# Fish for my 40 gallon



## FishBreeding (Aug 13, 2010)

i am thinking a red tailed shark, 2 rams, 8 tiger barbs, with a bristle nose pleco.....do you think this will work in my tank if not give me some other suggestions


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## DTetras2 (Jan 20, 2010)

I think that would be ok, except the tiger barbs, they'd nip the rams' fins. If you want a large school of fish, I'd go with some tetras like some lemon tetras, they're really cool to watch in a school, and they're a very peaceful tetra


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## Betta1 (Jan 5, 2007)

What ever you decide I think you'll greatly enjoy an 18" tank..... by far the best tank you can get under a 75g.

I don't want to go against your theme but have you thought about getting into larger fish? With an 18" tank you can start going beyond community fish.... schoolers etc and get into the larger fish. Your still limited on fish size and numbers but you've got the tank to do it. If you are responsible and sell/trade your fish before they outgrow your tank then theres no harm in getting larger fish and stocking your tank nicely with them. Keep in mind with a 40g breeder that you've got less water collumn..... that means for your foot print you've actually got less water so it's easier to overstock a tank by just looking at it. In say a 29g you've got more room on top or bottom of a mid dwelling fish..... so going by sight you're more likely to overstock.

Here is a vid of my south american 40g breeder where I learned some of these lessons (please avoid the flames, I was working at the LFS on saturdays for purely store credit, my tanks got cramped)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5mloDd0Wco


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## FishBreeding (Aug 13, 2010)

thinking about five banded barb its nicer smaller and the stocking calculator says they would be okay = )


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## Revolution1221 (Apr 20, 2010)

dont get fish taht will outgrow your tank with the idea of uprading or rehoming them because 1. its not fair to the fish and 2. things happen and things come up and you either cant find a home for them or you decide to keep them.


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## FishBreeding (Aug 13, 2010)

will the red tail shark outgrow my tank?


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## hXcChic22 (Dec 26, 2009)

Red tailed sharks get big... and in my experience are vicious fish that attack anyone and everyone even when they are given "space".


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## LilSums (Aug 2, 2010)

I'm with Rev & hxc, relocating fish is so stressful on them and not fair at all. And I will never buy another red tail because of what hxc said, I had some in the past, they hit about 5" & started nipping & screwing with some of the other fish until they stressed to death. I had to give them their own tank where they were then aggressive with each other off & on. Tiger barbs also are fin nippers so be wary in adding them, Dtetra's idea was great, there are so many tetras that are much more mellow & even more striking in appearance. Make sure you plan ahead for an extra 1/2-1" of "suggested" adult size for fish, I've almost always had mine get freakishly huge (they're also freakishly spoiled) for instance the guppies in my tank right now are about 3" long, my betta about 5" (including tail, about 4" just body), & you never know who's going to get preggers, so I'd err on the side of caution when it comes to space. I hope you're new tank turns out great!


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## Betta1 (Jan 5, 2007)

It's not unfair to the fish in the slightest..... if your "responsible" then theres nothing wrong with it...... all the fish in my video were traded off not much larger then you see them. This all depends on your LFS situation...... I was working every week at the LFS and I was a friend of the store owner..... he would regularly take my fish for trade.

Don't live your life to exact calulations and strict suggestions...... enjoy the hobby..... be responsible but theres more then one way to do things.

If you ever work in fish store your idea of "whats stressfull for a fish" will change, they can endure much more then you give them credit for.


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## Revolution1221 (Apr 20, 2010)

Betta1 said:


> It's not unfair to the fish in the slightest..... if your "responsible" then theres nothing wrong with it...... all the fish in my video were traded off not much larger then you see them. This all depends on your LFS situation...... I was working every week at the LFS and I was a friend of the store owner..... he would regularly take my fish for trade.
> 
> Don't live your life to exact calulations and strict suggestions...... enjoy the hobby..... be responsible but theres more then one way to do things.
> 
> If you ever work in fish store your idea of "whats stressfull for a fish" will change, they can endure much more then you give them credit for.


