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Ok here is what I want to do. I wan t a tank of catfish that are a good mix together. Here is what is on my list right now(includes non catfish botias):
1 bronchis splendens
2 clown loaches
1 pictus cat
1 albino bristlenose plecos
1 syndocus (sp?) of some sort
and 1 red tailed tiger botia



what else would you recomend to add? Something unique? Not that expensive. Thanks!

How big is the tank?

I would lean towards either more Brochis or Pictus cats, as both tend to be happier in groups.

If Pictus then you would want at least five to difuse agression amongst them (two or three can result in the dominant one harassing the others), but the Brochis will be happy with any increase in numbers.

I only had 2 Brochis at first, but then my friend gave me 3 more and as soon as I put them in the tank, they all started swimming together. They are definately happier in groups. You should have at least 2. Loaches are cool, but clown loaches can get a foot long. Synodontus are nice fish too. I think some species like being in groups, but not all. Some can get quite big too.

I've made a new list:
2 bronchis splendens
1-2(undicided) albino bristlenose pl*cos
1 syndocus (sp?) of some sort
and 1 red tailed tiger botia

can you tell me what kind of syndocus to get? (smaller side please I don't want a foot long catfish.) Thanks!

Do you mean "Synodontis"? There are just short of 100 species of Syno's, most of which are "midsized", so less than a foot but more than a couple of inches. As to which one, would depend on what you like... And what's available locally, and how much you're willing to spend.

However, I'm a great believer in "more of one sort" rather than the "one of each of many sorts" in fishkeeping [as a general rule, there are cases where one fish is definitely enough, Betta splendens males, for example, are best kept with no conspecific males...]

So I would advise adding more of fish that you've already got first. If you still have room after that, you can add more species.

Also, it would be good if you did answer the question about tank-size that was asked earlier.

--
Mats

sorry tank size is 55 and I don't have any of the fish above cept a red tailed tiger boti that is gonna move into the 55.

2-4 (depends on availibility) bronchis splendens
1-2(undicided possible pair) bristlenose pl*cos
1 Synodontis(maybe) of some sort
and 1 red tailed tiger botia

I am open for many many many suggestions!

n e 1 ?

2-3 Corydoras panda
1 (male) bristlenose pl*co
2-3 corydoras sterbai (SP?)
2 clown loaches (MAYBE BIG MAYBE)
and 1 red tailed tiger botia

I still need advise. Thanks!

Reptilian wrote:2-3 Corydoras panda
1 (male) bristlenose pl*co
2-3 corydoras sterbai (SP?)
2 clown loaches (MAYBE BIG MAYBE)
and 1 red tailed tiger botia

Make that:
5-6 C. panda or 5-6 C. sterbai
2 (pair) BN
5 rt tiger botias
and some shoaling fish you like to see in the middle and upper water layers

I started with 5 rt tiger botias the one that is left killed all the other ones.

Ok so here is the new list.

5-6 Corydoras sterbai
2 (pair) Bristlenoses
1 RT tiger botia
1 Synodontis(BIG maybe) of some sort
and a Pictus cat








I still need more answers, Thnaks!

anyone at all?

Personally I would try to avoid keeping any of the more agressive tiger loaches (Botia hymenophysa, B. beauforti, B. berdmorei) with small corydoras. They can be mixed, but in my experience at feeding time these sort of loaches will always out-compete corys and push them around. Nothing really life-threatening, but certainly far from harmonius and I don't imagine the corys would feel comfortable in such situations where they have to fight for scraps.

If you want to keep the tiger loaches then I'd forget the corys, though Brochis cats will probably fare better as they are physically much larger and capable of withstanding unwanted attention better. Either keep the tiger loaches or the corydoras, but I would advise against both in the same tank.

Here's a good site for loach information: http://www.loaches.com/index.html


Pictus cats *should* be fine with loaches, but be sure you have plenty of hiding spots as they tend to like similar haunts and the scaleless pictus may get cut up by the loach's eye spine should they fight for the same spot.


If you want one big Synodontis then I would recommend . They are attractive, easy to come by, generally peaceful and won't bother small fish like corys. I've kept a fully grown adult in a tank with small corys and not had any problems at all, the large syno completely ignored the small cats even at feeding time.

The best advice I can offer is to do your reasearch, be patient and not to rush into things.

snowball wrote:Personally I would try to avoid keeping any of the more agressive tiger loaches (Botia hymenophysa, B. beauforti, B. berdmorei) with small corydoras. They can be mixed, but in my experience at feeding time these sort of loaches will always out-compete corys and push them around. Nothing really life-threatening, but certainly far from harmonius and I don't imagine the corys would feel comfortable in such situations where they have to fight for scraps.

If you want to keep the tiger loaches then I'd forget the corys, though Brochis cats will probably fare better as they are physically much larger and capable of withstanding unwanted attention better. Either keep the tiger loaches or the corydoras, but I would advise against both in the same tank.

Here's a good site for loach information: http://www.loaches.com/index.html


Pictus cats *should* be fine with loaches, but be sure you have plenty of hiding spots as they tend to like similar haunts and the scaleless pictus may get cut up by the loach's eye spine should they fight for the same spot.


If you want one big Synodontis then I would recommend

Synodontis eupterus

. They are attractive, easy to come by, generally peaceful and won't bother small fish like corys. I've kept a fully grown adult in a tank with small corys and not had any problems at all, the large syno completely ignored the small cats even at feeding time.

The best advice I can offer is to do your reasearch, be patient and not to rush into things.

The tiger loach is very very lazy. I had 2 otocinclus in the tank with him and I fed algae wafers and sinking pellets for them all and the shy sweet little otocinclus took there time eating and themn he would move his fat red a$$ to get the decomposing stuff. He was sort of the clean up crew for the clean up crew. Plus it is a 55 gallon tank with tons of room for them tobe fed on different sides of the tank and I have a back up tank if seperation is needed. Same with the pictus except the pictus is fast. Do you thnk it would work? Thanks! Oh and I decided against a syno. Keep it more continenet themed. Thanks!

The red tailed tiger botia is Schistura mahnertiIf that changes anything let me know. Thanks!

sry or he might be Schistura poculi

anyone?

My mistake, I assumed your tiger loach was a Botia, some of which can be agressive towards smaller fish.

I've not kept any of the Schistura sand loaches, but at a glance they don't appear to be the sort that would cause corydoras any problems. However, they do seem to come from faster flowing waters than corys would probably prefer, so take that into account.

So I could
What did you think a tiger botia was?

usually this is Botia hymenophysa



Botia's are great snailkillers, Schistura's don't eat snails.
as said before Botia's are often quite nasty and unlike Schistura this agression doesn't stick to speciesmembers only.

There are mellow Botia's like B striata, B sithimunki or B macracantha. these all do fine in a group and leave tankmates in peace.

To keep Schistura's in a group you'd need a roomy tank, few decorations and a high number, at least 8, but 10-12 is better. otherwise you'll get the "deadly countdown" like you already saw.

so I can keep him with the cories? Thanks! what about dojo loaches?