Eutropiellus buffei - Compatible for my tank?

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Fella
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Eutropiellus buffei - Compatible for my tank?

Post by Fella »

Hi there

I was wondering the minimum tank size for a group of these african glass catfish

Image

I have a 30 long 40x18x12 tank, and was wondering if 6 specimens would find good home in it.

Other occupants are -

Neolamprologus multifasciatus x 3
Pantodon Buchholzi x 1

Other planned occupants include

Julidochromis transcriptus x 2

Too much in too little? The Cichlids are really being kept at the lowest end of their PH scale I'm afraid at neutral, so lowering it would not be an option. I have already checked the Cat-E-log and some of the photos make information difficult to distinguish. Many thanks!
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MatsP
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Post by MatsP »

Ok, you've managed to get me confused: The subect title is Euotropiellus buffei, which is a synonym for .

However, you also say "African glass catfish", which is another member of the same family, but not the same genus:

So, which one of these do you actually mean?

As to compatibility, you've already covered the fact that they are diferent pH. Both catfish species are river fish, which means that they will like flowing water, and they prefer softer water.

Both the Neolamprologus and Julidochromis species are Lake Tanganyika fish, and they prefer higher pH and fairly high hardness.

I think you can compromise between the two ideal conditions, but the tank will essentially end up having fish from two different habitats that both aren't in the best possible conditions.

Further, I would worry that the c-ichlids are agressive towards the catfish, and that there's not such agressive species in the catfish's normal habitat, so they are defenceless for these attacks - generally fish from the same habitat will cope with each other, at least as long as they are reasonably the same size. This is just speculation, as I've never kept any of the species involved in this discussion - one of my childhood friends parents had a Julidochromis pair, and they were litteraly unable to keep any other fish in that tank...

My personal suggestion would be to set the tank up for Tanganyika conditions, or something close to it, and get one of the Tanganyika Synodontis species.

--
Mats
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