Two of the 3 fish, JD and RT, are skittish fish by nature, and their shyness is reinforced if you only have 3 small fish in a big tank. Shyness can be contagious. If one fish is skittish, it can scare other fish to respond the same. One solution is to add more fish, specially the greedy juvies who are more interested in food than to hide. The best dithers IME are more cichlids to compete for food and territories. Another solution is training. Just before you feed your fish, wave your hand or move back and forth in front of the tank for a while to condition the fish into association with movement to food.
fish for 200 gallon
- Thread starter oscar777
- Start date
Hey, thanks for the help. The fish are about 6 inches and so they are pretty aggressive now and so adding more cichlids just seems like a recipe for disaster and dead cichlids but if you have any suggestions on like specific species of cichlid or other dither species, that would be good and only if you really think it would be okay. Everything I add, I would like to have long term so please account for overstocking and big bio load.
Thanks
Thanks
So you have contradiction with your fish as they are both aggressive and skittish. Three 6" fish in a 200 gal is too empty, and there are not enough fish to spread the aggression or draw the shyness away from a few. You never add one fish at a time but several fish at the same time to diffuse the aggression. Don't worry about long-term bio load or ultimate size, as you can rehome some as they grow and fill up the space. Adding more fish is the best way to reduce shyness, and growing out fish together is a better way to achieve long term harmony as the pecking order is established early and you can observe and reshuffle fish before problems arise. I really don't think the 3 fish you have can have long term harmony. The JD will be the smallest and weakest fish and will be eliminated first. Then you will be left with 2 gladiators to battle out who will survive. You have a better chance of keeping them together if you double the inhabitants.
I love Australia, my aunt lives in Perth. Anyway giant danios have worked for me, they wont last long but will entice shy fish to come out and play. As for bottom feeders shovelnose cats are awesome.
id say 4 or 5 would be fine but if your after a bottom feeder a group of clown loaches would be great. Really active fun fish to watch. They do get large but the are super SLOW grower
Yes - true - but 220 I think would be ok for a grow out tank. I got my wolf at only 4 inches. But for a permanent home - 1000 gallons should be adequate. I am designing two new tanks for my garage. 1000 gallons and 3000 gallons ( 22 feet in length)
All sounds very reasonable - spreading the aggression works well, but I never tried the training.
Hey, thanks again, can you give any ideas on specific species? I was going to add a few silver dollars but what kind of other fish would you recommend if that wouldn't do the job?
I was thinking maybe 2 cichlids and 4 silver dollars?
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