Suggestions!

mordalphus

Ok, today I lucked into a 40 gallon tall Marineland SeaClear Eclipse 3.

Basically I walked out of a thrift store with the tank FULL of supplies for 40 dollars. It has UGF, and of course the built in mechanical and wet/dry filter that the eclipse tanks have. I opted to remove the bio-wheel and instead fill that area with hydroton, bioballs and ceramic bio rings.

Right now it's all set up, full of water, filters running and starting its cycle. It has some grey gravel in it, something I've never seen before, but right now I don't really care...

But I'd like to have some fish in this thing within a month, and I'm not yet sure what I want...

I already have:

55g planted community tank (understocked atm)
30g fry tank full of danio and molly fry
20g blackwater tank with a breeding pair of bolivian rams and their fry
20g cherry shrimp tank
and too many 10g shrimp tanks with various shrimp

I've never had angelfish or Discus, and I'm thinking about some of those, but I don't know.

If you had a spare 40g tall, what would you do?

willow

if i knew more about them,i'd have Discus,
all the peoples tanks who have them always look awsome.

Byron

I would not recommend angels or Discus for a 40g tall. Both species are shoaling fish that should be kept in a group, especially Discus. Five or six is a good number, and a 40g is not sufficient for 5 of either fish. Your 55g with regular maintenance would handle angels or Discus (5) better, if you really want either fish.

Byron.

mordalphus

Yeah, just trying to find something to utilize the tall aspect of the tank... I don't want a tall tank with fish I could keep in my 55 gal. Having a hard time deciding. Any thoughts, Byron?

redchigh

Well I really think schools of tetras would appreciate the space.
*shrug*

I have barbs and tetras on the brain though.

mordalphus

that would be something, but I have plenty of schooling fish in my community tank... I guess I could go with tetras and barbs. Meh.

bones14

How about gouramis?I have gold and blue gouramis and really like them.The Sparkling Gourami are nice too.

crazy4fish

hmmm well i know they arent for everyone, but if you are looking for something different from what you already have i would suggest maybe some fancy Goldfish. my aunt and uncle have a pair in a tall tank and whenever we go to visit i always like to watch them.

Byron

Lots of ideas from members above, here are a few more.

Consider more of a specialized geographic aquascape, rather than a mixed community. For instance, with a cube-sort of tank (tall) it admirably suits gourami and rasbora from SE Asia, with a sand or fine gravel substrate, lots of plants, minimal filtration and light--different (probably) from what you already have.

Or a vivarium arrangement, which in taller tanks is easier to manage, 1/2 or 2/3 water with open air above, some rock or wood extending out of the water to provide a "land" area, terrestrial plants hanging down into the space. Obviously amphibians work in something like this [covered or they will escape], but in the fish line there are mudskippers [brackish water]. I had this in something as small as a 10g years ago, one mudskipper, he became so tame he fed off my hand and once jumped out of the tank in his excitement for food and I was chasing him around the apartment. With more space, other brackish fish are possible, small crab species... .

Along the same idea as the above vivarium, set it up as an African stream/pool with soft water for killifish. Or, following the Asian theme again, the dwarf species of rasbora [Boraras species] which tend to spend most of their time near the top, with some dwarf loaches for the bottom, and some of the slightly larger "common" rasbora for the middle. In this as the previous Asian suggestion, crypts and Anubias are good plants for the lower areas (less light), good floating plants at the top for all these fish mentioned.

Byron.

amazon21

yeah, an SE Asia tank would look awesome, especially if you get flame gouramis.