Red tail sharks are a pain. I banished mine from the 125 gallon due to him picking on everyone including 2 comet goldfish which were 20 times bigger than him (they had bruising all over them). It now resides in the sump, a room that seldom has the light on... dad says I am cruel... I just tell him it was better than the toilet lol.
Senegal bichir tankmates
- Thread starter George84
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Red tail sharks are a pain. I banished mine from the 125 gallon due to him picking on everyone including 2 comet goldfish which were 20 times bigger than him (they had bruising all over them). It now resides in the sump, a room that seldom has the light on... dad says I am cruel... I just tell him it was better than the toilet lol.
Clown loaches are amazing with anything really (again not in an aggressive tank). Senegal ain't doing nothing to a clown loach. Cichlids that are less aggressive will always be okay with bichirs (I would even gander to say a little school of Africans will be okay). Bichirs in general are extremely tough fish. I have never had one die on me due to improper care (a baby Sen did escape into Gen pop and became lunch to someone). If you get the chance try out an ornate, amazing how different in shape they are, the heads are larger, and the grow spectacularly. I find them locally around $50 for a small one, but don't fear the price tag, easiest fish species to care for. Due to their air breathing, water quality is less of an issue than with other fish. They will even survive for a time crawling around on your floor. Just take care to keep your tank covered as I have heard they are very good at escaping.
Most air breathing fish like to escape, especially polypterus and channa.
That info seems pretty sound
In general you want to slowly build up your fish stock. It never hurts to plan ahead, but there are two reasons I can think of. The first and most important is it gives the bacteria in your tank the chance to catch up to the bio load after each add. I would probably wait about 2 weeks between fish adds at the minimum. The second reason you want to add slowly is tank balance. With every fish there becomes an established social balance between the fish. Fish not unlike people take time to get used to their neighbors. It is common for one single fish to throw the zen of an entire aquarium into chaos and death (if left unchecked). As your aquarium denizens become more and more diverse it gets a little easier to add fish. As you add fish you will start to understand what can and cannot be compatible with your setup. As a bichir fan, I have shyed away from pretty much all cichlids. I do have a lone blue ram (very pretty) and a pair of kribensis cichlids. These stay small so are okay with a sen, can't keep them with my ornate for obvious reasons (food). I once got an oscar, but it got nippy and started picking on my ghost knife (another great fish to keep with bichir) so I got rid of it. I now have a flower horn juvi in the tank, who seems to be at balance right now, but is a very rhobust eater. I can see that if the flower horn gets some size on him, he may decide he wants to kill off all competition. If that happens he may be gone. If you like odd fish like bichir, I recommend fire eel (if the tank is big enough) ghost knife (so very cool) lima shovel nose (gorgeous cat that can predate fish, but grows fairly slow and usually prefers to pretend being a vertical log, they also don't get overly large). These are all I have personal experience.... my favorite is the fire eel... nothing cooler than having a fish genuinely interested in you and eating from your hand.
Wow thanks for the info so how big do fire eels get and how would silver dollars do and same with angel fish the sharks I am planning on getting are rainbow normal and Albino bala sharks and maybe a red tail also how big do knife fish get and peacock eels will they stay a working fish it is doing fine now but will there be issues later
Fire eels can reach 3 feet or so, mine currently is nearing the 16 inch mark. I would avoid getting the red and rainbow sharks (at least not more than one) they are very territorial and won't tollerate their own kind unless you have a very large aquarium with enough places to claim territory. Bala sharks are a great fish, but they can reach more than a foot long and are a schooling fish, so you can imagine that these would require a HUGE tank. The ghost knife will reach about 20 inches, but it is a rigid 20" so they do require a fairly decent size aquarium. Ghost knife and clown loaches seem to grow quite slowly. I unfortunately lost my ghost at about 8 inches, but I will try again down the road.
Yes the fish I mentioned do get quite sizeable, but a decent setup could meet their needs for a few years. My fire eel started out quite small and has reached its 16 inches in the course of 2 years, I imagine he will begin to slow down at the 2 foot mark.
If you have a smaller aquarium and want some nice shark type fish, I would recommend Denison barbs (red line sharks). They max at the 6 inch mark, have beautiful reds and yellows, and are fairly non aggressive.
Silver dollars should be fine with any non aggressive or semi aggressive tank (fish eat anything that fits I'm their mouth) but from what I hear, silver dollars are waste machines and have a fairly large bio load.
If you have the smaller tank and have a peacock eel, they don't get quite as big and you can actually have several in a tank. The larger spine eel varieties like fire and tie track are usually one per aquarium (though I have seen multi in particularly large 400 plus gallon setups).
Size is a consideration when stocking your tank, but if you plan it right you can house even a fire eel in a 125 gallon for several years with no issues. It all depends on what you want in the hobby. Monsterfishkeepers.Com is a site for addicts, and if you get the aquarium itch, you will start pushing your limits and move up to bigger better tanks. If you are a beginner, stick around and visit the different threads, each section has their experts and good advice. Knowledge really is power when it comes to caring for any animals, and this place is full of the experiences of hundreds of people. Eventually you will find that dream fish and a setup to build around it, until then just enjoy the aquarium hobby.
All right cool the reason I was wondering was red hook silver dollars can take a beating for a arowana so I was seeing if they could bounce by from a beating like red hooks and how would angels do with a setup like this
This is my fire eel now... always begoing for food... always fun to see him poke his little nosecret out of the water probing for food
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