Siamese Flying Fox - Advice

Do you mean Flying Fox or Siamese Algae Eater?

FF grow to 6" and are territorial so I wouldn't keep one in less than 4' and very minimum 18" wide.

SAEs also grow to 6" but need to be in a group, so 4'x2' minimum.

Or goby (stiphodon demonic for example or there is a black line goby too) are very characterful fish. Molly world eat some algae I've heard, I don't know how proficient they are...

Or are you just after looks and not algae-eating ability?  In which case i would try penguin or emperor tetra. Again they need to be in shoals.

Hi guys, thanks for the informative replies.

We have decided to heed the advice here, especially yours sue about not listening to our lfs for advice.

We have used the tank tool on here, would you think this community would be ok?

(We are currently fishless cycling with pure ammonia so will not buy a thing until we get it right this time)

The tank details we use on here is: length 60cm, volume 60ltr, internal filter.

1 x Siamese fighting fish (male)
4 x Salt and pepper catfish
6 x neon tetra (or another tetra family)
4 x galaxy rasbora
3 x otocinclus or shrimp

I know you advised no oto but the fish tool says the above would make us 80% stocked with the oto or 65% with the shrimp. It tells us though that the beta may attack the shrimp.

Thanks for reading again, I know you must have had a million of these posts in the past but we want to get it right this time after using lfs advice last time and failing our fish.

Regards,
Adam

I would suggest larger numbers of less species, which probably isn't what you want to hear.
Larger numbers of shoaling fish will give the gang more confidence, etc.
Perhaps skip the otos, go for either tetra or rasbora, and increase the numbers of whichever you choose, plus increase the numbers of bottom dweller.
I'll also say that if you go for shrimp, them amano shrimp are quite hardy, and large enough to look after themselves.

fcmf replied as I was typing but I'll leave what I had typed even though it repeats a lot of what she said 


As the others have said, very small fish like salt & pepper cores and celestial pearl danios (aka galaxy rasboras) need a lot more than the usual 6 for shoaling fish. I would say 10 is the minimum number for these fish.

There is also the problem that celestial pearl danios need water that is harder than yours. Your hardness is 32.5 ppm and they need 90 to 268 ppm. But there are other small fish that would love your water such as ember tetras and Microdevario kubotai (sold as neon green rasboras or green tetras). And with your hardness, any of the tiny fish in the genus Boraras would be fine.

You might have trouble finding salt & pepper cories, Corydoras habrosus. Not many shops stock them. If you can't find any, pygmy cories would work just as well, again at least 10 of them. (Make sure you don't buy peppered cories, Corydoras paleatus,  as they grow too big)



I agree with Matt. Bettas are not community fish, and not with fish like tetras that have the potential to nip their fins.


Some suggestions for you. I know this makes the community creator over 100% but with small fish like this not having enough of them makes them stressed, and stressed fish have a bigger bioload then non-stressed fish. So with small shoaling fish you can push the stocking level.

Option 1
10 x salt & pepper or pygmy cories
8 x neon tetras - or 10 x green neon tetras if you can find any
10 ember tetras or one of the Boraras species.
Shrimps to eat algae

Option 2
10 x salt & pepper/pygmy cories
8 neon tetras or 10 ember tetras or 10 Boraras
Pair honey gouramis (instead of a betta)
shrimps to eat algae

Green neon tetras are slightly smaller than neons, and despite their name they have a blue stripe which has a greenish tint when looked at from above.
Honey gouramis are fine as a male/female pair. Natural coloured honeys (the colour in the photos in the profiles on here) and the yellow variety are easy to sex; the red coloured honeys are more difficult, and you don't want to end up with 2 males.

Hi guys, thanks again for your replies. It’s much appreciated.

Sue we really like option 1 you posted so we are going to go for that. After we have cycled the tank would you add them in bit by bit or plonk them all in together, I would hate to surge the ammonia and upset the tank again. If adding them bit by bit would you recommend any order?

We’re currently on day 3 of a brand new tank essentially, we put 1.5ml of 30% ammonia in on day 1, using an online calculator for measurements. The ammonia on day 1 and 2 was off the scale (8+) I haven’t had chance to check it today yet as I’m at work. Temperature is at 80 bang on, we would go higher but we have a few plants in the tank attached to wood which I don’t want to kill. Shamefully I can’t say which plants they are, one is java fern.

Thanks again guys.

Adam

I’m shocked that the lfs sold us the plants and said it’s fine when cycling, terrible advice. Also telling us to use 1.5ml of ammonia to get it off the scale.

Really appreciate your help Sue, I’ll get the log/plants out as soon as I get home. Hope the damage is minimal being in their for 2 days!

Hi Sue,

We are a good way into the tank cycle now and nearing the end, thanks for that advice.

We have been searching around all our LFS and we cannot for the life us find any of the fish apart from the Neon Tetras.

Plenty of Cory Catfish but non of the above.

We found these that we liked if they fit our environment?

Elegans Cory
Sterbai Cory
Green Tiger Barb
Golden Pencil Fish

Hi Sue,

Yes it the same guy, sorry not sure how I managed two logins!! 

They are close indeed, a few around us but never heard of them!

We will give them a go with the original idea

Thanks again!

Anything you add to kill the snails will leave chemicals in the water which won't be good for your future fish. One thing you could try needs a jar with a screw top lid and some veggies eg lettuce. The idea is that you stab holes in the jar lid from the outside so that the jagged bits of metal stick into the jar. Then add the lettuce, screw the lid back on and place it all in the tank just before you turn the room lights off for the night. The theory is that the snails will go looking for the lettuce (or whatever you use) and crawl in through the holes, but the jagged bits of metal will stop them getting back out. In the morning, just remove the jar complete with lettuce and snails, dispose of the contents and repeat again next night.


The snails in question are a species of ramshorn snail. Snails are actually a good part of the ecosystem of a tank so totally eradicating them is not good for the tank. Overpopulation is not good either. You need to aim somewhere between. Snails will feed of bits of dead plants and uneaten fish food. They probably fed on bits of your plant while it was out of the tank. Once you have their population stabilised at a lower number than now, you can keep them under control by not over feeding the fish and by removing any dead plants leaves when you see them.
I know you would rather get rid of every last one, but they do play an important role in an aquarium. My main tank has the same ramshorn snails and physid snails that came on plants, and malaysian trumpet snails and nerite snails that I bought.