Community Tank

[Tito]

Does anybody keep a community tank. I mean a big one with all kinds of fish in it.

[TOMMYN3D]

I have a 125gallon with (4)large tinfoil barbs,(1)large common pleco , (5) hoplo catfish, a pair of breeding convics, and 4 or so juvi convics that hasn't been caught to be fed:hungry: and theirs fry in their now for my africans to eat.
I consider this my community tank. is this what you mean?

[Tito]

I have a 125gallon with (4)large tinfoil barbs,(1)large common pleco , (5) hoplo catfish, a pair of breeding convics, and 4 or so juvi convics that hasn't been caught to be fed:hungry: and theirs fry in their now for my africans to eat.
I consider this my community tank. is this what you mean?

Yea. Although I would put in a whole bunch of smaller fish - like 60 fish of all kinds of sorts. singles and two and trios and stuff like that - trying to fit in as many different fish as posible. This setup is typically found at the LFS to give their customers some eye candy.

I bet in a 125 I could fit half of petland discounts selection.

Anybody have something like that going on in a big tank.

I'm talking rainbows, gouramis, tetras, barbs, danios, hatchets, glass cats, plecos, sharks, botias, clowns, cory's, bettas, killis, everything! At least that could thrive in a 7 - 7.2 pH neutral water basically.

[TOMMYN3D]

I like that idea. I dont currently have any rainbow but like their shape and they have some some really cool colors. I can see a few different species of rainbows gouramis, tetras ,danios ,and a few groups of cories and clown plecos.im thinking clown plecos because they stay under 3 inches and are not expensive . and the cories stay small too.

[Tito]

I like that idea. I dont currently have any rainbow but like their shape and they have some some really cool colors. I can see a few different species of rainbows gouramis, tetras ,danios ,and a few groups of cories and clown plecos.im thinking clown plecos because they stay under 3 inches and are not expensive . and the cories stay small too.

Yup on the plecos. Staying small would be the way to go in the setup I envision. Large fish would create to much of a bioload.

[steve0199us]

Tito- I tried this last year, I was making trips to different pet stores everyend. picking up tropical fish and some plants. I must've had 40-50+ fish in my 75gal. They were all small, then one cat fish I bought had ICH, I think is was a loach, not a clown loach... it was down hill from there. Tank got demolished by the time I started to treat with salt+high temp, then meds.... of course I went to the pet store I got them from and complained. Traded what I had left with them.... Ended up with a good amount of store credit. But I'm sure they still made out. That was the end of a tropical tank for me! :rant:

[steve0199us]

It was a sweet set up though..... Lots of life going on :runnningaround:

[Tito]

Must have been nice Steve. Do you ahve any pics?

[joe_jaskot]

A friend of mine owned a pet shop. When he went out of business he set up a 125 gallon tank at his house with all the community fish that were left in the shop. He loaded the tank with about 50 large plastic plants, driftwood and rocks. It was one of the neatest tanks I had ever seen. It was amazing to see all the fish swimming together in schools. There were different kinds of tetras, barbs, danios, catfish, anglefish, rainbows, etc. . I sometimes sat and watched the fish swimming in the tank for over an hour. It was a real showpiece and relaxing to watch. I will set one up one day.

[steve0199us]

I'll search through my drives over the weekend. It's a nice set up to have, every group had their own thing going on

[nick a]

I don't have any of my larger tanks set up this way.....yet.....I've got a 40BR with groups of adolfoi corys (low) + gymno sp 'el norte' (low -mid)+ a large school of bloodfin tetras (mid-upper). I switched out all the holey rock for lot's of driftwood and have some plants but i don't do anything else to modify the water. WCs still come straight from the tap & everyone is doing just great with this setup. I don't ever check water params--they either make it or they don't. I did spend a considerable amount of time acclimating them to the tank water when i first brought them home tho....


I love watching the school of tetras weave their way in & out of all the driftwood and this has become one of my fav tanks to sit back & check out. As I make my way into some of the more tolerant dwarf south american cichlids, I'm also looking to add lot's more schools of tetras & barbs etc.... WAAY different than Mbuna 'communities' HA!

[Tito]

Joe and Nick - you've captured the vision I see. granted I've seen this setup in a store or two - only one time in a large tank - the rest were normal sized tanks. But the way you guys explained the feeling and the scene - now - yea that's what seems to keep playing in my mind.

