Tank size question for 2 modestas and others

[gmaddox]

I made the impulsive decision to buy 2 Modestas. purple and one blue.
Man these fish are beautiful. bought them for only $4 each.
anyway, They are about 3 inches long each.

So anyway I am now thinking maybe I should not have bought them
for the time being becuase I only have a 29 Gallon tank.

Is there a way to set up a stackable type system to increase multi level bottom size in a small tank? anybody done this? or tried?

How long can I get away having these two in the aquarium before having to expand?

Right now I have in this tank:

• 2 Leopard Leaf gourami 1.5"
• 2 Rainbow fish 2"
• 2 African Dwarf Frogs
• 1 Senegal Bichir 4.5"
• 2 gigantic Mystery Snails (too big!)
and now.
• 2 Botia Modesta (Red Tail Loach)

[libingboy]

i did the same thing a few years back, bought a purple and a blue modesta...
in all likelihood, the purple modesta is dyed... this will weaken the fish, and because of this, the purple modesta was constantly picked on by the stronger blue modesta. this was in a 4 ft tank with lots of pots... i ended up buying 2 more modesta to spread out the aggression.

[Jayhawk]

You were going to need a bigger tank anyway with that birchir in there...how about finding a nice used 55 with stand as soon as you can?

I have a semi second level in my 33 gallon tank (36" long tank) - it's made with lava rock in the shape of a dolmen with java fern completely covering the top stone...so this level is about 8" wide by 12" long. I have a kuhli who has claimed it, but the other 5 kuhlis hang around the real bottom the the tank. My amano shrimp also periodically hang out above on it, too. But overall, the fish seem to know it's not really the bottom.

How are those African leaf/bush fish doing in your tank? Are they out and about during the day? What are they eating? I'm a labyrinth fish fan, too, and I've been tempted to pick up a few of them at the LFS, but didn't know how nocturnal or aggressive they were and wondered what they tend to eat.

Thanks,

Eric

[gmaddox]

The Leaf gourami are doing awesome. Very hardy and growing. They don't really bother the other fish. I've had them for about 2 months, and they are comming out during the day more and more. as far as eating they tend to
eat flakes and also bottom wafers. But ofcourse they would probably prefer
brine shrimp like most fish.

libingboy, As far as the Modesta Loachs you were right the purple isn't
doing so well. All it seems to do right now is lay around, I think he might be on it's death-bed. The blue one is doing fine but it's sad because he keeps lying next to his friend with no-one to play wth. Do you think I should get another blue one?

I would like to get some shrimp possibly.

As far as the Bichir, I know he or she will get alot bigger, As of right now it's the most interesting and beautiful in the tank, In the store this fish was grey as a baby, now after 2 months it's a beautiful golden brown!
Very graceful it's an old softy right now very nice fish leaves everyone alone, seems to like the frogs as friends like to rub against them when it swims, actually the tiny little frogs aren't afraid of him at all, they seem to like to protect their food and try to hord the food right in front of him, he'll usually wait and get food somewher else, maybe this will change when it gets bigger, this thing is extremely easy to keep healthy. it grows about 1/2 an inch a month.

Hey jayhawk why do they call the Leaf fish labyrinth fish?
They look awesome!

[libingboy]

the bichir will make short work of any shrimp you place in the tank... unless the bichir's very well fed i'd think the frogs would also disappear one by one if they can fit into the bichir's mouth
if the blue modesta isnt bothering the purple one, i wouldnt add more fish at the moment, the newcomer might end up bothering the purple modesta...

[andyroo]

Gmaddox,

In Uni. i had a nice big second hand set-up, but good bottom gravel was hard to come by in the city and i had no cash to buy.
SO, we put down a light layer about 2cm thick and planted the plants into 6 and 8 inch terra-cotta pots with sand/loam soil with plenty of peat, covered over with a layer (2cm again) of courser gravel to keep everything in place.

Made for a nice multi-level design with high pots and gullys between where there was driftwood, sticks and some sort of hair-like algae/plant to keep the glass shrimp safe. The peat kept the water just right for anything Amazonian... which was the collection focus.

The clown loaches LOVED it as well. Had to have them in there, though they didn't fit into the theme. Addiction is a terrible thing....

New terra cotta can be poisonous, particularly to algae grazers/bottom feeders. I don't know why we got away with it then. If you try this method out be sure pots are OLD/aged and clean.


A