[Jainessnessness]

Hello to all,
I would just like some advice and tips on making a good amazonian tank.
I am planning on having a tetra themed tank with a couple of exceptions. The tank is 240 litres and the list of planned fish is......
5 lemon tetras
40 cardinal tetras
15 pencil fish
1 pair of red cockatoo cichlids
5 bristlnose catfish
5 bronze catfish
5 peppered catfish

I would like a wide range of plants including
60 sprigs of ambulia
8 pots of crypt. walkeri
2 pots of crypt. wendtii
8 pots of crypt.willisi
4 dwarf anubias

Water temperature will be between 24 to 27 degrees celsius with a mild acidic Ph and soft hardness.

All im asking for is fish i should add or take away, and plants I should add or take away. Thanks, Jainessnessness.

 

[Byron]

Welcome to Tropical Fish Keeping forum.:wave:

First on the tank size...240 liters is about 63 gallons, for those of us who still think better in Imperial rather than metric.:lol:

Is this a 4-foot tank in length? Or less? This makes a difference when it comes to the space for fish.

While we're waiting for the above data...

Plants. These are SE Asian in origin. I know the plants may not be in your thinking of being true to Amazonia, and that is fine either way. But I do find that with Amazonian fish, one or more of the Echinodorus (sword) plants always works well. There are several in the profiles [second heading from the left in the blue bar across the top of the page]. Echinodorus bleherae is frequently available, and one as a specimen would be nice in this tank. For lower down, not much can match the pygmy chain sword and chain sword. And floating plants are always essential as the Amazon streams are almost always in shade and the fish will be at their brightest colouration with a roof above them--and be more relaxed too. There are some options in the profiles. The stem plant Brazilian Pennywort works well floating, if you want to stay with true South American plants. You may get some ideas from the photos of my Amazon tanks, the 115g and the 70g, under the "Aquariums" tab below my name over on the left.

Fish. Increase the Lemon Tetra. All tetra are shoaling fish living in large groups, and when you have the space, more in the group is always better. I would say around 8-12. The 40 cardinals are fine, or you could reduce the number, whichever.

Which pencilfish species were you thinking of? Some are better than others with this or that fish. I have or have had 10 of the species in Nannostomus, so knowing which you intend will be useful.

The mentioned cichlid, Apistogramma cacatuoides, is a harem fish and will be better in a small group of one male and 2 or 3 females. One caution though; if you intend raising the fry [they will spawn regularly] they will almost never survive with any catfish in the tank, as these latter are nocturnal and can easily eat the eggs or the fry.

On the substrate fish, the five each of the corys is fine [BTW, the Emerald could be Brochis splendens or Corydoras aeneus, check the profiles]. But five Bristlenose is more than I would have; males are territorial.

Lots of chunks of wood on the sand would be good especially for all the catfish.

Hope this helps.

Byron.

 

[Jainessnessness]

It is a 4 ft tank, I had also forgot to mention 12 black widows, 6 imperial gudgeons and a little java moss for when spawning of any fish will occur. The pencil fish are nannostomus beckfordi.
thank you for ideas on plant species, the brazillian pennywort sounds really useful, as do the chain swords. I shall add the needed amount of fish to my mums shopping list.

Do you think I should add either glowlight or flame tetras?

Thank you for the information.

 

[Byron]

It is a 4 ft tank, I had also forgot to mention 12 black widows, 6 imperial gudgeons and a little java moss for when spawning of any fish will occur. The pencil fish are nannostomus beckfordi.
thank you for ideas on plant species, the brazillian pennywort sounds really useful, as do the chain swords. I shall add the needed amount of fish to my mums shopping list.

Do you think I should add either glowlight or flame tetras?

Thank you for the information.

You're welcome. With these new fish named, you have some possible issues.