It may very well be what the doctor ordered.

Imagine that - I go full circle and end where it all began....

I remember when my dad had a 40 galon in the living room. It was the show piece of the room and it was a community tank with all sorts of activity. That was back in the late 70's - 80s. It was so much fun!

[pogi2009]

I have one set up now, thought I call it "grow-out" tank. I have 55 g with around 15 Burundi Fronts, 7 7-strip Fronts, 12 Leleupi, 6 Juli Transc,8 Juli Regani, 3 compres, 4 heliantus, some Brevis, Black Masked, Brichardi, Cyps, etc. There are > 50 of them there, all Juvies. Lots of rocks in the background. So far they get along with the usual co species chasing. They are fun to watch specially during feeding time. I noticed that if you feed them regularly, they left the small ones alone. I figure I still have a few months before I moved the young adults in their own tanks. Right now we are enjoying it.

[Bandsmanc92]

Yes TiTo, I had my 150 loaded to the rim with fish. did water changes once a week every sunday like clock work. other than ich a few time's from lack of quaratine I had no problem's. give the fish plenty of cover, rock work, plant's etc. etc. and it should be fine. Here's a list of what I kept. [Gourami's] 3 pearl,2 opaline, 2 dwarf, 3 snakeskin's, 3 thicklipped, 2 kissing, 3 golden 2 moonlight. [Rainbow,s] 6 redline's 2 melon, 6 emerald's, 6 australian, 3 marci yellow's, 3 marci orange, 1 blue turqoise, 1 red, 2 madascan's. [Shark's] 5 bala, 2 irredescient, 3 appollo, 1 redtail, 1 black,[ 3 colombian's th at all died from freshwater shock] [Danio's] 10 pearl, 3 albino, 3 grand, 2 great, 3 zebra golden. [Botia's] 5 clown, 1 skunk, 3 zebra's, 3 kubuti's, 3 yo-yo's, 2 pakistani's. [Killie's] 2 golden panchax. 1 Maguda gobie, 5 hockeystick's, 1 1flagtail Prochilodus, 1Pinktail chaledues, 10 ceylen barb's, 10 cherrybarb's, 3 striped corydella's, 3 spotted pemodella's 3 albino congo tetra's, 4 sailfin mollies, 3 salt an pepper mollies. All that in one tank!! kept the setup for over two year,s. sold or gave everything away when I started the Cichlid's. hope this help's. kevin

[RedDevilRyan]

My largest community aquarium is 55 gallons. Its filled with all sorts of tetras, rasboras ans some plecos.

[Tito]

150 gallon community - that must have been a sight to behold!

[Ironman]

Tito,

it seems like community lol. I have a 150 to many fish to list but i'll give it a try.
HAPS
2 males 1 female Protomelas sp. "Spilonotus Tanzania"
1 confirmed male 7? Fossorochromis rostratus
1 male 1 female Protomelas spilonotus (Mara Rocks)
1 male 1 female Protomelas sp. "Steveni Taiwan" (Higga Reef)
2 males 4 females Otopharynx lithobates
1 male 2 females Nimbochromis venustus
14 Cyrtocara moorii not sure of the ratio
1 male 2 females Copadichromis borleyi (Kadango)
MBUNA
2 males 2 females Cynotilapia sp. "hara"
1 male 2 females Labeotropheus trewavasae (West Thumbi Is.)
1 male 3 females Pseudotropheus demasoni (Pombo Rocks)
3 males Pseudotropheus saulosi
PEACOCKS
1 male Aulonocara "German Red"
1 male Aulonocara baenschi
1 male Aulonocara maulana
1 male Aulonocara stuartgranti (Ngara)
1 male 1 female Aulonocara stuartgranti (Usisya)
1 albino male not sure which
TANGS
1 male 1 female Cyphotilapia gibberosa (Moba)
1 male 1 female Altolamprologus compressiceps
4 multi cats
1 tiger loach

[Tito]

