My tank and if anyone has any ideas for the future...

[Lloydy]

Hi everyone,

I am still pretty new to all of this having only had my tank a couple of months but I am still enjoying it after several water changes so I guess that's a good sign!

Well anyway... I have a 260l bow fronted Fluval Vicenza.

Current stock (all recently bought and therefore still small)

1x Hypancistrus sp. (L333)

3x Corydoras cf. julii
3x Gold/Sunset Mollies (2 females and 1 male) It was 3:1 but I sadly lost one a couple of weeks ago.
12x Cardinal tetra
4x Silver Sharks
1x Red tail black shark
2x Clown Loaches
3x Angel fish (now only 2, the white/platinum angel died yesterday )

(anyone care to play "Spot the Plec tail" in the picture with the Angels?)

2x Dwarf Red Gourami (mating pair)

I fancy putting 1 more Plec into this tank, then as the sharks and angels grow it will tempt me to buy another tank to give them some more space and then I might look at breeding Plecs.

I have the L333 and I think its a male so I might want to breed these and maybe either Green or Blue Phantoms. If anyone has experience of breeding any these and can assist me in deciding which 1 to get now, especially as I prefer the Green phantoms but the girlfriend prefers the Blues!!

[andywoolloo]

It looks very nice!! Is it like 68 US gals?

[MatsP]

Yes, 260 liter is about 68 US gal (and about 58 UK gal).

--
Mats

[sidguppy]

nice tank, although the lack of a backdrop (even black paper on outside would do) and the blue gravel's not my cup of tea

but be advised that:
-you put a prey in with a predator. when fully grown the Angelfish will appreciate the Cardinals. this is what they feed on in the wild.
-both the Bala Shark and the Clownbotia's are shoalers (wich means at least 6 or 8 should be a shoal), but they also reach 1 foot in length.
yup, the whole 12". they can reach 8" already in a short time.....

Mollies should be kept really warm and also a bit salty if they're the ones with a big dorsals. these do best when kept almost brackish.
and the warm temperatures wouldn't please the loaches, the cardinals or the sharks, the salt won't please any of the other fish at all.

the Balashark is a lawnmower. the bigger it gets the more browsing it does. adult Bala's can graze like a horse.....you can imagine what it does to a planted tank.

[geekshow]

Beautiful tank although i agree with sidguppy that a backdrop would make it better.

[Lloydy]

Thank you geekshow and sidguppy for the comments.

There is actually a nice backdrop on order. Its actually meant to used as a poster but I think it might look nice as a backdrop. Its a mainly black landscape with a hint of blue from the sea and the moon setting into it.

RE: Gravel - I looked at just black gravel but thought that would be too dark. Then I saw a nice tank with different shades of blue so I went for something very similar (I have light blue, dark blue and black gravel) and decided I wanted that.

I know I have a bit of a mixture of fish in there and yes im concerned about how the Angels and Tetra might get on if left for long enough, however I hope to have a 2nd tank of similar or slightly smaller size towards Christmas time so I will probably split them up. So im kind of hoping Angels dont grow big enough in the next 3-4 months to eat all the Tetra. If i'm proven wrong then... oh well I hope the Angels enjoy their meal

I only have 4 bala's because I was worried about having 7 or 8 of them and then when they got larger they would just take over. Same goes for the Clown loaches and I wanted space for the red tip black shark

Once the tank is a little more developed I think I might get 2 more Pleco's, growing them up and then taking 1 or 2 out and putting them into my 2nd tank, well ...unless the Girlfriend stops me