Ideas for a South American schooling fish...

In my planted 140 long I have a school of Rummy Nosed Tetra. I like them a lot & so does my dwarf Pike Regani. So, I'm thinking about switching for a S. American schooling fish that either is a little bigger, or a shape that's not tubular like the Rummy nose.

Considering Diamond Tetra, Lemon Tetra, Congo Tetra. These are my favorite types/ color but I've raised these before and looking for something a little different.

I did run into this species on the Internet, if anyone has had experience with these or know where I could find them please do tell. Red Phantom Tetra (Megalamphodus sweglesi) [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
I read that these Tetra get about as long as the Rummynose but the body shape is wider (top to bottom), and thinking strategically my pike will have issue eating these...

Other tank mates include Apistogramma, Angel fish, bristle nosed Pleco, ottocinculus , emerald green Corys.

Thanks,

theChad

Do you want to keep it with Tetra, or would you consider Cichlids?
Cause I know the perfect Cichlid.

madness wrote:Do you want to keep it with Tetra, or would you consider Cichlids?
Cause I know the perfect Cichlid.

Well the idea is to keep with the schooling fish. I have about 4 species of Apistograma, 1 Angel, my pair of dwarf pike, and a school of Cory cats. If there is a type of dwarf cichlid you have in mind I would like to hear! But please consider the tank is fully planted, with many delicate plants that can be ripped apart by an obnoxious tank mate.

Yea dang it, they will probably eat your plants. They are actually from India, they avg around 5-6", and they do school. They are called Etroplus canarensis, and they are on the Endangered list.

Maybe I should just get ANOTHER tank, and get some myself along with some rare Uaru's. Here are a couple pics of the Etroplus canarensis
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I once saw a tank in Baltimore aquarium that was full of Uarus.....oh, I was envious you better believe it....if I couldn't have discus, id have uarus...if not them, id leave the hobby...

in other words, a tank full of uarus would be a cool thing...that is, if you don't like plants at all

madness wrote:Yea dang it, they will probably eat your plants.  They are actually from India, they avg around 5-6", and they do school.  They are called Etroplus canarensis, and they are on the Endangered list.

Maybe I should just get ANOTHER tank, and get some myself along with some rare Uaru's.  Here are a couple pics of the Etroplus canarensis
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Those are awesome maddness & would love to house them!
My 140 is totally S American themed with dwarf species. The largest fish I have now is an Angel fish. I am attempting to maintain up to 20 tetra, but I'm loosing at the lest 1 every other day due to predation by this 5" male...
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try buenos aires tetras. they get bigger and should be able to deal with a little fin nipping. theyre also quite colorful which i feel is a nice little bonus. just my opinion, in either case i would let the tetras settle in while the 5'' pike takes a little time out.

why not do discus in the 140?

come to think of it, why didn't I suggest them before I suggested the uarus? hmmm..don't know what I was thinking

Anthraxx wrote:try buenos aires tetras. they get bigger and should be able to deal with a little fin nipping. theyre also quite colorful which i feel is a nice little bonus. just my opinion, in either case i would let the tetras settle in while the 5'' pike takes a little time out.

Although a beautiful fish these are notorious fin nippers, plant eaters, big thumbs down...


Come one ppl really? All the info in what I am looking for is in the heading and beginning post! Please let's stay on topic as well, I don't want to talk about Discus, or anything besides a schooling fish that can fit the profile in this thread.

Thank you,

theChad

Do they have to be South American? I have Australian Rainbows in my bichir tank and love how active they are.

DMD123 wrote:Do they have to be South American? I have Australian Rainbows in my bichir tank and love how active they are.

I love Rainbow fish DMD123! I used to raise many species. My all time fav is Madigascar rainbows. Over the past year I've completely removed all other species from other regions.

The "center piece" fish to this is my dwarf pikes. 2nd Apistogramma, and finally Angels dancing to & fro. So you see, 5-6 inch rainbows won't fit ultimately. But..... A nice school of tetra would go awesome!!

DMD123, I once had a school of adult Congo Tetra. @ 3 fat inches my 15" Delhezi made a nice snack out of them ;)either that it was my 15" Bullhead cat... But I degress....

I had considered adding African Red Eye Tetras instead of my Rainbows.
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Sorry forgot to add, I needed cheap expendable fish in case the bichir started hunting. I got regular Rainbows from Petsmart on sale for $1.30 each. The other schooling fish were just too much money to risk.

DMD123 wrote:I had considered adding African Red Eye Tetras instead of my Rainbows.
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These are bad a**. For a time I was goings to do a W.African theme with these & W.African Cichlids. Aquarium CoOp had some of these the last time I was there a week or 2 ago.



I went with Congo Tetra with my Poly's. they survived until they where full grown (a fat 3") but they later got predated on by a 12" Bullhead Catfish...

I love my dwarf neon rainbowfish, but I'm considering changing up what I have in my tank XD They do seem to school together a bit though, but that could be because I have them in a 30 hex instead of a rectangular tank.

discus are pretty much a schooling fish...from south America, bigger and not a tubular shape....in your original post, you didn't rule out discus..