i do work at a pet store full time and even tho some fish can handle being moved others will get sick and then spread that disease to countless other fish. its best to get a fish and plan on giving it a home for the rest of its life. keeping animals isnt about oh ill just buy this one and when im done with it ill sell it or give it to someone else. i mean have you been on craigslist lately? and being responsible wouldn't just mean getting rid of the fish after its outgrown your tank in order to be truly responsible you would have to keep track of where that fish ends up becaus the next home it goes to the person may not take care of it as well as say another person. or even the person who owns it after that. and let me tell you a lot of the time when fish outgrow tanks and are given to a pet store they dont always have space for them and they can either end up as food for another fish or being euthanized. we take in unwanted fish and its nothing but a pain for us. we price them at rediculously low prices so that we dont have to keep them to long and anytime we get an oscar or a pacu 90% of them get euthanized because there are just not enough suitable homes for them out there. people also become attached to their fish and end up not wanting to part with them so the fish ends up suffering and unfortunatly "being responsible" is something you seldom see in the pet industry especially when it comes to such "disposable" pets like fish. i maybe see 1 out of every 20 people that come through our store that actually give a fish a proper or animal a proper home and thats probably an over exaduration.


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## FishBreeding (Aug 13, 2010)

so is the issue the red tailed shark? haha thats all i want to know


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## Revolution1221 (Apr 20, 2010)

FishBreeding said:


> so is the issue the red tailed shark? haha thats all i want to know


yeah they have very limited tank mates. because most the fish that are big and mean enough to live with them will kill them. they mostly do good with larger gouramis and stuff like that.


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## FishBreeding (Aug 13, 2010)

can you give me something that will go with blue rams then?


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## Revolution1221 (Apr 20, 2010)

FishBreeding said:


> can you give me something that will go with blue rams then?


most any community fish. dwarf gouramis, dwarf rainbows, peaceful loaches, cory cats, other rams, appistogrammas, dwarf flag cichlids, keyhole cichlids, different small gobys, fancy plecos.


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## LilSums (Aug 2, 2010)

Rev's right, all of those would be great. Reds get really big, probably not a good idea. 

And yes, I used to manage a pet store for 3 years, 50+hrs/wk, so I know they can take stress, I used to have people bring in their fish all the time. As he also mentioned, you never know what the fate of that fish would be with other people or even if they will survive after you drop them off. Often we'd have customers ask about a fish then i would deny them sale because I'd overhear them talking amongst themselves about watching their aro's tear it apart later. Not all people do that, my GM wouldn't, she didn't care. Never know, better to make sure they're safe & happy


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

I agree with the others, tiger barbs should have a 4ft long tank. Maybe cherry or gold barbs instead?


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## Betta1 (Jan 5, 2007)

Revolution1221 said:


> i do work at a pet store full time and even tho some fish can handle being moved others will get sick and then spread that disease to countless other fish. its best to get a fish and plan on giving it a home for the rest of its life. keeping animals isnt about oh ill just buy this one and when im done with it ill sell it or give it to someone else. i mean have you been on craigslist lately? and being responsible wouldn't just mean getting rid of the fish after its outgrown your tank in order to be truly responsible you would have to keep track of where that fish ends up becaus the next home it goes to the person may not take care of it as well as say another person. or even the person who owns it after that. and let me tell you a lot of the time when fish outgrow tanks and are given to a pet store they dont always have space for them and they can either end up as food for another fish or being euthanized. we take in unwanted fish and its nothing but a pain for us. we price them at rediculously low prices so that we dont have to keep them to long and anytime we get an oscar or a pacu 90% of them get euthanized because there are just not enough suitable homes for them out there. people also become attached to their fish and end up not wanting to part with them so the fish ends up suffering and unfortunatly "being responsible" is something you seldom see in the pet industry especially when it comes to such "disposable" pets like fish. i maybe see 1 out of every 20 people that come through our store that actually give a fish a proper or animal a proper home and thats probably an over exaduration.


I would agree with you, most people don't keep fish responsibly, I actually missed out on a promotion because when I was in the fish department I made sure people were keeping fish properly and even at times I almost didn't sell a fish because I knew for a fact that someone wasn't going to take proper care of it (think ~10 gouramis in a 10g and buying another). I actually put my self through massive amounts of stress trying to make certain the fish I was selling were going to a good home. But in the end you have to simply give advice only where it is asked for.

