Tank mates for my L333's

Owch · Post by **Owch** » 30 Sep 2005, 15:55

My 180 litre tank of 6 x L333's is a little quite with them in there on their own. I thought it would be a good idea for them to be in a tank by themselves but the place look's in need of a little colour and activity.

I plan on conditioning them to breed but was wondering if they would still try with 10 cardinal and 10 glowlight tetras in there, also, would they act as a dither and entice them out of hiding.

The tank is sort of set up like a river systen, with the internal Juwel pointing mid water level and an external fluval 304 at lower level, flow from right to left.

It has a sandy substrate with small rocks and pebbles along the back of the tank, 6 slate spawning caves (that I made myself ver nice!) and a big bit of Mopani wood.

So, cardinals and glowlights. And will they act as dithers>

Cheers

Tom

MatsP · Post by **MatsP** » 30 Sep 2005, 16:35

Cardinals will act as dithers, but probably won't be appreciating the strong current that the tank would have with two filters working in parallel. Some more "current" oriented fish would probably like it better. Not sure, Shane usually knows what lives in the same environment...

--
Mats

Post by **Janne** » 30 Sep 2005, 17:37

Small tetras dont like to heavy currents...but tetras from the Leporinus family does, the only problem is that they usually get big. A small species and a pair of Teleocichla or Crenecichla (cichlids) could do well and they have also an interesting behavior.

Janne

racoll · Post by **racoll** » 30 Sep 2005, 17:46

When I get round to getting my rapids tank sorted out, with the plecs, i'll be keeping some Teleocichla or Crenicichla urosema....If i can find any....

I think congo tetras would be another good choice though, they are a nice size for that tank, like the current and the males look great.

racoll · Post by **racoll** » 30 Sep 2005, 17:49

I wasn't copying you there Janne, i must have be writing mine as you posted yours!

egz · Post by **egz** » 30 Sep 2005, 18:36

Hi Tom,
I have the same situation with my 8 L333's, though they are smaller (as you refer to conditioning them to spawn I assume they are close to mature) and will be split into two tanks soon. I recently purchased a school of 16 blue tetra (Boehlkea fredcochui)and added them to the current 48x18x18. They are very pretty little fellas, and seem to enjoy the current immensely, yet they are very voracious feeders and their presence requires a separate feeding after dark as little hits the bottom without their attention. I would consider a smaller school and something like a pair of Bolivian Rams or other apistos as a more well-rounded 'community', while trying to keep the focus on the hypans. Just an idea

egz

kev · Post by **kev** » 01 Oct 2005, 15:44

Alrite Tom,
I have 10 penguin tet's in with my 10 l-333's, and like you im try'n to breed them. I have collected fish from the Rio Xingu last year personally so i've made my tank look as much like the river as i could (within reason) Janne is spot on with recomending Leporinus as they are all over the place. I only chose p. tet's because we caught them in a stream off the main river, as for Apisto's the one's we collected where from very still water.

Kev

bronzefry · Post by **bronzefry** » 01 Oct 2005, 16:02

May I ask what a dither is?

racoll · Post by **racoll** » 01 Oct 2005, 16:16

i agree. apistos aren't a fast water fish (although there may be some species, but i've never heard of any), and wouldn't be ideal.

A dither is a usually small fish (often shoal of) that are used to give shy fish the confidence to come out of hiding.

They feel, "well it's OK for the little ones, so it must be OK for me, as the little shoal fish's greater number of eyes are more likely to spot danger.

dithers are mostly used this way with discus.

kev, have you got any pics of this tank?

Owch · Post by **Owch** » 01 Oct 2005, 18:52

Yeh Kev, Ill show you mine if you show me your's

I'll go and take some pickies now.

Owch · Post by **Owch** » 01 Oct 2005, 18:55

Also Kev, what size tank do you have and whats the ratio of males to females.

(Are you the chap who helps out at Pier Aquatics and told me to get some L333's from there? The dark haired lady was very helpful in picking out 1 male and 1 female for me.)

kev · Post by **kev** » 01 Oct 2005, 20:52

Ok here go's, ive had to use my camcorder as my digi cam's batt is dead so no flash.

see the screwcumber (plug) .

The tank is 48"x15"x15" and has a layer of pebbles on the bottom and then like a mish/mash of slate some siliconed and some just leaning. there's a 802 for circulation. about ratio, if i remember right i think there is 6 male's to 4 girlies. Im using the throw them in a tank and wait and see what happen's method. I'll post some better pic's soon.

Kev

Owch · Post by **Owch** » 02 Oct 2005, 00:09

Here they are, as promised.

