Cody

if i do get one green severum for my 55 gallon, is there any other fish i could keep in there. like as far as some sort of clean up crew goes , some kind of loach or pleco.. the severum would be pretty small so they would pretty much grow up together

platy ben

a pleco would be ok just not a common or leopard pleco because they get huge, also remember a severum can grow to the size of a dinner plate

Allie

http://www.elmersaquarium.com/c106co...y6severums.htm
Check this out^

Cody

i did reasearch and i know about there size, i wanted this 55 gallon to be my best tank the one i view as my show tank so i wanted a larger cichlid to be the center of the show. but the severum that i will end up gettng will only be 2 inches for the biggest so im going to need some others to make the tank still look interesting while the severum is still growing. iwas thinking about a red tail or rainbow shark for my bottom feeder and it looks like taht will work out.

platy ben

Yup that sounds good

Cody

should i use sand or gravel

MissMTS

I would use gravel. Thats just my personal preference though. You could do any of the medium sized plecos with the Green Severum. Check out www.planetcatfish.com
I would not put any other cichlids in there even though he is still small. It is hard to get people to adopt larger cichlids once they outgrow your tank.

Cody

i wasnt going to put any others in there i mainly wanted to know waht what i could do for clean up, but what i thought would work is right, but i always like to double check

MissMTS

Thats always good to do

Cody

i like the look of sand, and i know i can find the kind for aqauriums that wont alter my water parameters but it i cant figure out how you would shipon he water out

MissMTS

You mean to do water changes?

Chief_waterchanger

Cody, be aware of one thing with larger cichlids, please:

Larger cichlids tend to get a mouthful of substrate and spit it against the glass periodically, usually sifting for food. Spitting sand is less likely to damage the glass than gravel would be..

If you do sand I would do 1/2 inch or LESS thickness on the substrate and keep malaysian trumpet snails in the tank to keep the sand from developing gas pockets which is how I accidentally killed my 2 large severums. *See, even us big-timers can make stupid mistakes. * The MTS (malaysian trumpet snails) population can be controlled through feeding. If they start reproducing more than you would like simply feed less food and remove a portion of the snails to cut down on breeding. (They are a livebearing snail, and we (Dino and I) do not count them towards bioload of the tank, really.)

MissMTS

With sand to do water changes, to avoid sucking up the sand, hold the siphon about an inch above the gravel. It should still suck up most of the waste.

CWC: I will keep that in mind about the MTS. I want to pick some up at the LFS next time I see some

Chief_waterchanger

You can also use a bamboo skew and stir the substrate to get all the debris and waste into the water column to be sucked out. Also it is still a good idea to stir substrate even with MTS to be extra diligent about preventing gas pockets. You could stir half the tank's substrate with each waterchange to prevent taking too much of the good bacteria at a time.

Cody

how does a gas pocket get in there, and what does it do to kill the fish, and does it have to be Mts, and if it does why, i mean what do they do to help the problem, thanks alot for the advice. how many pounds of sand do i need for a 55 gallon tank. its 48 in long and 12.5 or13 wide. p.s i gave those number beacuase im sure that there are taller and longer versions

Chief_waterchanger

Gas pockets are formed by anaerobic bacteria as they breakdown fish waste that gets into the substrate. The reason it kills the fish is because of the ammonia, methane, and other lethal chemicals usually in the mix of brokendown organic matter. With sudden releases of several gas bubbles it could spike the ammonia in the tank to a lethal dose (as well as other chemicals we don't usually test for.)

The Malaysian Trumpet Snails are recommended because they are the only ones commonly kept in the hobby that spend a lot of time in the substrate. The time they spend moving about in the substrate stirs it around and releases gas bubbles before they have a chance to become concentrated enough to produce lethal amounts of chemicals. The manual stirring would assist them even further, and probably keep the ammonia to an unregisterable reading on testing kits.

You would probably need about 20 pounds of sandy substrate. If you want just basic sand you can use pool filter sand to avoid clouding, but if going for the commercial brands of aquarium sandy type substrate then just try about 20 pounds and see how that does.

I hope that answered everything well enough, but if there are even slight questions about anything please ask. Dino and I enjoy giving as much info as we can, but often times forget just how much others do or do not know.

Cody

well for me theres things people tell me that i do and dont know, i like to ask more questions just to make sure what i think is right, that way i helps me and helps any advice i might give to someone else. i was thinking about this sand, this would work right, http://www.petsmart.com/product/inde...ductId=2753227

Chief_waterchanger

That would look beautiful with the colorful contrast of the larger cichlid.

(Plus most fish do better with a dark substrate because of the naturally dark bottom of most bodies of water.) You are doing so well with this, Cody, congrats.

Cody

i do have one question left, you said pool filter sand, is there only certin types that would work. i will most likley go with the black.

Chief_waterchanger

No no. The black stuff you linked to is fine. Any sand would do fine, the pool filter sand was meaning if you were going with basic sand that the pool filter sand won't cloud as bad, but the sand made specifically for substrates is even better about not clouding the water when it goes in, to my knowledge.

So summary: Yes, the black sand is fine.

Cody

if i got a rainbow shark or red tail shark to do clean up, would that do the same thing as the Mts would or are the mts still a good idea

Cody

any one have any input?

MissMTS

I am not sure about this, so you might want to double check, but I don't think that a rainbow or redtail shark will clean the tank or stir the substrate. I believe they they swim in the mid levels of the tank.

Cody

redtail sharks and rainbow sharks are scavangers, that will go at othere levels of the tank but they scavange the bottom of the tank for food, so i dont need to double check that, im not stupid you know, im just trying ot figure this all out, i was getting a red tail or rainbow shark anyways, but i wanted to know if they movement of them scavanging is comparable to the snails

MissMTS

Hi Cody,
My mistake. I don't think that you are stupid in any way. I was just trying to help. I have never heard of rainbow sharks being used to clean tanks before. Please don't be rude to people that are trying to help you.

Cody

im sorry, im just a little crabby i didnt mean to snap at you, i didnt mean really to clean they tank, more just getting some left overs, i just call anything thats a algea eater or bottom feeder (clean up crew) what do you think would be better, a red tail shark or a rainbow shark. the red tails seem more full bodied vs. the more slender look of the rainbow shark, ill google both of them and find some more adult pictures of them. hey isnt really late in california right now, its 12:08 am here, i thought your guys are a few hours ahead of us, arent you tierd

MissMTS

No worries Cody We all get crabby sometimes. I personally like the look of the Redtail sharks better thank the Rainbow sharks. I think that the red tail on the Redtails is a more vivid red than the Rainbows. You don't have your location listed, so I don't know where you are, but its only 10:16 here, so you are probably more tired than me, lol

Cody

ohhh thats right , im in de pere wisconsin, which is just outside green bay, if you have heard of green bay, i forgot that we are two hours ahead of you no behind. yeah i know what you mean i have sen some nice red tail sharks that are verryyy jet black with a chery red tail. i think ill go with the red tail most likely

Chief_waterchanger

If you would rather not do MTS you can always just manually stir the substrate, as long as you make sure to do half the substrate per weekly waterchange; Or even more often wouldn't hurt, but probably wouldn't be necessary.

I don't keep the redtails or rainbow sharks, so I couldn't answer about their behaviors.

platy ben

a redtail shark i think looks better than a rain bow shark but there is another shark in this species that gets bigger, so it will work better with your severum, its called a black shark.