Hi, im jamy and i live in Finland but iam originally from Holland.
I recently started up my 1st ever aquarium. Ive been thinking about it for months and ive been doing lots of research on the internet. And after i moved together with my girlfriend it was the perfect time to finally do it. I allready knew i loved catfishes and i already spent many hours reading on the site before joining. My tank is an eheim scubaline 180L and i got 7 corydoras aeneus ( 2 adult albino + 5 jong regular colored) and 3 bristlenose pl*cs (2 male + 1 female) I allso got a school of cardinal tetra's. My tank isnt exactly how i want it yet but i know what i want. I plant to add more driftwood and grow lots of anubias and java fern on it. I allso want to add lots of floating plants. I know not to cover the entire surfice because the cory's need to be able to swim up for air sometimes. Heres a photo of my tank. I hope u like it but any critics are welcome. Its only been my hobby for a few weeks yet
Welcome to planetcatfish and my compliments on your nicely set up aquarium.
You don't have to worry about floating plants preventing Corydoras cat from accessing atmospheric air; that would be almost impossible.
What you do want to watch out for is as your plants grow you will have to prune them just enough to prevent the top growth from cutting off so much light that the bottom or low lying plants continue to receive enough light to continue to grow well.
Both Anubias and the mosses tend to grow best in less intense light than say, Amazon Swords and make good choices for the most shaded areas of the 'scape. All in all, I think you are off to a good start.
I don't know what your tastes in fishes are but Cardinals look good when you keep another school of one of the rhomboidal shaped Tetra species. Black Phantoms are a good choice since their dark color and different shape is complimentary to Cardinals.
You may want to entertain the thought of trying to include some other catfish, providing they won't be over crowding your tank.
Some I recommend are the ever popular and bizarre Banjo Catfish. One of the strangest and easiest of the oddball cats to keep. Maybe a small fancy Hypancistrus sp or Peckoltia L134 for a small colorful exotic catfish that would add to the viewing pleasure. All of these fish stay reasonably small and will not harm any tetras.
I will definitely look up the fish species. I still got room for a few more fishes and i was thinking about a small school of middle/ top dwellers like tetra's pencilfish or hatchetfish and maybe a few odd looking bottom dwellers. And i plan to stick with southamerican species. Im not sure yet how strong my lights are, and im abit worried of the 2 java ferns on the right of getting too much light especially the one that reaches to the surface. But all in all id like it to get more shady. So next weeks il be looking for the perfect piece of wood and some floating plants.