I think he is wanting smaller (dwarf) fish for this.

yea, now that you mention it, I see that in his second post.....

I have some Boehlkea fredcochui that are pretty awesome, and they are kind of outgrowing my 20 high:

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These are mine, taken a couple months ago. They look even better now, have some pink coloration to their anal fins which is really nice looking and gives them a bit more pop.

I'm pretty sure they're south american, I think from higher up in the amazon basin. They are super active, always swimming around, and they are super funny sometimes too. They will carry around a mini algae wafer and play keep up with it, I have seen the 11 of them eat an entire mini algae wafer without letting it hit the bottom

Here's one of them trying to eat a Hikari "crab cuisine" pellet whole, and he is having a bit of a hard time:

I've brought these in for some people. $11 each. [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

How about fish that are related to piranha fish. They school together and are American fishes

Aquarium Co-Op wrote:I've brought these in for some people. $11 each. [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Holy shit Cory, those look amazing! This is by far the best suggestion, go with these if you at all can. I would love to see some pics of these schooling in your tank, or better yet, see them in person at the shop before you pick them up

well, that's definitely unique!

They're are really bad ass. Scale eaters

It's like no one speEEky Engrish. SOUTH AMERICAN Schooling fish that will go with my Apisto's, angel fish, and cory cats... No, not Discus, no Piranha cousins from America, no, trout/ minnows from India.... Lol!

Never mind y'all, MOD DELETE THIS POST!

P.S yes the blue tetra are awesome but have the same body shape and size as neons and rummy nose, they will be gobbled up!
The minnows Cory posted from India..... WOW !!!

Ok. How about pentazona barb.

SiRWesDragon wrote:Ok. How about pentazona barb.

WOW REALLY? How you get ASAIN BARB out of South American schooling fish ?!?!?



Please someone shoot me....

Well hope cory can help. Cause we cant speak Engrish. Geez. Helping you with ideas but very limited schooling species in south American that are not slender and small sized that are not Discus, no Piranha cousins from America, no, trout/ minnows from India and barbs from asia.  

What about a tall bodied tetra like a Bleeding Heart
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SiRWesDragon wrote:Well hope cory can help. Cause we cant speak Engrish. Geez. Helping you with ideas but very limited schooling species in south American that are not slender and small sized that are not Discus, no Piranha cousins from America, no, trout/ minnows from India and barbs from asia.  

Here is a link for you with 20+ species of Tetra. [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

You don't know how many times I've re-read my original post trying to figure out the misscommunication. Since I am unable to see where I went wrong I am contributing the recent rash of bla bla posts to the fact someone opened the gate with the " Post more to win" contest... In the past couple of days on WashFishBox I have seen a rash of posts that are near meaningless and completely waste space on my email inbox. I feel sorry for any MOD having to monitor these threads...ha! But, I degress...

Sometimes there are other species that are not on these lists, rarer species, not always readily available to the hobby. I am currently leaning toward the Red Phantom Tetra.
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Thank you DMD123,  I do like these these and are the shape & size I am looking for. I am currently researching the Bleeding heart, emperor , and the Red Phantom.

theChad wrote:
You don't know how many times I've re-read my original post trying to figure out the misscommunication. Since I am unable to see where I went wrong I am contributing the recent rash of bla bla posts to the fact someone opened the gate with the " Post more to win" contest... In the past couple of days on WashFishBox I have seen a rash of posts that are near meaningless and completely waste space on my email inbox. I feel sorry for any MOD having to monitor these threads...ha! But, I degress...

 I got a kick out of your responses. You were expecting people to read your post in detail!? Talk about your unrealistic expectations...

The only schooling south american fish I have any experience with are corys. I don't think they fit the spirit of your first post, but I believe they're not eliminated by any of the criteria you list, apart from "a little different" in that they're arguably "a lot different" from what you say you like. In a big tank and a big enough group some corys can school very well.

I admit, this is a useless post, but I wanted to communicate to you that I feel your pain. Most folks completely ignore the details in posts, emails, etc. And FishBox certainly isn't alone in this regard.

Well apparently TheChad didnt think that his thread was very amusing and he deleted his membership.

I understand we are all trying to help, but maybe when someone is really looking for a specific thing, whether its a food, medicine, disease diagnoses, fish, whatever, lets try and stick to what is requested.

One of the biggest problems with threads that get out of control is that people dont always read the original post, and therefore form their own idea of what it was by the responses.

Take the time to read it all, and help in the way that is asked.

Wow, that sucks I hope it wasn't in direct response to what I posted.

I do agree with his assessment about the post contest - probably not a good idea.

That said, people are just trying to help - a little patience is required of anyone using online forums. Friendly discussion doesn't always stay 100% on track.

I am not picking but in the original post it says South American and yet Congo Tetras were being considered.   So right off the bat an African species was mentioned so.....

Wow, did he really just rage quit?