Kevin353

ok i havent set my tank up or anything right now waiting on the $ just like everyone else but i like to plan things out ahead of time. what i am looking for is a great verity of fish different sizes and in all parts of the tank ( top middle bottom gravel). i dont like plain fish, they have to have some color (yea i know SW has alot of color) a nice school of fish would be great. i would also like active fish with charater.

I have a 95 gallon tank (see pic)

so i was thinking something like this

2 bala sharks (Love these)
2 Angelfish (elegant)
2 Blue rams
1 Pleco
school of 6 neons
6 Ghost shrimp

i also want to add some living plants so any suggestions would be great.

any thoughts on what i should do with the tank would be greatly appricated it was a great dumpster find.

Attached Images

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TFA101

your shrimps and neons are a risk. angelfish and bala sharks both reach to a considerable length, and will make a snack out of your shrimps and neons. Alternatives would be mystery snails for your shrimp (they dont add to the bio load of fish in the tank). As for your neons, a good alternative would be bleeding heart tetras. A school of 4 - 6 is ideal for them and with proper care, will yield beautiful color strains. They grow to about 3", and will co-exist well with the rest of your stock.

The pleco will produce quite an amount of waste, as do all suckermouths, and grow a considerable size of more than a foot long. With proper acclimation, they can be trained to eat lettuce, cucumber, peeled peas, and algae on the side of the tank. They need to also have some meat-foods, such as shrimp pellets designed for bottom feeding suckermouths like corydoras catfish.

Good luck with your new tank!

sirdarksol

I agree with almost everything TFA has said. Mystery snails are huge waste-producers, and should probably be considered to be at least an inch worth of space.

Kevin353

i really just dont like snails they are slow and boring to watch i was using a pleco because of his size and how he'll always be in a different spot.

Barbrella

For beautiful colour and action, a school of larger Rainbow fish would be a good option.

Narcicius

I would get some gold or opaline gouramis then a smaller schooling fish. Maybe I just like gouramis a little to much.

Allie

Get a bristle nose pleco or two they only get 4" and are excellent algae eaters. But you need soft driftwood, they eat it.

Neville

Balas and Angels will eat the neons and the shrimps. Silver Dollar would be a good tank mate with bala and angel, pleco and rams r ok.

Kevin353

with the angels and bala's what should be the min length of the fish in the tank?

i dont know if i mentioned it or not but i am going to have live plants too so wouldn't that help with the waste created by the pleco?

susitna-flower

I agree with not having a common pleco......Don't get me wrong, I LOVE plecos, but the commons are so........well common, big, waste producers, where there are interesting plecos out there that do just as much to clean the tank, and are less likely to end up a problem. Many are more colorful, there are so many different bristlenose varieties, if you have algae, or if you just want to add the color a gold nugget pleco would be a good choice.

Just setting up your tank you won't have excess algae, and any pleco would have to be fed, so knowing this from the beginning you can be sure most need driftwood, and choose accordingly.

I also love balas, they are one of my favorite fish, but does anyone know for sure from personal experience how they would get along with angels? The balas are very FAST swimming fish, that like to ram each other....this activity might cause problems with the much slower swimming angels.....just a thought.

You might look into redline sharks, they are smaller than the balas, 6" max., they school and you need 6 of them, but they are actually more colorful than the balas and don't do that body slamming thing the balas do. They are also not aggressive like redtail or rainbow sharks.

Kevin353

i dont want a bunch of small fish i am looking for big ones too but a school of 6 sharks would be cool would it not ill take a look at them.

TFA101

I agree with "susitna-flower". I saw some beautiful redline sharks at the petsmart down in bellingham. (What a surprise to me, they actually looked healthy).

Another idea if you're looking into larger fish would be boseman rainbowfish, or lake kutubu rainbowfish (My favorite). Keep 'em in a shoal of at least six in a planted tank for best effects when it comes to color and behavior.

And i like the idea of bristlenoses rather than common plecos. Those of the ancistrus genus typically grow much, much smaller than your typical pleco, but do just as good of a cleaning job. Keep at least two. Or maybe a few Panaque Maccus. They're long-lived fish (mine is seven years old) and do an awesome job at the cleaning. Granted, they're nocturnal, but they do a very descent job of cleaning

momo9700

you should get maybe a few platies. they need three or more, get to be about 2.5 inches, and are hardy. i have quite a few myself ^.^

angelfish220

sounds like you are covered fishwise so for plants... .84 watts per gallon so you would have a 'low light tank' java moss is a great staple that makes the bottom look lush and green. angels like broad leaved plants so a little 'crypt forest' in the back corners would work great. then a little bush hedge of African Fern would add some more delicate look to it.