Midwater fish for a Predator Tank

Tophat665

Tophat665

Minion of the Scaled Ones.
Jul 13, 2006
324
0
0
NoVa
Howdy, folks. I have a 110XH (48x18x31) with these fish:

  • An 11" Senegal Bichir
  • An 8" Albino Senegal Bichir
  • 3 Leopard Bushfish (Ctenopoma acutirostre) between 3 3/4 and 4 1/2"
  • A male albino ancistrus about 3"
  • A dwindling number of swordtails (Started with a dozen or so of mixed sexes, have about 4 in there now, all female.)
The tank is heavily planted (Hygro, Crypts, Anubias, Java Fern, Dwarf Sags, Sword plants, Valisnera nana)under 260 watts of 10,000K CF lighting 12 hours a day. Temp is more or less steady at 78º, pH around 6.8, GH low (2-3), KH Moderate (14-15). Filtered with a Rena XP3, an Eheim 2229 (Wet Dry), and a small (4") bubble wall. The substrate is a sand and potting soil based cocktail, kept stirred by MTS. There are many PVC tubes buried in the substrate and obscured by plants and rockwork, and a large holey driftwood.:dive:

The initial plan was to keep enough swordtails in there to keep the predators in fry, but this has not panned out. Male swords are just the right size for the bushfish to hoover down, and the Bichirs go after the females when they sleep.
:shark:

So I am left with a very pretty tank full of invisible ambush predators.:rolleyes:

What suggestions do you have for some midwater fish that might survive the depredations of my Bichirs and Bushfish? Bonus points for Africans, Double Bonus points for Fish I can actually find and which don't cost a mint. :D
 
How about Congo tetras? They're quite handsome, and are the only fairly large African schoolers I can think of.

Not what you're looking for, but do you think you could get a butterfly fish in there? That would round out your wacky African predator theme.
 
Notophthalmus said:
How about Congo tetras? They're quite handsome, and are the only fairly large African schoolers I can think of.

Not what you're looking for, but do you think you could get a butterfly fish in there? That would round out your wacky African predator theme.
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That's all I can think of as well. But I'm not sure how they would do against a hungry birchir. I would think that they're plump enough to survive but who knows...
 
I thought about Congos, but at 8.99 a fish, a minimal school of six is more than I want to risk. In particular, I think that fully grown they would be fine, but I don't right now have the wherewithal to grow them out.

Let's drop the idea of Africans.

How about gouramis? I'm thinking snakeskin or moonlight or kissing.
Giant Danios?
Can anyone think of a midwater cichlid that might work?

I'm almost (almost) tempted to throw a breeding pair of convicts in there and see if the ambush predators can pick off the fry without being beaten to death. (But I really do like my little water dragons, as it were, and that's a whole different risk I'm unwilling to take.)
 
jm1212 said:
a nice big kissing gourami would be an interesting addition, but they are herbavores.
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Yeah. The plants are more important than a midwater fish. If worse comes to worse, I can tell people it's a REALLY BIG vase. On the other hand, the Hygro grows incredibly fast, so that might be the kind of lawnmower I need....

Ponder ponder.

Howzabout Moonlight or Snakeskin. I know that snakeskins can get just about as big as Kissers, and Moonlights longer than blues in any case.

OH! Clown Barbs? Spanner Barbs? Striped Barbs? Odessa (maybe too small) or Melon? Any of those sound like a possibilites?
 
I was going to suggest silver dollars but you have plants. Arulius barbs and filament barbs seem good bets but they will turn to your plants if you don't feed them veggies.
 
maybe a red tail chalceus. . . . it's like a giant tetra.
 
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