Yes TiTo, I had my 150 loaded to the rim with fish. did water changes once a week every sunday like clock work. other than ich a few time's from lack of quaratine I had no problem's. give the fish plenty of cover, rock work, plant's etc. etc. and it should be fine. Here's a list of what I kept. [Gourami's] 3 pearl,2 opaline, 2 dwarf, 3 snakeskin's, 3 thicklipped, 2 kissing, 3 golden 2 moonlight. [Rainbow,s] 6 redline's 2 melon, 6 emerald's, 6 australian, 3 marci yellow's, 3 marci orange, 1 blue turqoise, 1 red, 2 madascan's. [Shark's] 5 bala, 2 irredescient, 3 appollo, 1 redtail, 1 black,[ 3 colombian's th at all died from freshwater shock] [Danio's] 10 pearl, 3 albino, 3 grand, 2 great, 3 zebra golden. [Botia's] 5 clown, 1 skunk, 3 zebra's, 3 kubuti's, 3 yo-yo's, 2 pakistani's. [Killie's] 2 golden panchax. 1 Maguda gobie, 5 hockeystick's, 1 1flagtail Prochilodus, 1Pinktail chaledues, 10 ceylen barb's, 10 cherrybarb's, 3 striped corydella's, 3 spotted pemodella's 3 albino congo tetra's, 4 sailfin mollies, 3 salt an pepper mollies. All that in one tank!! kept the setup for over two year,s. sold or gave everything away when I started the Cichlid's. hope this help's. kevin

Hey Kevin,

How did the fish behave? What were the swim patterns? Did like stay with like?

I've mostly made up my mind and I will not venture into peacocks. I'm leary. Also - it's plain to see that a lot of money will be involved and more than likely disapointments as well. I'll pass.

[vanillarum]

Well, I don't think most people would consider a 46BF a "big" tank, but I have a 46BF community tank. In it I have all types of "oddball" fish. There are 2 types of half beaks, rasbora hets, von rios tetra, conchu blue tetra, 2 x 6" SAEs, sewellia lineolata, sids, fw flounder, orange laser corys, sterbai corys, farlowella acus, 1 figure 8 puffer, glass cats, african 3 stripe glass cats, a coupla long arm shrimp, a 6" vampire pleco, 6 x L333 plecos, 3 x L104 plecos (2 juvies), and I think that about covers it. They have all been in there almost 2 years, except the Borneo red line tribal halfbeaks that I added a month ago. And except for 1 orange laser, and 1 von rios tetra, no casualties in that time. And I even had the sewellia lineolata breed for me in that setup. I have extra filtration, an AC 70 and an Emperor 400, and every1 seems happy ! Here's a quik pic:
http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/dd161/campinkru/IMG_2832.jpg

[Bandsmanc92]

Tito when I first started collecting, I brought all my fish from the shark aquarium and absoultely fish. SA being big on south american species, my tank held the following.
Gouramis Rainbows [SIZE="3"]sharks
6 redline 5 bala
3 pearl 2 Striped 2 irresdecient
2 opaline 6 emeralds 3 apollo
2 dwarf 3 australians 1 rainbow
2 snakeskin 3 marci 1 black
2 thicklipped 2 Blue turqoise 1 redtail
2pin kissers 1 red 3 colombian all died
3 golden 2 Madasgan from inprop param's
2 moonlight

Danios Botias 10 pearls [SIZE="1"]5 clown
3 albino 1 skunk 3 pakistani
3 grand 3 zebra
2 great 3 kubuti
3 golden zebras 3 yo-yo

ANGELFISH MISC. MISC
3 marble 3 mikrogeophagus ramirez 2 golden panchax
3 orange mango 3 mikrogeophagus ramirez balloon 1 spotted knight gobie
3 white 3 redfin german rams 1 maguda gobie
3 black 3 geophagus surimensis 1 redspot gobie
3 crenicara puntulatum 1 flagtail prochilodus
2 neolamprologus brichardi 1 pinktail chaledues
3 chalinochromis brichardi 1 true siamese alge
2 neolamprologus leleupi 3 golden alge
1 neolamprologus tetracanthus 3 striped corys
1 neolamprologus cygnus 3 spotted pemodellas
1 cyptycrhomis leptosoma 1 hi-fin spotted cat
3 albino congo tetras 10 ceylen barbs
10 hockey sticks

I did'nt know much about keeping fish at that time, so many perished for a muriad of reasons, those that did'nt, were either given away or are still swimming with the africans in my 180GL tank.