In theory I would agree with you..... growing up my angels and trading them out stressed me and I wanted only the best home for them. (how many people devote 205g to angelfish between two tanks?) But in the end I simply can't guarantee their well being and thats just a fact you have to live with when dealing with other fish keepers.

When it comes right down to it people need to relax when keeping fish, I started hanging out with old time friends who kept fish as well and looking at their tanks stressed me out due to overstocking...... to the point of affecting our friendship because I would lean on them about their fish keeping habbits. And to be honest fish are not more important then a relationship with a person. I have tried all methods of keeping fish..... pure strict stocking and the exact opposite of who cares and carelessly overstocking. I had the freedom to do that as I basically had access to a hundred 40g tanks to put my fish in if I felt they didn't fit into my setups (10+ tanks at one point). It was just another way to keep fish and people often forget there are many different ways.

I've tried it all and simply put.... the stress of being a pureist isn't worth it. I keep a consiencious mind when keeping fish but stupid stuff is going to happen to fish no matter how hard you try.

Technically you are right on many points.

(btw sorry for the hijack)


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## Betta1 (Jan 5, 2007)

All arguments aside..... if you want to add a nice cichlid to your tank thats good with community fish find a keyhole cichlid, cupid cichlid or perhaps a tapajo red top geophagus. I've recently discovered these fish and all are 6" fish that go well in community tanks.

red top: (very aggressive towards one another "conspecific") (the jury is still out on whether they eat small fish, my friend has a wild surminensis tank that doesn't, my new guppy/geo tank is loosing guppy's)
http://www.cichlid-forum.com/profiles/species.php?id=464

Keyhole (extremely shy and peacefull, towards eachother and others)
http://www.cichlid-forum.com/profiles/species.php?id=139

Cupid Cichlid (haven't kept or know anyone to keep but I wanted this and thought it's what I was getting when I got keyhole, slightly aggressive towards one another)
http://www.cichlid-forum.com/profiles/species.php?id=425


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

I had some cupido for a long time in a 55. Really mild fish, but they never did show any interest in breeding. I think they have a pretty long time to maturity for a cichlid. I'd add both Laetacara, curviceps and dorsigera. http://www.cichlid-forum.com/profiles/results.php?genus=107 The are small, shy, peaceful, but their breeding colors are nice and they do great in planted tanks and I can't kill them, which is saying they are pretty hardy especially when you compared them to rams.


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## FishBreeding (Aug 13, 2010)

i want to fit something bigger than a molly in this tank and i dont know what to put in it mayb give me a selection of hardy cichlids


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## Cam (Nov 9, 2009)

RTBS + what you have + Tiger Barbs = Problems


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## Jared A (Aug 20, 2010)

DTetras2 said:


> I think that would be ok, except the tiger barbs, they'd nip the rams' fins. If you want a large school of fish, I'd go with some tetras like some lemon tetras, they're really cool to watch in a school, and they're a very peaceful tetra


Actually, they would be fine since the OP wants to put 8 of them in the tank. Tiger barbs won't nip if kept in groups of 6 or more.


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## Revolution1221 (Apr 20, 2010)

Jared A said:


> Actually, they would be fine since the OP wants to put 8 of them in the tank. Tiger barbs won't nip if kept in groups of 6 or more.


not always true tiger barbs are very unpredictable fish and there is always a risk with the. they are just nippy by nature and keeping them in larger groups just helps curb the aggression sometimes making it not as bad sometimes not helping at all.


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## DTetras2 (Jan 20, 2010)

I think the red tailed shark would be kinda nippy, JaredA has a red tailed shark with danios and serpaes and there's some agression, but not enough to kill anything, and red tailed sharks are the same. I'd go with what I said before, school of lemon tetras(6), maybe a school of black phantom tetras(4-6), and either the red tailed shark or maybe a bn pleco, they really help with algae if that's what you're hoping for with the red tailed shark, the bn pleco will do a WAY better job If you want to do cichlids, there aren't many that you can do that are bigger than mollys, maybe rams or keyholes, those are peaceful community cichlids, but they don't get as big as you hope. I think you should do a planted community tank, they look soooo beautiful if you use live plants and drift or mopany wood and maybe some rocks, that would look awesome


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