The tank is a Juwel Rio 180 (~150lts water) with a Fluval 304 external containing 1 prefilter bed and 2 trays of biomax, each layer is polished by a pad of filterfloss.
pH = 6.5
Temp = 29*C (84.2*F)
kH = 2dkH (buffered with tufa rock)
gH = 3gkH (buffered with tufa rock)
Ammonia = 0mg/l
Nitrite = 0mg/l
Nitrate = 10mg/l
Water change = 20lts every other day (ish)
Feed = Tetra Prima, spirulina, Hikari Algae wafers, bloodworms, chopped prawns (I buy a load from the fishmongers and freeze them in a block, then grate off what I need) apples, cucumber, I even snuck them a bit of Beefheart that's for my discus but Im not sure I should.

I thinks that's about it, apart from the tetras Im going to get, I think 10 penguins will look nice in there.

This is the whole picture.

This is someone at home in one of my lovingly made caves (i.d = 1.0" x 1.5"). A little small when they grow up maybe?

Various caves and mopani, the right cave is 1.5" x 2.0"

The inlet for my Fluval 304, both sizes of cave together.

The outlet from the Fluval, and the whole of the Juwel. This is going to be changed to the outlet of the Fluval at the other end with the outlet of the Juwel at the same end via a pipe and spraybar, with both inlets at the right of the tank.

This is how the tank spends most of the evening, lights out with the lamp (low energy bulb) next to the tank giving a dull light.

Marc Schnau · Post by **Marc Schnau** » 02 Oct 2005, 00:34

Hi,

in my L333(4x, plus 2 in two or three weeks) tank are 11 Corydoras pygmeus and 12 Hyphessobrycon elachys (2,5cm or 1" when in adult age). There are also two widowers, but they get another place to stay, so i will add 6-8 Hyphessobrycon nigricinctus at the end of october.

Also, as a beautiful and colorful contrast, axelrodia riesei is a good choice. Very small and if they are in good condition show a nice ruby color.

Greeting
Marc (I like dwarf cichlids, southamerican catfish and tetras ;) )

Owch · Post by **Owch** » 03 Oct 2005, 20:48

Marc Schnau wrote:Hi,

in my L333(4x, plus 2 in two or three weeks) tank are 11 Corydoras pygmeus and 12 Hyphessobrycon elachys (2,5cm or 1" when in adult age). There are also two widowers, but they get another place to stay, so i will add 6-8 Hyphessobrycon nigricinctus at the end of october.

Also, as a beautiful and colorful contrast, axelrodia riesei is a good choice. Very small and if they are in good condition show a nice ruby color.

Greeting
Marc (I like dwarf c*****ds, southamerican catfish and tetras ;) )

Some nice fish suggestions. But will they be up to the currents and temperatures in an L333 tank?

Marc Schnau · Post by **Marc Schnau** » 04 Oct 2005, 11:17

It fits really good.
C. pygmaeus up to 28Â°, pH 6-8, dH up to 25
Hy. elachys up to 27Â°, pH 6-7.5, dH up to 15
L 333 26 - 31Â°, pH 6.4-7.2 and very soft water

I keep them in pH 6.0, 27Â°, dH 3.0, spending hours of watching these two groups swimming around, sometimes they build a mixed swarm of 23 fishes. Wonderful. Even better if you are able to get some C. hastatus. If you like, take a look here:
Corycats

Marc

L1Sailfin · Post by **L1Sailfin** » 08 Oct 2005, 12:58

I bought an L333 last weekend on impulse because it was stunning. Mine is quite active and rarely hides, and it eats like a pig

. It shares it's tank with L177, L75 and L66 along with clown loaches, Panda barbs, Gouramis and a humbug dorad.

plecosaur · Post by **plecosaur** » 08 Oct 2005, 20:27

Those L333's can be really hardy tankmates. I have a single one, very small, 1.5-2" in a 125g with some large S. & C. American Cichlids. He's been in there well over a year by now I reckon and can go toe to toe with the red devil, well okay, not quite, but the size disparity makes all the cichlids ignore the lil guy.
(I know all of this goes against common wisdom, meant to take the guy out, but he likes scooting around in there too much it seems).

I'd keep the bottom free for them to hunt around and pick out territories for future breeding. Skip over the tetra species if you plan on having a high heat, high current tank and try a shoal of juvenile silver dollars, whatever species local stores have in stock that aren't red hooks or black bars; plain common silvers or common black spotted ones will hit 4" in my experience and then slow down at that point in growth.

They would do a good job in enticing the plecos out of hiding and the silver dollars I've kept have down well in 82-84F water with heavy current.

I don't know whether your L333's prefer laminar or turbulent flow, but I keep my mixed plecos with the majority of water movement laminar, with a few small aimed powerheads for turbulence in specific areas.

Owch · Post by **Owch** » 12 Oct 2005, 17:31

I've just got 10 lovely Blue Tetras (Boehlkea Fredcochui), and they love the water, zipping around in the flow of the 2 outlets, and chasing each other around. The only thing now is........ 10 doesn't look enough

. Another trip to the fish shop then

Tank mates for my L333's

Tank mates for my L333's

Dithers

Re: Dithers