Odd ball fish ideas

[ENZO]

I recently got a rope/reed/snake fish which inspired me to start an odd ball type tank. Currently in the tank I have:
-1 clown loach
-1 feather-fin synodontis
-1 striped raphael talking catfish
-1 gold gourami
-1 blushing angel
-common pleco
-clown pleco

I'm pretty much starting from scratch wiith it after an out break of ich I'm just getting over. I lost a few really cool fish, a pair of glass cats was my favorite of the ones that perished. Seeing it was my 1st tank and I was learning (I still sort of am) that's why it has such an odd combo of fish.

I need some ideas for odd ball fish that are less agressive.

[KnaveTO]

A common pleco and a clown loach both grow HUGE (greater than 40cm long) and should be in tanks that are greater than 75 gallons. Also clown loaches are commnunity fish and prefer to be amongst a few of their kind. You should keep them in a minimum quantity of 3, preferably even more.

[ENZO]

I know....

[Melody]

Okie dokie, so a couple of more Clown Loaches. Then what? My next step would be to narrow down my wish list based on compatibility. Many of the oddballs available are not community fish, so you're at a point now that you have to choose which type to have.

Then you have to look at the particular fish's needs, such as parameters, territory, etc.

The other consideration is of course, tank size. What size you have now is only important up to a point. If you fully intend to upgrade the tank size to accomodate the occupants, then it doesn't matter as long as it supports the present load.

The Ghost cats like cover - tall plants/ornaments & darker corners, in my experience, so you could create an inviting mini-habitat for them and get a school of three or more (they're another one that likes company, to a point that one has been known to perish if left alone). They also like a good current, so I set up their habitat in a back corner where the filter outflow is. Ghost Cats are community fish, very gentle and shy.

And please keep in mind that we have no idea how much you know and are only trying to help.

[ENZO]

glass cats wont work because of the ropefish i was thinking of getting an african butterfly fish and a black ghost knife fish and upgrade my tank to a 55 after a while

[WaterPond]

glass cats wont work because of the ropefish i was thinking of getting an african butterfly fish and a black ghost knife fish and upgrade my tank to a 55 after a while

:nah: Upgrad to a 55? No, if you are going to upgrade, make it worth your while and go for something like a 120gallon. That can support a good group of clown loaches, a common pleco, a school of ropefish (ropefish do best in groups), aswell as even a group of african butterflies, the clown pleco, the syno... and so on. I would saw skip the gourami and angel. They might not do the best in with the ropefish. I have seen them nip long fins. The ghost knife can even live comfortably in there.

[pacific]

I highly recommend the black ghost knife you are considering. Definitely the favourite fish in our tank. I can watch him swim around all day. We have ours in a community similar to the mix you've listed. We have:

- 1 black ghost knife
- 3 clown loaches
- 1 blue gourami
- 1 angel
- 2 bolivian rams
- 1 true siamese algae eater
- 1 common pleco

Everybody is getting along, since they each have their own territories, caves, logs, etc. The knife will shoo the rams and loaches out of his territory if they stray into it, but he doesn't chase or bite them. The biggest problem we have is with the SAE pestering the clown loaches. He started out smaller than them, but has passed them - ultimately they'll be much bigger than him, but they grow much slower.

[ENZO]

how big is your tank and do BGKs take long to grow? what do you feed them?

[pacific]

I've got them in a 38 gallon right now. All totaled I'm sitting pretty close to the "1 inch of fish per gallon" guideline. So I do plan to upgrade the tank - likely at Big Al's boxing week tank sale at the end of the year. The fish that are mostly driving the need to upgrade are the BGK which is now about 8", the pleco is 9", and the 3 clown loaches are 2"-3" each (but will ultimately get much bigger).

The BGK has grown from about 3" when we bought him (back in March or April), on a diet of frozen brine shrimp, frozen blood worm, and OSI sinking shrimp pellets. He also eats the odd nibble of other foods such as the Hikari sinking wafers I put in for the clown loaches and other granules, but he doesn't touch flake. I've put some live red wriggler worms in a few times, but I haven't seen him get any of them - the clown loaches and rams seem to get most of them.

[Jungle Girl]

AFRICAN BUTTERFLY FISH are cool, but my first one hid, refused to eat, and then he died. He had shelter, plant cover, relatively still water, and no aggressive tankmates. Months later, I tried again with a different supplier and although this butterfly is still shy, he actually eats! YAY!!! (I do want to have a couple more butterflies so they can hang out together, but I was nervous about them dying, so I only bought one to start...) ANYWAYS, my butterfly fish will ONLY EAT LIVE INSECTS, so be ready for that if yours ends up being a picky eater too.