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hey everyone, i have kinda been a bit out of the hobby for a while but still maintaining a 32 gallon tank. i am moving soon and have to dismantle the tank so i thought i may as well redo the tank in the process and reenter the hobby once again. I was thinking to make it a certain theme... like south american. i am upgrading my lights and hopefully aiming for 2.0 wpg to 2.5 wpg and adding CO2 so i can turn it into a planted tank. I wanna keep it a community style tank and was thinking on going with a large school of cardinals. but i would like some other ideas and am open to any suggestions..so what would you do??

You could try building your own version of my Panda Fun Palace.

Let's see ... a 32 gallon setup ... try 16 Cardinals, 16 Pandas and 6 Otocinclus. Once that is up and running, it shoudl be a riot to watch!

Alternatively, you could try tracking down some of the unusual newer Tetras in the hobby that are coming on stream. I've just mailed a brace of photos to CrazyRed, who's going to stick them up somewhere in Tetra Talk, so keep a look out for them and chase those up if you're looking for something exotic!


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

I Suggest a pair of blue or bolivian rams,
or a pair of each!
Or, any interesting and colorful apisto species would
work too.


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I am sorry but I cannot picuture the physical dimensions of a 32g tank. (# feet in length?)

I must be a dir-brain but this antipodean cannot get a get grip on the gallon thing. Nuttin' else in my life is in that measurement!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~ My fish blow kisses at me all day long ~~~

You might want this list of standard US aquarium sizes ... this may prove helpful.

Almost forgot ... apparently some US manufacturers quote the capacity of their aquaria in imperial (i.e., UK) gallons instead of US gallons, just to confuse the picture.

Yet another reason why we in the UK specify our aquaria by physical dimensions (length x width x height) as the primary indicator of size, adding capacity as a secondary figure afterwards.


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

its quite an odd sized aquarium... i didnt know at the time or else i wouldnt have gotten it! the lights on it are only 24 inches long so the light doesnt cover the whole tank. but the dimensions are 80cm(l)x44.5cm(h)x34cm(d) which works out to be ... 31.5"(l)x17.5(h)x13.5"(d). As i said the dimensions are quite odd...

Hey Eric,
what an interesting sized tank.
Very very long!
Id suggest going for fish that are not
overly tall, fish that prefer a long swimming space
as opposed to tall.
Rams, dwarf cichlids, tetras, rasboras,danios,
gouramis, etc all come to mind.


Come Play Yahtzee With Me!
http://games.atari.com
Http://www.myleague.com/yahtgames

A large school of barbs . . .Cherry barbs, Gold Barbs, Tiger barbs. . etc... some smaller catfish like Schwartzie cats or Panda Catfish.. they are a little more active than general plecos. . . They like long tanks with lots of swimming room.

---

"it's the neck, it creaks under the weight of too much heavy thinking."

On seeing the dimensions of your aquarium in cm, my suggestion still stands, in fact, becomes even more the way I would run with this ... with a relatively shallow depth and lots of bottom area, you have plenty of room to put 16 Pandas in there as I suggested, and they'd love you for it ... chances are they would start spawning almost as often as mine do!

As an alternative for the upper strata, try 12 Ember Tetras (they're nice and small) and then you'd have room for a pair of Bolivian Rams.


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

hmm ember tetras? those may be hard to find. what about the ottos cali? still have those in there as well?

Yes, that's including the Otocinclus. I went for the Ember Tetras as a replacement for the Cardinals so you could pop in the Bolivian Rams.

Mind you, there are some very nice Apistogramma species in circulation. If you can find a nice small one that [1] isn't overly aggressive, and [2] doesn't have too stringent requirements vis--vis water chemistry, then you could substitute a pair of those. I've not kept the recent arrivals to the hobby such as Apisotgramma panduro (which looks really attractive), but if one of those proves to be relatively adaptable to water conditions and even tempered, try a small Apistogramma ...

