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african leaf fish

28K views 22 replies 6 participants last post by  kangeopol 
#1 ·
hi,

im planning on getting a few african leaf fish and i have many questions.

specs: 30gal long soon to be planted tank
ph:7.4

the tank is currently filled but has some fungus or something in it (putting a post in to figure that out) it has 6 rummy nose and 1 pleco. the pleco will be moved to a 55gal and the rummies will go into q/t for fungus. once that is done they will go into a future 20gal tank.

im gonna post also in the other thread how to get rid of all the fungus.

so ill be pretty much starting with a brand new tank. i will keep the current plants and stuff but the benificial bacteria will be gone.

questions:
how long will it take for the whole tank to be mature if i start over? (aprox.)
how many leaf fish can i put in a 30gal long? (it will be a species tank)
how heavil planted do they need? i read just enough to feel secure.
can i put some african butterfly fish in with them?
do they jump?
what do i feed juvinials to adults? do i buy feeder fish at a pet store?
do they need anything specific, like soft sand or dark colored stuff?
i read that they like shade, is this true if so i have a lot of floating 4 leaf clover looking things that should cover it well?

the plants i plan on putting in and current ones:
curent:
contortion vals
flame moss
petite nana
and some unknown comon stuff

plan:
apongeton capuronii
echinodorus amazonicus
echinodorus ozelot (2)
pellia
nymphaea rubra


any additional info would be gratly apreciated.
 
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#2 · (Edited)
If you do about a 75 percent water change and keep the tank empty but keep supplying food for a good 2 1/2 to 3 weeks that should kill of any disease/fungus because most of them can't live without a host for that long, id crank the temp too. This will help keep the cycle going. I'd put no more than 5 of them in a 30 gallon long. I think you may be pretty well off on plant cover, some rocks will help too. I have never seen heard or witnessed them jump. Feeder guppies should work great! Id use a darker substrate, they like to camouflage, and thatll give em a sense of security. Floating cover will be great, ESPECIALLY if you get an african butterfly fish <3 RIP Stryker ='( I don'tforesee a compatibility issue between the two species, however if you get the ABF, youll need a lid. If you can, get a couple, male and female. My friend has a mating pair, theyre precious together!

I think I covered everything! Youll more than likely need live floating food for the ABF, too!
 
#3 ·
thanks!
few more questions:
they are really expensive so i was planning on getting just 2-3, do they need more?
abf are carnivores right? can i feed crickets and mealworms and stuff?
should i buy guppies from my lfs? they look pretty good and arent overcrowded.
what does the food do? create nitrates? (or whatever poo is?)
 
#4 ·
questions:
how long will it take for the whole tank to be mature if i start over? (aprox.)
how many leaf fish can i put in a 30gal long? (it will be a species tank)
how heavil planted do they need? i read just enough to feel secure.
can i put some african butterfly fish in with them?
do they jump?
what do i feed juvinials to adults? do i buy feeder fish at a pet store?
do they need anything specific, like soft sand or dark colored stuff?
i read that they like shade, is this true if so i have a lot of floating 4 leaf clover looking things that should cover it well?
30 long...is that a 3 ft tank? I would suggest only 1 for that size tank with 2 maybe pushing it. If you do want 2 get them both at the same time when they are small. They can be rather territorial with each other and they are very hard to sex so there's no guarantee you can get a male and female pair. I've had mine almost a year and she's grown from 2" to 6" in that time so they do get some good size on them. They do like lots of cover so plants including floating ones is a good choice. Mine likes to hide in the plants or behind my fake tree stump.

I have never seen my Cteno jump. She's actually very easygoing and slowly drifts around the tank but as was mentioned the ABFs are known jumpers so make sure your tank is covered.

Don't buy feeders from the store. That will only increase the chance of introducing disease/parasites. Mine ate flake and pellet food from day one. Now that she's bigger I feed her cichlid pellets, NLS, sinking shrimp pellets and frozen foods. She also occasionally gets ghost shrimp and some of my homegrown guppy fry. (I say "she" but I don't know for certain what sex she is).

They are a really cool fish and mine is my favorite of all my fish. She's my baby.

HTH
 
#5 ·
jeaninel,

ive been reading up and so far ive never heard of a true african leaf fish eating flakes. if its the one in the picture, you have a Ctenopoma whcih is not a true leaf fish but a climbing gourami. so if i get one does this mean i have to breed guppies?
 
#6 · (Edited)
#7 ·
thanks for clarifying it up, i am infact talking bout a south american leaf fish.
lol i didnt even know it all along
 
#8 · (Edited)
i figured you meant sa leaf fish...but I take back one thing I said...I wouldnt have any more than three of them in a 30 long...ive never seen em more than 4 inches, so as long as at it heavily planted, territory shouldnt be an issue. I feed my betta, puffer, and when I had him, my abf all live crickets. And I feed a lot of my fish live black worms, a lot of em love it. Unless youre confident of the feeder guppies you are buying, youre gonna have to breed guppies...=/ I hope that doesnt turn yuou off to such a beautiful fish! and yes, the food is too keep the cycle going and no the leaf fish are fine alone, and actually do well in minimally populated tanks, but the abf should be fine like i said...they are lovely peaceful fish.
 
