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Im in the process of ordering a new 135 gallon tank (510 litres)(6ftx2ftx1.5ft). cant w8 for it to arrive

sry just had to tell someone who cares lol

Congratulations. Good luck with it.

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Mats

cheers m8, im gonna be poor for the rest of my life lol paying for this beast

the most important question is: what's going in it?

im afraid this ones gonna have to be a display tank. this means i will most probrably put my frontosa in there alog with some large Malawi Haps. probrably put some kinda catfish in there to please u guys lol. got any suggestions?
the most sensible and most suited fish for this would probs be petricolas? appreciate any suggestions

cheers

Synodontis of some sort, perhaps? They like the same water as the Malawi's, so should be an obvious choice.

Most other catfish will want softer water for ideal conditions, but there are certainly some exceptions to that rule.

If you want something else to take care of for instance algae, you can probably adapt a bristlenose to the water if you do it slowly [keep in separate tank with water from it's original tank, and start gradually replace the water with the water from the malawi tank] (assuming you're not just using tap-water for your malawis, in which case you can probably just put the bristlenose straight from any other tank, as long as the other tank has just tap-water in it...).

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Mats

i thought about throwing an old pair of bristlenoses in there but the multiply sooo fast lol. if i were to go for a species of bristlenose it would have to be a more attractive form such as dolichopterous or another attractivly marked species. the trouble is that the only bristlenoses my lfs sells are the common temniki and nothing more attractive and intruiging. they also sell L34 medussa but they dislike the hard water.

what should i go for?

julian wrote:i thought about throwing an old pair of bristlenoses in there but the multiply sooo fast lol. if i were to go for a species of bristlenose it would have to be a more attractive form such as dolichopterous or another attractivly marked species. the trouble is that the only bristlenoses my lfs sells are the common temniki and nothing more attractive and intruiging. they also sell L34 medussa but they dislike the hard water.

what should i go for?

Well, I think you'll find most of the "uncommon" bristlenoses will be ones that aren't suitable for the hard water, so you're probably stuck with "common" ones. You could of course get albino common's if you prefer them.

Of course, if you don't want them to multiply, just keep same-sex ones (males with big bristles perhaps?), and there's not going to be any multiplication. Also, I would think that the Malawis would have them for lunch, dinner and breakfast if fry become available, so "automatic live food". A bit cruel maybe, but no different from nature.

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Mats

i see, the problem is that if i know my bristlenoses are breeding i will make every effort to rear the fry. just seem tight leaving them be to die. i know for a fact that malawis will gobble them upso maybe i should try something different alltogether. synodontis are a possibility i guess.

cheers for the replies by the way

There IS another Bristlenose match; the nice, blue eyed and orange L144.

it is bred in captivity too (at least over here, in great numbers), and it too doesn't mind Malawian waterparameters at all.

many Riftkeepers here choose this one over the Common Brown Bristlenose.
care is very similar, just another color. It grows slightly bigger and both male and female are much more "bristled" up front (Common Brown females often lack any bristles!).

it's qualities as algae-destroyer are also very very good. It does happily without wood, clears out algae like there's no tomorrow and is easy to breed!

Synodontis of some sort, perhaps? They like the same water as the Malawi's, so should be an obvious choice

This is wrong and a serious overgeneralisation!
it only holds for the one Malawian Synodontis (wich will do fine in your tank, due to the proteinrich diet) S njassae; and all the Tanganyikans, wich are often easy to get. petricola "dwarf", "polli White" and multipunctatus are available in every good LFS; with some searching you should be able to find dhonti, granulosus, polli, petricola "Burundi" and the occasional nigromaculatus.

non-Synodontis cats from both lakes can be used if they're small/medium, like Lophiobagrus, Phyllonemus or the rare Chrysichthys sianenna.
The only big one wich can be kept is the Giraffenose Cat Auchenoglanis. it needs a huge tank, but is utterly peaceful and very easy to keep. You need a big tank too for frontosa and Haps anyway.
All other big uns are piscivores with a serious appetite!

i agree totally with you, like i said petricola would be most suitable. most other synos are from the congo (thanks for correcting me racoll), totally different water parameters. the tank is 510 litres,(135 gallons) im reassured this is big enough for malawi haps, but certainly not for the giraffe catfish. my lfs has a very large specimen, my guess is about 70cm. i often hear little children speak of it as a hoover whilst wittnesing its sand sifting with its relevantly shaped nose lol.
my only problem with petricolas is they are quite expensive. around £35 here!
are there any other possibilities?

thanks guys for the commitment to ur posts
cheers

hey sidguppy, u live in Holland!?
u you dutch?
me 2! i speak it but not very well accostamed to writing it.
nice having a fellow dutchman around!

sorry to be anal julian, but i feel i must correct you. most other synos are from the congo river basin in west africa, not the amazon (which is in south america). the Mochokidae family are not found in this continent.

just thought you might like to know that.

no problem m8, cheers for that, rather have someone like you point it out kindly than some wod to take the mic...
cheers m8 you learn something new every day right.