38 gallon tank predators?

[white specter crayfish]

I'm glad you are here asking questions- mixing all those African cichlids, with apistos, would not be a great idea. Tankganyikan cichlids out of all African cichlids, need the highest pH to thrive. Apistogrammas come from south America, where water is usually soft and pH is low. The two wouldn't be able to thrive together- one or the other would be out of sorts.
However, if you're interested in tanganyikans, I think that would be a great idea. You could easily do a colony of shell-dwellers such as n. ocellatus, as well as a small group of altolamprologus compressiceps. would make a great display and be interesting to watch the fish interact with each other. I'd use crushed coral substrate to ensure hard high-pH water. They will eat brine shrimp and ghost shrimp- might satisfy your desire to see something get eaten, and be much healthier than rosy reds.

Ok, yeah if have to research, the tank is 30 inches long 18 inches high and 12 inches wide, I might do a Malawi, tanganyika, or something, would a butterfly fish be ok with a butterfly fish and would tanganyikas eat live food? Would a kribensis work with tanganyika cichlids

 

[white specter crayfish]

I'm glad you are here asking questions- mixing all those African cichlids, with apistos, would not be a great idea. Tankganyikan cichlids out of all African cichlids, need the highest pH to thrive. Apistogrammas come from south America, where water is usually soft and pH is low. The two wouldn't be able to thrive together- one or the other would be out of sorts.
However, if you're interested in tanganyikans, I think that would be a great idea. You could easily do a colony of shell-dwellers such as n. ocellatus, as well as a small group of altolamprologus compressiceps. would make a great display and be interesting to watch the fish interact with each other. I'd use crushed coral substrate to ensure hard high-pH water. They will eat brine shrimp and ghost shrimp- might satisfy your desire to see something get eaten, and be much healthier than rosy reds.

Ok, yeah if have to research, the tank is 30 inches long 18 inches high and 12 inches wide, I might do a Malawi, tanganyika, or something, would a butterfly fish be ok with a butterfly fish and would tanganyikas eat live food? and would a kribensis do ok with tanganyikas

 

[Deadliestviper7]

How about a single tanganyikan? Choose the best looking one you can find.
Feed it the following live foods:
Mosquito larvae
Guppy or mosquitofish fry (breed them yourself)
Brine shrimp
Mysis
Small aquatic insects
Pinhead crickets

 

[Deadliestviper7]

How about you and a buddy of yours fight til you're an inch from death and it takes a year to fully recover from it and then yall do it again only for you to be beaten an inch from death?

Never intentionally fight Bettas, the fin damage often doesn't heal right, plus seemingly minor injuries can get infected and you lose fish, plus the loser can sometimes get so stressed it just gets sick and dies

 

[fishhead0103666]

Sorry to be the one to rain on your parade but if you think the 30 inch long tank is a 38 gallon then you've been told wrong information. That's a 29.

 

[fishhead0103666]

38 too small for ropefish IMO. Those guys can get pretty long. I would stick with the African butterfly, and maybe a peacock spiny eel if you like elongated fish.
Feeding rosies is a bad idea in my opinion, even if you quarantine for a couple months. Internal parasites can be quite difficult to diagnose and treat. Not to mention, the rosies are not good source of nutrition unless you gutload. And then it's all this effort, why, just so you can watch something die? Seems silly to me.

Peacock eels are great, I can speak from experience. Also +1 about the rosies. If you want a live food then breed guppies. You could even get some high quality guppies so they'll look good in their own tank and you can use some of the fry for food.

tank size is an opinion thing, but there are certain cases where it comes down to common sense. Yes they are flexible, but a 38 gallon is what, probably 12 inches wide? The fish wouldn't be able to fully extend width-wise, let alone have room to swim around. Sounds incredibly claustrophobic to me. Albino senegal bichir might be better than the ropefish, but to me the tank is too small for either option. Senegal's are very active, I used to have one in a 90 and it swam non-stop.
Dwarf pikes would be a decent option, though I would get a group instead of one, and give them the whole tank with some dithers too large to eat, like hatchetfish

Do you feel that an albino short body senegal bichir would be too big as well?

 

[white specter crayfish]

Never intentionally fight Bettas, the fin damage often doesn't heal right, plus seemingly minor injuries can get infected and you lose fish, plus the loser can sometimes get so stressed it just gets sick and dies

Sorry to be the one to rain on your parade but if you think the 30 inch long tank is a 38 gallon then you've been told wrong information. That's a 29.

.oh, you're right, I checked

 

[white specter crayfish]

Ok, I am really considering a bichir, assuming I can't get one I might go for a sun fish if I can find one, would they still eat feeder guppies and stuff? where would I get one

 

[fishhead0103666]

These are 2 of my sun catfish. Each are around 4.5 inches and aren't done growing. They will get upto about 8 inches in time and they're a schooling fish. Hopefully that is enough to make you take them off your list.

 

[white specter crayfish]

View attachment 1333697
These are 2 of my sun catfish. Each are around 4.5 inches and aren't done growing. They will get upto about 8 inches in time and they're a schooling fish. Hopefully that is enough to make you take them off your list.

they weren't on my list to begin with, I don't know I'll check to see if a bichir is ok, if not I guess exodon is the way to go would exodon eat feeders though?