Hi From UK

[neil holmes]

Hi everyone.

I have just come across this site and joined straight away.

I have had tropical fish for years but have upgraded from a 125 litre tank to a 79x24x24 inch tank.

It will be set up soon and then filled and left to "cycle" I will transfer my Red Pleco as well as my synodontis and maybe my larger angel fish.

I am considering a fire eel as our local aquarium shop had one in and I loved the colours of it and how they managed to hand feed it.

What types of fish do other people keep in their large tanks?

I am maybe thinking discus etc.

I love striking colours and want fish large enough that the fire eel wouldn't try to eat!

look forward to hearing from everyone and reding the forums.

Neil

 

[SHANE64]

Welcome Neil

 

[justarn]

hi, welcome to mfk, another uk member for us lot. we are a bit out of sink time wise with the usa so we miss the busiest times on here...
lots of good info, im sure there will be loadsa suggestions, guessing your after a peacful community then, possibly add some peacful cichlids such as keyholes, rams, appistogramma, electric blue acara. there are lots of smaller species of spiney eel if your not sure about a monster 3ft fire eel.

 

[neil holmes]

Hi guys, I realise the time difference as I am a retired British Soldier and am used to working in different time zones

Due to our current size of tank I (well that is actually me and my wife) have only kept smaller species of fish such as dwarf Gourami, Blue Ram, Molly, sword tail, yoyo loach etc. I have always had pleco's and Angels. We have only ever managed to breed the angels successfully once. The male would take them to clean them and forget to put them back and eat them Unfortunately we lost our breeding pair so only have 2 angels left.

 

[justarn]

haha ok, im sure you will get lots of good advise on breeding angels in the cichlid section mate, some kissing gourami would do well in the larger tank!-)

 

[Evz jardini]

Welcome to the UK mfk family neil where about in UK are you based ?
Like Justin said you could start to add some of the more peaceful species of cichlid to your community along with your angels now you've got a bit more space for territory's and maybe a shoal of clown loach and various Cory cats for a cleanup crew. I look forward to seeing pictures of your setup once cycled and what choices you make out of the endless ones possible happy fishkeeping

 

[neil holmes]

I live in South Wales in-between Chepstow and Newport. We have loads of gravel for the tank but I have read that for certain fish sand is the preferred substrate so currently considering this. Got to think it through carefully so I can have it planned before I do anything as that could affect what fish are suitable for the tank. I do like the larger size fish as the smaller sizes can always go in my other 2 tanks. I even have a tank for 2 apple snails who are laying eggs. I had them before he European ban came into force and hopefully the eggs will produce offspring so that I can carry on keeping apple snails as I think they are great to look at and see moving around the tank with their "tentacles" out.

 

[Evz jardini]

I'm born and raised in Manchester but my whole family are from the valleys
Hooliganatv(shane) is based in south whales he's probably your nearest mfk'r

If you were considering bigger speices you could check out some of the geophagus they look awesome in large setups with sand and river boulders or perhaps some severums these will be fine in your setup with angels and are reasonably none aggressive cichlids

 

[hooliganATV]

I live in South Wales in-between Chepstow and Newport. We have loads of gravel for the tank but I have read that for certain fish sand is the preferred substrate so currently considering this. Got to think it through carefully so I can have it planned before I do anything as that could affect what fish are suitable for the tank. I do like the larger size fish as the smaller sizes can always go in my other 2 tanks. I even have a tank for 2 apple snails who are laying eggs. I had them before he European ban came into force and hopefully the eggs will produce offspring so that I can carry on keeping apple snails as I think they are great to look at and see moving around the tank with their "tentacles" out.

welcome in neil, not to far from you. I'm barry way. you can always go for a mixture of substrate half and half etc, why limit your self hahaha

 

[neil holmes]

I really like the fire eel and have read that they like to burrow. I was thinking that anything apart from sand may damage them? I am also thinking about the aquascaping side of it. I currently have rocks etc. but again I read that these can damage the eel as they scrape over them. I realise I have to build some "caves" or hiding places for my plec, feather synodontis, and yoyo-yo loachs.

The other question I have is plants! I gave up trying to plant our tank years ago as they would get ripped out or if they managed to stay planted they made it harder to vacuum the gravel on our weekly water change and clean.

How do people manage to keep their tanks planted and also adequately clean the substrate?