African river biotope fish suggestions....

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Yoimbrian

Dovii
MFK Member
Feb 11, 2013
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Hey all!!!

So my wife and I signed the paperwork to build a house last weekend, meaning we'll be moving in May or June next year - giving me not very long to decide on fish (I'd like to buy and start growing them out very shortly). I'm planning on 120x30x24, I don't really want to go wider than that for ease of clean purposes, and I want to cut down on humidity and heating costs. I really like bichirs and I'm thinking about doing a biotope around them, but for the life of me I can't find any mid-sized african river fish. It seems to go from dwarf cichlids to the GATF.....any suggestions on ~10-18" fish? I'd ideally like a few mid sized cichlids, and then I'm also looking for an active schooling fish (like tinfoil barbs or silver dollars....but african biotope fitting).

I really like the biotope concept so I can match water chemistry and also have a legit feel to it, but my backup plan would be dats, tinfoil barbs, oscar, etc with the bichirs
 
You could always look at any of the tilapia sp. like jewel cichlids and congo tetras. That would be a pretty colorful tank.
 
Distochodus are the african version of tinfoil barbs. Actually, more like giant tiger barbs.
 
Yeah they are really cool. Don't they get 12"+?

So many options like catfish and bichirs.


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Most species can get to about 2', but it takes a while.

Consider girrafe cats as well. Get to about 2' and are nice and peaceful. Almost all synodontis cats are African and behave rather like clown loaches. There are several interesting knives from Africa as well; Papyrocranus afer is a particularly beautiful example. There are several members of the genus Alestes that look and act almost like larger barbs or mahseers.

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They'd work well too, but thyre a schooling fish.

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All the more reason to get 6 of them ;)
 
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