyone so I just don't think they'd be good with angels. As far as the schools, most schooling fish would end up food for the pictus cats. The more I read and hear about experiences with them, they love to munch on smaller fish at night. I'm not sure what type of schooling fish you could put with the buenos aries but I think a rainbow might work. I saw what you were talking about on the Celebese rainbows, every website and book lists them differently. I finally found out that rainbows are like mollies and will live in prettymuch any type of water. I have 3 celebese rainbows in a 29 gallon FW tank but have only had them for about a week personally. We picked up some Neon rainbows as well. They look pretty dull in certain light but once we got them home in our tank, they are very colorful. They have a silvery body with red fins for the males and yellow fins for the females. They have an irredescent blue/green hue when they turn different angles similar to a congo tetra. they are also much smaller than most other rainbows, celebese get a little larger (2.5-3"). So far we have been very pleased with both our rainbow species. The giant danio's would go excellent with the buenos aries. They are very fast moving and can annoy more timid fish due to their "bull in a china closet" mentality. They love to swim up and bump other fish their size but never chase or bully the fish I've had. I used to keep 3 in a 55 gallon community tank but they kept most my small tetras at the bottom of the tank because they were scared of them so I moved them to my 36 gallon semi-aggressive tank with several types of barbs, serpae tetras and a gold gourami and they do great. KYle
Thanks for the reply Kyle. I'd pretty much ruled angels out because I didn't want them to be harassed, but I thought I'd ask for someone else's opinion. The four buenos aries that I have aren't really aggressive. I believe there is a pecking order among them, but I've never seen them harrass another fish, even when I had smaller fish like glolight and black neon tetras in the tank with them. Like you, I've read that pictus can chow down on some smaller fish, but I've also read that they won't harrass other fish unless they aren't getting enough food from their owners. I can see where a little neon would make a nice snack though, regardless of how much they'd eaten. I think I'm going to try the rummynose and if one comes up missing, I'll just have to explain to the wife that I need another tank :idea2: and go with the danios. I really don't care for them much, but I bought them because I had a green barred danio who I bought as one of five, and the other four died of ich. When I got them the green barred, who had been calm for the most part, went nuts and wouldn't let anybody out of a corner of the tank (this is the same 55 gallon) and swam back and forth constantly. I seriously think he gave himself a heart attack because I came home one day and he was just dead, with no signs of sickness on him or the other fish. So anyway, now I'm stuck with two giant danios. 