South / Central American Oddball Request

[The Mother Confessor]

Hi all,

Apologies for posting this in the Cichlid forum, but I'm after South / Central American biotope non cichlid oddballs, so I thought that this would be the most appropriate place to post this. Please move this to the correct category if needed. I like to have some different species in there to mix it up a little.

The tank has cichlids, so any suggestions would need to grow large enough to live with the likes of Festae, Midas, Jack Dempseys, Red Spot Gold Severums, Honduran Red Point, and my current oddballs. If it makes any difference, it's a well planted tank with massive mangrove roots that create lots of caves and areas for different territories. They are currently mostly juveniles growing out in a 5x2x2, but will go into a 8x3x2 once they are a little bigger, and the pairs will be split into their own tanks.

I currently have the following oddballs:
Lima Shovelnose
Black Ghost Knife Fish
Silver Arowana
Large Silver Dollars

I spotted some Eels, Bichirs and Rope Fish today but they are African/Asian. I love anything unusual and different, and as long as it's not a tank buster, I would love any suggestions or photos of any cool oddballs you guys have or recommend that would be biotope to an American setup.

 

[mrrobxc]

With a tank that size, the best oddballs to go with SA cichlids are stingrays. You can get Marble Motoros or Hystrix rays for that tank. The U.K. Aja's some of the best vendors.

 

[robham777]

This sounds a lot like what I want to do if I ever finish my plywood build. I was thinking about a smaller ray and possibly a tigrinus cat as the icing on the cake.

 

[mrrobxc]

This sounds a lot like what I want to do if I ever finish my plywood build. I was thinking about a smaller ray and possibly a tigrinus cat as the icing on the cake.

Tigrinus cats look amazing. I'd get one if I had a larger tank.

 

[robham777]

Tigrinus cats look amazing. I'd get one if I had a larger tank.

The plywood is 8'x4'x27" so that would be the max size shovelnose I would want to go. Got some sd, chocolates, and festivums growing out now. Some sort of geos will definitely be in the mix as well. Originally this tank was for my dovii, but I lost it just before Christmas.

 

[The Mother Confessor]

Rays do sound cool, but the sting worries me a bit.

Also, how much free floorspace would a ray need as I'd love to keep my mangrove root bogwood in there. It cost me a bomb and I'm guide attached to it!

 

[robham777]

Rays do sound cool, but the sting worries me a bit.

Also, how much free floorspace would a ray need as I'd love to keep my mangrove root bogwood in there. It cost me a bomb and I'm guide attached to it!

I was actually wondering the same thing. Seems like most ray tanks are very open.

 

[mrrobxc]

Rays do sound cool, but the sting worries me a bit.

Also, how much free floorspace would a ray need as I'd love to keep my mangrove root bogwood in there. It cost me a bomb and I'm guide attached to it!

I keep the floor space pretty open. In my 225, I have 85-90 percent of the floor open and chose to scape my wood mid and top water mostly.

 

[The Mother Confessor]

Hmm, in that case, maybe for now at least rays are off the cards. Mine is now at least 60%+ covered with plants and wood. The wood I have in the 5 foot is what I plan to move to the 8, so I guess I will have to wait and see how much space there is in there. Looking at the wood, I will probably have more like 30% covered, depending on how many plants I keep.

What about Eels? Been looking at a few, the Snowflake Moray seems cool but there are several conflicting opinions about whether it can actually be kept in a freshwater tank. I do use a bit of salt, I dose with Seachem American Cichlid Salt, but I doubt it's anywhere enough to be considered brackish.

 

[MP_cichlid]

I wouldn't go with eels. I think honestly, your biggest concern should be with your cichlids pairing off. If u get a festae pair with a spawn, some of those fish could be in serious trouble.