I have a 75g discus and cardinal tank, back in the day bought 3 otto's and a siamese algae eater + nirite snails. I found that all the algae eaters were a bit of over kill, I have since transfered all my cleanup crew to other tanks. Still 1 or 2 ottos hiding in the amazon leaves somewhere. I wouldn't get 6 unless you really like the way they look in the tank. I was looking into congos a while back, I got turned off because a bunch of them seem to get rather large when adult sized. Cardinals.... I think are amazing looking, but they are so finiky. I tried batches and batches of them, but they were always too weak from the local pet stores. I ended up ordering them off liveaquaria.com, and they finally survived the night. Big money drain on those guys.
Stocking options for my 75gal...Congo Tetras?
I am in the process of planning out what fish should inhabit my planted 75 gallon tank. The tank is filtered by two Eheim 2213's, and a Penguin HOB. I am also dosing CO2 with medium light.
My stocking idea so far:
7 Bronze Corydoras
8 Beckfords Pencilfish
6 Ottos
15 Cardinals/ or 8 Colombian Tetras
and as a centrepeice a school of about 6 Congo Tetras (Not sure what the ratio of males to females should be). I've heard a lot of good things about the Colombians, so I'm considering going with them instead of the cardinals. I like their colors and strong schooling behaviour.
Any comments or constructive criticism would be greatly appreciated!:thumbsup:
My stocking idea so far:
7 Bronze Corydoras
8 Beckfords Pencilfish
6 Ottos
15 Cardinals/ or 8 Colombian Tetras
and as a centrepeice a school of about 6 Congo Tetras (Not sure what the ratio of males to females should be). I've heard a lot of good things about the Colombians, so I'm considering going with them instead of the cardinals. I like their colors and strong schooling behaviour.
Any comments or constructive criticism would be greatly appreciated!:thumbsup:
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Kooka,
I have 7 Columbians and 10 (4 adult size,4") Congo tetras in my planted 75 gallon tank. They are in with my other community inhabitants along with planted and floating plants. I have an older picture in my public profile if you'd like, or pm for more recent pics or ideas. I was in the same position of deciding as you were 4 months ago.
I have 7 Columbians and 10 (4 adult size,4") Congo tetras in my planted 75 gallon tank. They are in with my other community inhabitants along with planted and floating plants. I have an older picture in my public profile if you'd like, or pm for more recent pics or ideas. I was in the same position of deciding as you were 4 months ago.
Perhaps others have had different expieriences with Congo's and Columbian's. I found them to be EXTREMELY active fish and as mentioned, Congo's can get quite large at around three ,maybe four inches while the Columbians ,will average around two and one half inches as adults IME.
I tried keeping them with smaller tetra's, and their activity levels often spooked the much smaller tetra's to the point that the tetra's seldom ventured from the plant's along the back glass.
Also proved to be a bit difficult at feeding time, for not much that swim's in my view, is faster at grabbing the lion's share of the food at feeding time with possible exception of danios.
Ended up placing the Congo's and Columbian's in a tank holding a much reserved Electric Blue
Dempsey and 5 Synodontis Multipunctatus. The young dempsey paid neither any mind and Synodontis proved to be almost as fast as the Congo's and Columbians.
I chose Bleeding heart tetra's to place with the much smaller cardinals, and a dozen Threadfin Rainbows added later.
I tried keeping them with smaller tetra's, and their activity levels often spooked the much smaller tetra's to the point that the tetra's seldom ventured from the plant's along the back glass.
Also proved to be a bit difficult at feeding time, for not much that swim's in my view, is faster at grabbing the lion's share of the food at feeding time with possible exception of danios.
Ended up placing the Congo's and Columbian's in a tank holding a much reserved Electric Blue
Dempsey and 5 Synodontis Multipunctatus. The young dempsey paid neither any mind and Synodontis proved to be almost as fast as the Congo's and Columbians.
I chose Bleeding heart tetra's to place with the much smaller cardinals, and a dozen Threadfin Rainbows added later.
Thanks everyone for your input, and great pics of your beautiful congos Bettatail! As for stocking my tank, I have pretty much decided on getting 6 congos as the dominant fish in the tank, and complementing them with a nice school of around 15 cardinals. I was contemplating on getting the colombians instead, but I really love the bright neon reds and blues of the cardinals. I'm going to head out to my lfs this weekend to get them. I will keep you posted on how they behave with one another once they become established.
Right now the tank looks to be fully cycled, 0 readings on all the "nasties", with a pH of about 6.5. Dosing DIY CO2 for now, planning to get pressurized in the future. My carpet plants seem to be responding well to the CO2, and the CRS and mystery snails are fine as well.
Right now the tank looks to be fully cycled, 0 readings on all the "nasties", with a pH of about 6.5. Dosing DIY CO2 for now, planning to get pressurized in the future. My carpet plants seem to be responding well to the CO2, and the CRS and mystery snails are fine as well.
1 - 6 of 6 Posts
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