Tropical Fish Forum
Tropical Fish Keeping Help and Advice => General Fishkeeping advice => Topic started by: evan47 on July 27, 2014, 01:23:23 PM
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Hi, at last my tank has cycled! it has also been stable for a couple of weeks and is not too far off from fully planted.
i intend to start another smaller tank (45 liter, 60x30x30 tropical freshwater) using some seeded media from my supplementary filter to kick start the cycle.
i may put my dwarf gourami in there and am looking for suggestions on other suitable peaceful tankmates.
shrimp or even a frog or two would be nice but which ones will be suitable with the DG?
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You might get away with something like cherry shrimp, though a DG would most likely eat baby shrimps. Some might survive if you plant this tank heavily too, and adults would stand more of a chance with lots of places to hide. Amano shrimps would be a good, if less colourful, choice as they are bigger than cherries.
Be careful about frogs. Dwarf frogs are the only option in a tank this size, clawed frogs get way too big. make sure you know how to tell the difference as some shops haven't a clue and sell clawed as dwarfs.
Frogs are quite tricky to feed; they are almost blind and find their food by smell. By the time they've found it, the DG and shrimps might well have eaten it all. When I had frogs in the tank with a betta I had to make a feeding station from a terracotta plantpot. I put it upside down and cut small frog sized holes in the rim (now at the bottom). There was a stone over the hole in the pot bottom (now facing upwards) and I lifted that off momentarily to drop the food in. I did catch the betta inside the pot, they can obviously get through smaller holes than I thought.
Frogs should not be fed exclusively on bloodworm as you'll see stated on some sites. They need a specialist frog food as the staple; I used Zoo Med frog and tadpole food.
Something else you need to be aware of. I have mentioned that frogs have very poor eyesight, and they can mistake a fish for food. One of my frogs bit my betta's tail so badly he got finrot. I saw the betta with a frog hanging on to his tail towing it around the tank.
And yes, I am trying to put you off frogs. They do much better in a tank of their own.
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You might get away with something like cherry shrimp, though a DG would most likely eat baby shrimps. Some might survive if you plant this tank heavily too, and adults would stand more of a chance with lots of places to hide. Amano shrimps would be a good, if less colourful, choice as they are bigger than cherries.
I have Amano Shrimp with a DG and they don't bother each other at all. I did however gave some juvenile (small) Cherry Shrimp at one time and they pretty much disappeared without a trace - I don't know what happened in fairness but the DG was a suspect! Although my Mollies were probably the more likely culprits given their large gobs :)