First, the Black Widow Tetra (Gymnocorymbus ternetzi) is a bit of a feisty fish, and known to resort to fin nipping especially when sedate fish are present. I would not include this tetra with the cichlids, and given the space I would leave it out anyway to give you more options. BTW, I forgot to mention previously that when you see a name shaded, you can click it for that species profile to pop-up so it saves searching; the name, whether common or scientific, has to be identical to that in the profile for this to work.

Second possible problem is the pencilfish. I have had this species for years, continually since 1995 now, and they are also rather feisty. This is the only pencil that has to be in with fairly robust fish. You're OK so far, as these remain in the upper half of the water and the cichlids remain in the lower 1/3, so the two rarely meet.;-) But if you should decide on say hatchetfish, which are nice in this sort of aquascape, this is problematic as N. beckfordi will continually nip hatchets. I currently have my N. beckfordi in my "active" tank, the 90g River Habitat, with Black Ruby Barb, Emperor Tetra, Congo Tetra and loaches. All quite active swimmers. The pencils will brazenly go after the barbs and Emperors when these get close to the surface, even though the barb and Emperor can give what they get.

The imperial gudgeon has me stumped; I did a Google search and the only freshwater fish that came close was the snakehead gudgeon which I believe are in Australia, your home country, and the Gobio species in Europe. I will need to known the exact species in order to comment. But none of these are South American anyway.

Glowlight and Flame are not problems.

Byron.

 

[Jainessnessness]

thanks again for this information. My little brother was having tail nipping problems with his tank of Black Widow Tetras, Neon Tetras and Imperial Gugeons, only just before I got your reply, so thank you for the insight. As for the Imperial Gugeons, when i first discovered them in my trough I took some to school and asked my aquatics teacher if he knows what they were and he said Imperial gugeon, I am sorry but I don't know the scientific name for them, all I know is that they're native to australia,lay eggs in a cave and protects the cave entrance 24/7, are an aquarium fish, are abundent in my cattle trough and is the hardiest fish i have ever seen or read about. The black widows and pencilfish shall be removed from the list as will the cardinals because i found out they could cost me $6 a fish. I will replace the cardinals with their cousins the Neon Tetra.

Right now im having trouble making the water soft and im looking for techniques i can do at home, any ideas?

Thank you again for this info. As you can see, I am very new to fish keeping. I only started last year, when my parents got me a 6ft fishtank for my 14th birthday, so the info your providing is much needed and appreciated.

 

[Byron]

thanks again for this information. My little brother was having tail nipping problems with his tank of Black Widow Tetras, Neon Tetras and Imperial Gugeons, only just before I got your reply, so thank you for the insight. As for the Imperial Gugeons, when i first discovered them in my trough I took some to school and asked my aquatics teacher if he knows what they were and he said Imperial gugeon, I am sorry but I don't know the scientific name for them, all I know is that they're native to australia,lay eggs in a cave and protects the cave entrance 24/7, are an aquarium fish, are abundent in my cattle trough and is the hardiest fish i have ever seen or read about. The black widows and pencilfish shall be removed from the list as will the cardinals because i found out they could cost me $6 a fish. I will replace the cardinals with their cousins the Neon Tetra.

Right now im having trouble making the water soft and im looking for techniques i can do at home, any ideas?

Thank you again for this info. As you can see, I am very new to fish keeping. I only started last year, when my parents got me a 6ft fishtank for my 14th birthday, so the info your providing is much needed and appreciated.

Adjusting the GH (general hardness) and corresponding pH of water in the aquarium is possible but must be carefully done or it can be catastrophic. Rather than repeat it here, I suggest you have a read of my article on GH and pH, here:
http://www.tropicalfishkeeping.com/freshwater-articles/water-hardness-ph-freshwater-aquarium-73276/
I mention the best method to lower the GH and pH therein.

But before considering that, we should review the GH, KH and pH of your source water (presumably tap), as some of the propsed fish may be fine and the less messing with water parameters the better. If adjustment is to be made, we will have to know these numbers anyway, as that is the starting point.

Byron.