Restocking my 300, ideas?

[DMD123]

So with some research it almost seems as if the Modesta or red tail loach may be a better choice for a group. While still a good sized fish seems to stay just slightly smaller than clowns and have a good reputation for active community environments. A couple tiger loaches look interesting but the feedback is that they can be quite aggressive amongst themselves and lots of times one dominant fish emerges after killing his group off. I guess the solution is to either keep a very large group or keep just the one with a group of other types of loaches like the clowns, or red tails and then they seem to do fine. No rush at this point still in the research phase.

I do find these interesting....

Paradox Albino Marbled Featherfin Catfish (Synodontis eupterus)

This new color variant of the eupterus synodontis is a partial albino with white to golden body and varying amounts of black marbling. They also have mixed eye color from all red to half red and half black. This is a rare and beautiful fish and they are great community fish.

www.predatoryfins.com

 

[DMD123]

I keep coming back to a group of clown loaches for the 300, maybe 5-7 in the group, A large group of roseline sharks, thinking 10-12 and of course the giant red tail gourami. Might consider moving over at least one red spot severum over and then possibly add an electric blue acara. Kind of want some color but at the same time a really big focus fish like the gourami. The hope is that the RTGG will also be community friendly and allow all the tankmated that Im wishing. Ive kept my eyes open for loaches and saw a few that were just slightly larger and grown out a little already but my hope was to find one oddball patterned one to add to my group. Anyone see any clown loaches for sale anywhere recently?

 

[DMD123]

A growth up, RTGG has grown quite a bit in two monthsdate pic

 

[DMD123]

 

[sir_keith]

Oreochromis tanganicae-

 

[DMD123]

@sir_keith, wow that is a beautiful fish.

 

[DMD123]

Got six clown loaches for the 300. Was talking to the guy at Wet Spot and thought it would make for a nice setup to do my plan of the clown loaches, roseline sharks and giant gourami. He also suggested Mascara barbs, which I really liked but I think they were like $35 a piece and I just spent $225 for the group of loaches so I need to wait a few weeks to do more fish.

 

[DMD123]

Had added some large loaches from Tropical Fish World in Buckley so my school is up to 9 and with the larger sized group and a few big loaches the group is a bit more calm, makes me wonder what adding three more big ones would do....

Kind of at a point where I need to decide what I want to do with other fishes for the tank. Do I drop big money for a group of Mascara barbs or just do some roseline sharks instead. Basically I can get 2 roselines for the price of 1 Mascara barb. I think both fishes need to be grown out a bit before going into the 300 so I feel like I should get them soon.

 

[sir_keith]

I vote for the Mascara Barb- they are bigger in every dimension, super active, and far less common. You don't get to re-stock a 300 very often, and it's only money.

 

[DMD123]

I vote for the Mascara Barb- they are bigger in every dimension, super active, and far less common. You don't get to re-stock a 300 very often, and it's only money.

The Mascara barb is the way Im leaning. Just need to decide if I want to order the fish for delivery or go pick them up myself in Portland. Besides I still want to rehome the silver dollars still but I can grow out the barbs in a 65B for a while in the meantime.

The other thing is if I want to move over the 3 red spot severums along with the giant gourami.... Im almost liking the thought of not doing that and try a more Asian fish theme

 

[DMD123]

Minor changes to the stock. Wife did not like the look of mascara barbs but liked filament barbs better, so I picked up the last 3 in stock at Wet Spot and picked up 7 roseline sharks. I also talked to the guys at Pet Works who said they would order in a dozen filament barbs on their next order as part of their stock if I wanted to add to my school. Im thinking of 5 to 7 of them and maybe 2 more roselines. I did add one more unique patterned clown loach so that brings me up to 10.

The RTGG is growing fast but is still being very calm and easy going.

 

[DMD123]

Had stopped by Pet Works in Olympia and they said they would order a dozen filament barbs in with no obligation for me to buy. Hopefully in at the end of the week and I can get the school a little larger. Very cool to see the filament and roselines swimming around together. Hope this continues in the big tank.

