Time for a change in my 90 Gal

[Chris Spierings]

I'm thinking of making a change in my 90 gallon planted tank.

Currently its home to 4 geriatric yet prolific angelfish a few neon
rainbows, a couple of clown loaches, 3 ancistrus, 4 cherry barbs and 4
bloodfin tetras. 10 cory cats. There are a few amano shrimp and 2 wood
shrimp in there too.

It also under went some heavy pruning which resulted in a 5 gallon pail
full of dwarf sword plans, Red swords, Tiger Lotus, and Vallisneria.

I can actually see the fish again.

The PH runs in the 7-7.2 range and the tank has been running very well
for the last 2 years using injected CO2 and compact flourescent
lighting. I do 15 gallon water changes twice a month. I keep the temp
at 80 degrees.

I'm thinking of passing the angels on to my sister for her family to
enjoy. I'd like to go with more color in the tank. I'm leaning toward
making it a tank heavily biased toward Tetras or maybe Barbs. The
rainbows are neat fish but they are very difficult to get locally and
very expensive unless I go to the Pet World like places and I usually
end up with a very high mortality rate with fish from those places.

I don't want to get into the Peat or RO water to further manipulate my PH.

So what do folks think would be a nice mix to liven up the color and
activity level in my tank knowing that I love the live plants?

I was thinking of a mix of Barbs or Tetras. I love Cardinals and Neons
but keeping them for over a year seems to be beyond my ability.

Thanks for the input.

Chris

[Dinky]

"Chris Spierings" > wrote in message
...

>
> I was thinking of a mix of Barbs or Tetras. I love Cardinals and Neons
> but keeping them for over a year seems to be beyond my ability.
>
> Thanks for the input.
>
> Chris
>

I would seriously reconsider on the rainbows. They're fantastic fish,
bright, vibrant color. You could look into ordering them online. I have yet
to order live fish mail-order, but many ppl do it on a regualr basis with
good results.

[~Vicki ~]

Chris,
I have never really kept tetras, but Barbs would be very happy in your
tank. Stay away from the large varieties tho. Tiger barbs are very
impressive in a school and they have the bold colour you are looking
for. Also another idea you could try would be some of the dwarf
gouramis varieties. There are some vivid colours there and the fish
have great personalities to boot.

Try changing more water more often and you should not have any problems
with what ever fish you try, also keep in mind that most all fish will
adapt to your water conditions and thrive so you should not have to
worry much about additives to change water parameters.

Vicki

Visit me on line at http://shamrock4u.250free.com

[Xraal (rot13)]

On Mon, 29 Sep 2003 01:10:51 -0400 (EDT), (~Vicki
~) was said to have typed:

>Chris,
> I have never really kept tetras, but Barbs would be very happy in your
>tank. Stay away from the large varieties tho. Tiger barbs are very
>impressive in a school and they have the bold colour you are looking
>for. Also another idea you could try would be some of the dwarf
>gouramis varieties. There are some vivid colours there and the fish
>have great personalities to boot.
>

I'll second the gourami idea, I just got two male dwarf gouramis and
they're beautiful fish. Very interesting to watch too. I've got them in
the largest of my three tanks (30 gallon, I have two 15 gallon tanks
too, a hex and a normal rectangular one,) with about 8 neon and
glowlight tetras, and a pair of corydoras. I'm thinking of getting some
other varieties of gourami for my other tanks, right now they're fairly
barren, only a few small fish in each, but I'd like to change that.