#9 ·
im not turned off of the fish because of that, infact that is one of the reasons i picked that fish. im planning on getting 2 sa leaf fish and just spend money on plants rather than buying some other fish. besides that i love plants with leaves at the surface i.e. water lillies, so a top wouldnt be convenient for me. i might get a few abf if i decide to go that way but probably not because i simply cant find them on ANY site that has both fish in stock. either one or the other. also what do you guys think about aquabid people? are they good. im planning on getting 2 small 3" leaf fish sfor $40+ shipping. its the cheapest ive found. i can also see if my not so lfs can order them for me. the last time i ordered fish from thier they got covered in ich, does this mean i shouldnt order thier anymore or was it probably just from shipping. also im pretty shure the feeder guppies at my lfs are safe because they have been in the tank for a couple months and they dont overstock it at all. my question is could i breed feeder guppies? i would like to put them in my tank with my gourami and cories and some rummy nose. would they breed? would any fish eat them? probably the gourami right?
 
#10 ·
Monocirrhus Polyacanthus I have no experience with. I do know that they like soft, acidic water and can be difficult to keep. One of my LFS sometimes has them and they keep them in dark, tannin stained water. You can raise your own guppies to feed but probably should also feed something else such as the live blackworms npjnkac mentioned. Maybe ask the source you're getting them from what they feed them.
 
#11 · (Edited)
oh you can definitely breed feeder guppies! I forget why my friend got them in the first place, but they bred in his tank no problem! One day I would like to get Leaf Fish too, thats why ive done research and talked to another one of my friends who has had them. I would like to take advantage of my naturally acidic and soft water! The only thing I don't like about aquabid is that they dont have like live guarantee always...so thats your risk you have to take, however the plan to buy those fish and save the rest for plants is a personally good idea! The gouramis might, they arent picky in their diet, at least mine werent. Back to shipping...id have your lfs order them for you and and have them hang on to them for a week. If youre confident in the fish's health, then buy them =)


South American Leaf Fish

Mayalan Leaf Fish
 
#12 ·
thanks. my water isnt soft and idk bout the acidic part but it was said that it can live between 6-7.4 and mine is about 7.4 maybe 7.3 whats considered acidic water and how do you measure it?
 
#13 ·
7 is neutral.
<7 is acidic.
>7 is basic.
Usually when water is acidic its also soft, and usually when water is basic, it's harder. This is a generality.
 
#14 ·
if i added peat moss would that also make the water more acidic? i heard its a good way to make water softer.
 
#15 ·
It is indeed, however, peat moss is...messy haha I tried it and got fed up with it. Id use some bog wood or mopani wood...itll stain your water brown by the water leaching the tannic acid out of the wood, but its really not that big of a deal when the lights are on, only in dim lighting is it really noticable. Make sure you keep up with water changes, as the water will get too acidic otherwise.
 
#16 ·
ok, im probably going to get some wood. what shoudl my proses be?
get wood then plants then fish
get plants then wood then fish
im thinking the first one because i would like to attach some plants to wood.
 
#17 ·
Either will work. If your working on a budget, I'd get the wood first
 
#18 ·
ok cool, i think ill order it tonight.
 
#19 ·
Sweet, I'm really excited to see this pan out for you =)
 
#21 ·
African Butterfly Fish and African Leaf Fish

You should be fine having two African Leaf Fish and one African Butterfly Fish in a long thirty gallon tank, but there are some things that you should know about them first. The first thing you should know is one of your African Leaf Fish will most likely dominate the other African Leaf Fish in the tank, just like in my tank. The second thing you should know is that the African Butterfly Fish will most likely eat crickets but it is possible to get it eating fish flakes. The easiest way that I have found that has gotten my two African Butterfly Fish, which by the way have to be in different tanks because they tried to kill each other, to eat fish flakes was to put them in the tank with the African Leaf Fish which ate both the fish flakes and the crickets. The reason why I think this got my African Butterfly Fish to start eating fish flakes instead of crickets is because they saw how the African Leaf fish liked the taste of both the fish flakes and the crickets, note this is not for certain but this is what I believe got them to eat the fish flakes because they wouldn't even try to eat the fish flakes until I decided to put an african leaf fish in each of their tanks. Another thing that I think you should know, that I have learned from my experience with my two African Leaf Fish, is that they are VERY aggressive and will most likely not let you have any other fish, including some Cichlids and even six inch long dragon gobies, with them unless if you have put them in the same tank from the moment you first got the African Leaf Fish, but this still is not a guarantee that they won't attack or kill other fish. The last thing that you should know about African Leaf Fish is that they are very cool to look at and they will eat just about anything you put in the tank such as shrimp, crickets, Cichlid pellets, Cichlid flakes, and goldfish flakes.
There are also a few pieces of info that I want you to know about the ABS. The first is don't listen to people telling you that they will eat frozen brine shrimp because this is not true due to the fact that ABS will not eat any foods that DO NOT FLOAT, but they will eat SMALL LIVE crickets, small LIVE insects, small top swimming fish, and may even eat fish flakes. Another piece of info you should know is you HAVE to have a lid that DOES NOT leave ANY OPENINGS THAT ARE LARGE ENOUGH FOR THE ABS to fit its body through because they love to jump and may even end up jumping out of your tank. The thing that I suggest you do to insure that your ABS doesn't jump out of your tank is to get a tight fitting lid and then use cardboard or some other material like that and build a little enclosed area around where your tank filter is because as I found out the hard way they might jump out of the tank in that spot.
 
#22 · (Edited)
I had an african butterfly fish for awhile, he got along with most of the different fish I had ACCEPT for my nippy rosy barb and little guppies, he ate 1 adolescent one that swam by him, and never tried to defend himself against the barb occasionally nipping at his tendrils -or the goldfish that liked barreling into him- he'd always just swim away. All he did was hang out and glide around at the top, sometimes he'd swim down at night but go right up again, didn't bother any of the fish. From my experience, they do well with any fish as long as they're not nippy or very small top dwellers.
 
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