Other Dwarf Cichlids you could try include the Nannacara species - they're peaceful in a community aquarium, and they stay small too, but watch them if they start to breed, because Nannacara anomala in particular develops an unusual trait when breeding. Once the eggs are laid, the female takes over the spwning cave, and if the male comes too close, she'll kill him. Female Nannacara Cichlids in brood mode develop an almost insane 'husband beating' streak, with anomala being particularly violent in this regard. Apart from that one facet of their behaviour, though, they're attractive fishes, and good in a community setup.


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

Hmm i think the ember tetras will be a problem to find... soo i think it will be easier if i go with the cardinals... it wouldnt be a problem if i added the smaller sized tetras from the lfs... with the full sized adult cardinals in my tank? would it? im going to have to get rid of my angel most definately if i add any more tetras in . its actually done pretty well with the current tetras.. it chased them around for a bit when i first added the cardinals in and then realized he couldnt even fit them in his mouth so he gave up and turned to the plants... occasionally. i think i am going to build up my school of cardinals for now. and attempt to add pandas if i can find them. will it be a problem if i have 1/4" (roughly 6.5mm) gravel? or will i need smaller for the pandas?

First of all, providede there is nothing in there that will try and turn them into lunch, mixing different sized Cardinals to build up a shoal isn't problematic. So you can build the shoal up piecemeal if circumstances prevent you from obtaining a large shoal in one go.

Secondly, I would DEFINITELY go with smaller sized gravel, but for the time being leave well alone if your gravel consists of rounded particles with no sharp edges, as in my experience, it is important that Pandas have a 'omfortable' substrate upon which to rest and in which to dig. If your current gravel consists of rounded particles, leave well alone until you can obtain gravel with a smaller particle size tht also conforms to this requirement.

As an illustration of the kind of gravel that is apporpriate, I've just removed a couple of gravel particles from the Panda Fun Palace and photographed them next to a ruler so you can gauge the particle size that will be suitable. They will sit upon even finer gravel than this (my Panda nursery has finer gravel still) but this gravel can cause some maintenance problems if it isn't VERY thoroughly washed beforehand.

If you decide to change your gravel, then the way forward is to use something like plastic rulers as dividers, partition off sections of the existing gravel, remove it a section at a time and replace with the new gravel, so as to avoid wrecking your biofilter if you're using an undergravel filtration system as I am. The task is somewhat tedious and messy, but has the advantage that when you obtain your new gravel, you only have to wash a portion at a time, and can devote more thorough attention to each portion.

Send me an E-Mail (E-Mail address is in my profile), and I'll send you the JPEG file from my digital camera illustrating my gravel particle size.

OH HANG ON - I CAN LINK PICTURES!

Silly me ...

Here's my gravel size ...




Attached Image:


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

Thanks Cali that link is GOLD


(my trouble is that my tank is 4ft... but I don't know how many inches that is? 12*4= 48.... is my tank 48 inches?)

I am going to bookmark that site because I always get bamboozled... strange that this is an aussie site but US measurements rule supreme.... gah! takin' over the aqua world too.... and quilting measurements too..... and skate blade lengths......and prolly other stuff I am not involved in.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~ My fish blow kisses at me all day long ~~~

17 Tiger Barbs.

i have a very similar gravel size except it may be a tiny bit bigger. i was thinking about changing my gravel anyways to eco complete for the plants anyways... but that stuff is quite expensive! i still got lots of time to decide anyways as my tank has to be all taken apart and then moved so it would be quite easy to change gravel. i also have to try and find a fish store that will take my angel and some other fish too.


as for the US measurements... i shouldnt even be using them! i am in canada but the close proximity to the states just has u using both. plus its been passed on from generations above where back in the 20th century most people got used to using the US system and then the metric came along. the metric system makes more sense to me but i just got used to using both! its kinda weird though because depending on what i measure some times i use the metric and sometimes i use the US. but for things like temperature i use the celcius scale. its kinda weird to use both but even though the metric system is the standard here... the close proximity to the states leads to people using both.