 

[lloyd378]

Had stopped by Pet Works in Olympia and they said they would order a dozen filament barbs in with no obligation for me to buy. Hopefully in at the end of the week and I can get the school a little larger. Very cool to see the filament and roselines swimming around together. Hope this continues in the big tank.

Have you taken any pictures? I still thing a silver arrowana would be super cool with your giant gourami and the barbs

 

[DMD123]

Have you taken any pictures? I still thing a silver arrowana would be super cool with your giant gourami and the barbs

I haven’t done pics yet. I think that the barbs would all get eaten at this point. They are pretty small and my understanding is that the filament and roseline are both slow growers too.

 

[DMD123]

Will be a little while before the stock change out occurs. Im in the middle of filter rebuilds due to old seals giving way on the FX6 aqua-stop valves and I still need to add my new UV. Im also working on getting two working heaters to be able to keep temps up to about 78 degrees. My old heaters just stopped heating and my 300 was getting into 72 degree temps and the Finnex heaters just would go any higher any more. Thankfully every time Ive ever had heaters fail, its always died in cold position as opposed to stuck on and cooking the fish.

Then there is the matter of stock... The silver dollars need to go, the Oscar needs to go and same with the pearsi. Rehoming big fish is always a challenge and expensive fish like the silver dollars I have are also tough. There is the decision as to whether I want to stay Asian themed with stock or mix in my red spot sevs for the color factor. I I did move the sevs, I will have a virtually empty 90 with a couple Australian rainbows, 1 Madagascar rainbow, 1 hoplo cat, 1 bn pleco that would need something of interest to be with them. Fun of having too many tanks, lol

 

[DMD123]

Called Pet Works to check and see if they got the filament barbs in, and they did BUT... apparently the change in weather had bad results and they only had 2 out of the 12 they ordered survive. He said he would order another batch in and they should be here next week. Part of me wants to go pick those 2 up so I would have at least 5 and figure they must be strong to have survived where the others did not... probably better to wait till the next shipment comes in. I hate waiting! lol

 

[lloyd378]

How big are the barbs you have currently? Does petworks order from the wet spots online store or somewhere else? I think it would be good if they were from a different source for future unintentional breedings.

As for my fish, they all seems to be doing great, though I did have a rather unfortunate thing happen this week in my rusty cichlid classroom tank…. A couple of sugar ants got into my classroom and formed a nest under the latch of he fluval flex. When I went to change the water this week, I was met by about 200 sugar ants. I smashed as many as I could and a few fell into the tank as snacks for the cichlids, but man was it a pain to exterminate and clean up.

In 30 years of fish keeping, I’ve never dealt with sugar ants or them wanting to form a nest under the lid of a tank. So gross, but I’m guessing they liked the humidity of the tank to keep them warm in these chilly mornings

 

[DMD123]

My current filament barbs are decent sized at about 3” and the roseline are only like 1.5”. The stock at Wet spot is out so Pet works said they had another supplier and the fish were supposed to be 2” or so. When I was talking to the guy on the phone from Pet works, he said they were coming out of California.

Weird thing with the ants…

 

[DMD123]

Fast moving barbs are hard to capture in pictures...

Roselines shoal so a bit easier to get pics, very well behaved group


Filament barbs are constantly on the go. The trio seem to try and school and many times swim with the roselines. But this is pretty much the normal viewing of these fish, just a blur. lol. Feeding them is fun, they are just crazy and go into a frenzy.

 

[DMD123]

Will check back with Petworks in Olympia tomorrow to see if the new batch of filament barbs has come in. Still looking for a couple to fill out the school.

Was watching the roselines last night feeding and realized they have put on a little size and are not so tiny anymore. Still feel like they might be too little to put in with the clown loaches however. I know the clowns are not really known to be prediatory but they are aggressive feeders and could see a roseline getting mistaken for food as they were picking food off the bottom. From what Ive read, the loaches grow very slowly so I should be able to put them together soon since the roselines seem to be putting size on quicker.

The red tail gourami is still very mild with no aggressive behavior showing... yet, lol. Hope to have one thats mild for a bit longer since Im not quite ready to move him into the 300.