75 Gallon Tank.

jaysee

Yes, as far as I know all the rainbows are active. There may be a species that's not ( madagascars maybe?)

In my 75 I have the ctenopoma, african knife, Senegal Bichir, featherfin catfish, african butterfly and congo tetras. It's an african community. I still would like to add madagascar rainbows and a krib. The african knife is 8 inches, which is what you can expect. The first ctenopoma targeted the knife, which is why I got rid of it as the knife is just the coolest fish. The second one goes after the congos and leaves the knife alone.

It is one of my favorite tanks, and is often my guests favorite.

I think everyone makes an appearance in this video. The knife and the big alpha congo used to get into it from time to time - that's a phase they grew out of.

Olympia

HAH! That's exactly the sort of tank I'd have in mind. (I've always dreamed of an African community with a school of elephant nose but this tank won't cut it for them!)

Do you think if a ctenopoma and African knife were bought young and added at the same time they'd be more tolerant? I was actually giving up hope on all this until I saw your tank!

Those congos are huge! I think I'd want to trade them off for something else, but don't know what, especially if I was keeping it African. An actual school would be nice but it need to be pretty large for these other guys. My mind draws a blank for other African fish that would be good. I know there's those yellow tail tetra but they are just dull congos from what I can tell.
Otherwise I may just go with Kribensis or some other dwarf African cichlids.

Instead of a featherfin, I was thinking a Hoplo Catfish if I can find one.. Otherwise the synodontis are all African and suitable, correct? I love big whiskers on catfish, and I'm totally fine with rarely seeing the fish as well. Maybe if I can train it to eat earth worms out of my hand, that'd be awesome.

And I love African butterflies so that's another bonus, they are like $20 each here though so they may be a later addition.

jaysee

I don't know what you mean about being more tolerant. Both ctenopomas were bought VERY small. The first grew up with the knife, bichir, butterfly and congos in a 55. I had gotten rid of it and got the new one when I upgraded to the 75. The knife was already grown at that point. They have no issues. If you meant being more tolerant of the congos, they are pretty tolerant. Face offs are not that common.

Yes, the congos are big. The 75 is much better for them than the 55, because it's wider providing for more room to maneuver. They are not nearly as active as the rainbows - I have no intentions of moving them to a larger tank. They have room to race around the tank, but they are tetras so there is a lot of loafing around time.

The yellow tail tetra is another species of Congo Tetra - there are 3. They grow smaller than the interuptus (common congos), but are not nearly as beautiful.

I don't know anything about hoplos. The featherfin (synodontis euruptus) is a cool fish and all, but it spends a lot of time hiding. It's a large solitary syno, whereas the upside down cat is a smaller schooling syno. Any will be good in an african community.

Here are more representative videos of what goes on in the tank.

Olympia

Oh, I thought certain fish do better if they've been together since they were young! Guess not!
I'll try to give the knife and other fish a head start before adding the ctenopoma, that seems to have worked out for you.

The Hoplo seems cool, but I'll let Byron chime in on that. I do want a catfish for sure, and a hoplo appeals to me. Otherwise I'll probably go with a school of upside down cats.

I love Kribensis, so I may try a pair of them for the tank. (A pair won't damage any of these fish I'm pretty sure).


As for the school.. I found these guys and it'd be great if I could get a good size group (they are big enough to live with the knife, right?) Something duller for this crazy group of fish:
Arnoldichthys spilopterus (African Red-eyed Tetra) — Seriously Fish

Or these guys, a catfish that mid swims:
Pareutropius buffei (Three Striped African Glass Catfish) — Seriously Fish

As you can imagine both of those are probably rare so the fall back plan is congos.

Thanks so much! I'm glad this is coming together finally!

African knife x1
Ctenopoma x1
Hoplo Catfish x1 OR Upside Down Catfish x5-6
African butterfly x1
Kribensis x2
One of the above schooling fish x8(? or more if I have room)

(If there's any African tetra I'm missing I'd like to see them too)

jaysee

Of all my fish, the congos are more often than not the guests favorite. They are pretty high on my list as well - one of the few species I took with me when I had to evacuate last year for a hurricane. I actually took all the inhabitants of that tank with me - put them in a 29.

Yes, the red eyes are large enough to live with the knife. There aren't many african tetras, but you can usually find them on aquabid.com.

You can keep more than one butterfly. They are not always available so it can be hard to add more.

Olympia

Oh, all those little American flags on the Red eyed tetra on aquabid are just a punch in the face!
If I got them, I could keep a much larger school than the congos I think, they are slightly smaller fish.
How many congos do you have in your tank?

This stocking plan went a lot more smoothly than planned. Now the real problem.. Plants and decor. I'm going to really take my time with doing this tank though! After this week I have 3 weeks of uninterrupted vacation time so I'll be using it wisely!

If only there were more African plants in the trade right now..

jaysee

I have seven congos - I had 8 but lost one a while back.

I tried putting a few plants in the tank but they were eaten by the tetras. Java Moss has infiltrated the tank and is left alone. I wanted to add some african plants too, but I've decided to just stick with the fake ones.

I would try to have a couple larger caves and a couple smaller ones.

Olympia

Wait.. they eat plants? :( I can't have a tank without real plants. I'll have to try.
Yes I want to make some nice cave formations.
Also considering a bit of leaf litter, but that's a lot of work because you have to replace them every few weeks I believe so they don't fall apart.

In our profile for congos there's a photo of them with a red stripe and with a yellow stripe. Are these, plus the yellow tails, the 3 congo species?

jaysee

Lots of fish eat plants. I am still a novice when it comes to plants - I'm sure there are plenty that they won't eat - perhaps someone else will chime in on that.

No, the striped ones are the common congo tetras. I don't recall the name of the 3rd kind - they were too small to be considered I think.

Olympia

Oh so the red and yellow are just variations? I've never seen the red ones before!

Well, Anubias which is actually African is pretty thick and rubbery so they may not like it. Something like Hornwort, which is spikey will also probably not appeal to their tastes, not a lot of fish want to eat Hornwort. I like Hornwort because it looks good floating at the top on it's own. And then I can use something that just grows super quick, and you won't really see any ugly looking damage, like Anacharis. And of course lots of moss!

I've also heard that people have more success keeping plants with Goldfish if they regularly provide things like lettuce, so I may try that out with the congos if they decide they want to be vegetarians.