Need Some Unique Ideas!

Alright so I currently have an empty cycled 29 gallon tank. It has about 3 inches of black sand as substrate with an external power filter (aqua clear 70). It also has a heater and an aeration stone. I’m going to list the stuff that I have to work with but none of it has to be used it’s just what I have to work with for a new idea- I have a lot of lava rock, tall bushy fake plants, I have a few (6) cichlid stones of all different sizes, and I also have a large fake tree stump. I don’t want a community tank of 10-30 fish. I want a center piece type fish or invert or fully aquatic amphibian that would pop on black sand. The reason this is a little hard for me to think of is because the main food I would feed it cannot be living or have to be refrigerated. I want some crazy, unique, or cool ideas that you guys/girls can come up with. The main thing I wanted to do was a pure white Cherax Albidus crayfish as a species only tank but they are just about impossible to find in the USA. I was also thinking of having an orange, blue, and white dwarf crayfish all in the same tank but I can’t find a common dwarf white species of crayfish. After those ideas I was thinking maybe an axolotl would be really neat to have but they hate current in the tank and don’t like it when it gets too hot. Then I thought maybe an African butterfly fish, although very unique they are only brown and aren't very active. I also thought maybe fire belly newts? I don’t think they would like an external power filter though. My most recent idea was having 3 German Blue Rams cause they are a magnificent color but they like ph of 5 and mine is 7-8 so that was shot down fast. After all of these thoughts does anyone have any other ideas of what I could do? I’m open to almost anything.

 

What about a Puffer tank?

 

What about a Puffer tank?

Puffers are not a bad idea but what are their food requirements?

 

I second the puffer tank try red eye puffer or pea puffer. or you could try a killifish such as these?

 

I second the puffer tank try red eye puffer or pea puffer. or you could try a killifish such as these?

Puffers eat live good don't they? The killifish idea sounds cool although I know nothing about them I will do a lot of research on them tonight and let you know about any problems or questions I have.

 

I have pea puffer fish and they are a nightmare they are dead intelligent and go from one food to anouther they only eat live food to start with you can ween them on to frozen after a while put flake and pellet food are a big no no live snails are good every other day but mine currently eat live bloodworms , and live daphnie they did eat live brine shrimp for a while but went off it and wouldn't eat them and frozen mosquito lave

 

I have pea puffer fish and they are a nightmare they are dead intelligent and go from one food to anouther they only eat live food to start with you can ween them on to frozen after a while put flake and pellet food are a big no no live snails are good every other day but mine currently eat live bloodworms , and live daphnie they did eat live brine shrimp for a while but went off it and wouldn't eat them and frozen mosquito lave

Sounds like more of a hassle then I'm looking for, I also don't want to use live or frozen foods in my remodeled tank. Thanks for the info though!

 

yea puffers love live foods... my pea puffers would only eat pest snails they were a blessing to me because I had to many snails. killifish like peat moss. if you take a cup full of peat moss and place it on the bottom of your tank still in the cup they will breed. and killifish eggs can survive almost anything.

 

yea puffers love live foods... my pea puffers would only eat pest snails they were a blessing to me because I had to many snails. killifish like peat moss. if you take a cup full of peat moss and place it on the bottom of your tank still in the cup they will breed. and killifish eggs can survive almost anything.

I think I can cross off puffers then. Killifish sound like a good idea, can you have more then one together? If so how many in a tank my size?

 

you can have more then one together they usually go in a colony and I believe you can have a pair for every 5 gallons of water

 

EricV breeds killifish he can also help you out a little!

 

. Killifish sound like a good idea, can you have more then one together? If so how many in a tank my size?

Depending on the species you may be able to keep multiple pairs together especially in a 29. A tank of that size will hold at least 6 pairs of the more peaceful varieties.

 

I was going to mention the crayfish and the axolotl before I read about it, and your food and tank is limiting. What are your thoughts on the smaller spiny eel species? Maybe African Clawed frogs? You could just do a fancy goldfish like a black moor.

 

I was going to mention the crayfish and the axolotl before I read about it, and your food and tank is limiting. What are your thoughts on the smaller spiny eel species? Maybe African Clawed frogs? You could just do a fancy goldfish like a black moor.

They would outgrow a 29 fairly quickly as they need company and the black moors don't exactly "pop" against the black substrate. However, some of the smaller varieties of loaches can be colorful or if monochromatic such as the yoyo loach, high enough contrast to still "pop" on the black substrate. You would just have to be careful what you choose if you don't intend to upgrade in size later on as some can get very large. (IE: my two gold dojos would look great on black but at 10-12 inches in adulthood will need a larger setup long before then, while there are plenty that stay small if that's what you like, there are definitely ones tbaget even larger as well.

 

Thanks for the help everyone, I'm still open to suggestions but so far killifish seem to be the best option.

 

I've done a fair amount of research on killifish and they seem easy to take care of but are just about impossible to find online unless you want 30+ eggs of one species.

 

10.99 for a MF pair sounds like a good deal to me.. They have other ones but they get pricey, depending on your budget.

 

10.99 for a MF pair sounds like a good deal to me.. They have other ones but they get pricey, depending on your budget.

I do find the occasional one that is cheap and decent looking but overall I can only find like 2 species that aren't crazy prices. I want to be able to find a few different species because they are going to be the only thing in the tank. I don't want just one pair of fish in a 29 gallon tank, it isn't much to look at in my opinion. Thanks for the recommendation though, I've been looking around trying to find new ideas.

 

After a lot of searching and research it looks like Panther crabs would be really cool or a group of dwarf crayfish of the cambarellus variety.