Finally got my 65 gallon set up

[liljayyiz]

Was wondering what you guys think? anything i should add or change? i will have synos. (flavitaeniatus) some corys some clown loaches. a uaru.
thanks.
jason.

[andywoolloo]

nice tank! I'd do a black background, even a hefty bag will do, and some plants would be nice.

[liljayyiz]

nice tank! I'd do a black background, even a hefty bag will do, and some plants would be nice.

a background was one thing i was thinking about. as far as plants go though i do not want to use fake plants, and i plan on getting some type of larger cichlid like a texas some day and that will just tear them out.

[andywoolloo]

oh yeah, gotcha. Looking good tho!

[sidguppy]

and i plan on getting some type of larger c*****d like a texas some day and that will just tear them out

A texas cichlid (Herichthys spp) won't stop at tearing the plants out; it'll also tear up Corydoras and other friendly small catfishes

baaaaaaaad plan!

I also don't see any suitable caves, shadowy spots or roomy holes where catfishes can hang out. none.

not a good set up at all IMO.
for a single cichlid, yes. but for a catfish, no.

[Richard B]

A texas c*****d - ouch1 not a good companion for "flavis" or the corys or the uaru!

Sid makes some good points about cover - some anubias plants tied to the wood will partially solve this - they are undemanding & tough. Aftera while they will root dirctly to the wood & provide good cover if they are a decent size.

a couple of caves wouldn't go amiss though.....

[liljayyiz]

i had a texas for about 2 years in with the corys that i have now, and along with a rotation of syno eupterus and syno ocellifer and had no problems with him and any of my catfish. throw another south or central american cichlid in there and he would tear it up within the first few hours of it being in there. either way i got rid of the texas which was about 8" in length because i had to downsize my tanks. one of the worst moves i made in my opinion. he was a great fish. i know there can be killings of random nature at any time, but for the most part he didnt seem to bother much of anything that was not another cichlid. and i did put a black pvc tube under the rock pile, and left some rather large crevices in the rock pile for small synos to hide. i know i could have done with alot more cover for them. but the tank is set up now so not many options to camouflage more pvc tubes.

[liljayyiz]

Sid makes some good points about cover - some anubias plants tied to the wood will partially solve this - they are undemanding & tough. Aftera while they will root dirctly to the wood & provide good cover if they are a decent size.

thats kinda what i wanted to find out. some type of hearty plant that is not rooted in the substrate. i will look into that and if i ever decide to get another texas, i will see how they will fare with him. thank you for the advice Richard B. and i prob could do well with a few more caves.

[racoll]

The more bogwood you have in the tank, the more you will see your catfish. A good S. flavitaeniatus tank will have bogwood stacked from bottom to top, a black substrate and lots of plants to filter out the light and provide cover. This way you will see these shy catfish more frequently.

This kind of style would be perfect.

[liljayyiz]

thanks for the information racoll. i have only two small flavs right now in my 20 gallon tank and barely ever see them. i will probably look for some more wood, and some plants like talked about earlier in the thread.