Stocked myself into a Corner...

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cvermeulen

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Jun 4, 2007
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Los Osos, CA
Well... here it is. I inherited this little goldfish, buddy in a bowl. I quickly moved him into a 5gal, and then he was the only thing on hand when I set up my 200 gal, so in he went.

Now, everyone is a littel attached to buddy (even though I think he's a bit of a useless PITA). So I can't give him away. He's about 3" long right now... and the old lady miiiight not let me set up a seperate tank for him :p

Also in that tank now are 4 mollies (food!), a 3" BGK, who I like far too much to get rid of. A bunch of mystery and giant apple snails, a 5" butterfly plec, and a 11" sailfin plec.

So... I originally wanted to get colorful cichlids, but of course, almost none of the fish I want to keep in there will get along with the cichlids. Buddy the goldfish needs to find a new home eventually... I don't want a freakin goldfish in my tropical 200gal tank, so his compatibility isn't a big concern. Mostly it's the knife I'm worried about - he'll potentially eat smaller tankmates, but may get picked on by any agressive tankmates.

I mostly want color and personality in the tank - I'd like to add 6-8 clown loaches, but they will eat all my snails, and be another bottom dwelling, shy fish. I need someone to occupy the mid to upper tank, be active during the day, and hopefully provide some color. Anyone have any thoughts?

If I let that knife fish grow out a little bit, and then introduce a young severum or acara with some dither fish, do you think he would be OK? I know he will get huge, but I don't really want to wait for a year before adding any other fish. Besides when he gets really big, I'll have to carefully consider my bioload.
 
Clown loaches are not shy fish, mine beg for food. Keep them in a nice shoal for better behavior.
 
CL's would be fine, and they won't eat your larger snails. For mid-top swimming, you should consider discus. They will be colorful, are not too shy, and are not too aggressive.
 
get your goldfish an outdoor pond.

Get an oscar, 3-6 bloodparrots and some silver dollars for the 200 gallon.
they get big enough not to get eaten and should leave your knife alone.
Get a ten or twenty gallon for the snails n mollies ;)
 
If your looking for non aggressive cichlids sevs certainly fit the bill. Theres plenty of different colours now, red, super red, gold, green, turquoise, Red Shoulder to name but a few. Some say sevs are boring but Ive certainly never found this to be the case and in a tank like your 200g you could have about 10 or more in your tank. I was alaso going to suggest an O but it may be a bit of a risk with the CL's, you might get away with it if you bought the O from very small and it grew up with the CL's but it may still be a risk. Synspilums are low to medium aggersive cichlids, have a nice colour and a decent personallity too.
 
Lots of talk about cichlids... I love cichlids (who doesn't?) but I've been heavily cautioned about the vulnerability of the knife. Even my stupid goldfish tries to eat his tail now and again. I love oscars, and would have no problems keeping them happily enough fed not to need to eat the others in the tank, but I'd forever be worried about the BGK. I thought about Sevs as well. what I'd really like are

Convicts
Acara
Red shoulder sev
firemouths for some dither
an O

All of those show potential to harass my knife though. Am I just being paranoid?
 
Oh and if the snails have to die, then the snails have to die ;p. the ones I have are pretty boring. I might set up a 30G for the goldie and the snails... the mollies can be food at any point, that's what mollies are for ;)
 
my first fish was also a gold fish (Howard)
we won or rescued him at the del mar fair
i didnt want to dedicate a big tank to goldfish
so i put him in a 10gal in grandpas room
gramps loves him
im planning an outdoor pond for him now

with 200 gallons you have alot of options
dont limit yourself do whatever you want

get another tank to make it work
and tell the wifey you got it for free
thats what i do
just bring the tank home then explain it later
i like to let her find it on her own so shes surprised

this was her when she found my new African Lungfish and tank:eek:

just play it cool:grinno:
 
sNAkeDoG :: CLMT;989756; said:
my first fish was also a gold fish (Howard)
tell the wifey you got it for free
thats what i do
just bring the tank home then explain it later
i like to let her find it on her own so shes surprised

this was her when she found my new African Lungfish and tank:eek:

just play it cool:grinno:
Click to expand...

:ROFL: :ROFL: lesson learned! might be of good use in the future :D
 
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