[Th1986]

I have a 90 gallon lake tanginkyan community tank. Up and running 4 months with fairly good results. Have lost 4 out of 32 fish.

Parameters - 8ph 0 ammonia 0 nitrite 20ish nitrate

Filtration - big sponge filter and a fluval fx6. 8 or 9 plants attached to stone , various anubias and ferns

Hardscape - 75+lb dragon stone with lots of caves hiding spots and 1 big 20+lb piece of holey rock. Sand and 24 shells for the gold occelatus.

Current stocking is

12 adult cyprichromis utinta (had 14 2 died)

6 Juli Marlieri roughly 3 inches

6 Gold Occelatus roughly 1-1.5 inches

4 black calvus 2 are about 1.5 inches and 2 are about 2.5-3 inches . started with 6 , 2 died they never seemed to find a territory and were bullied should of pulled them out I guess but didn't. Unsure of cause of deaths. Was fairly sudden no signs of sickness. I let my nitrates get a little high somewhere between 20-40 and started doing more frequent water changes to lower them (2x a week) and this is when the deaths occurred and I later learned that younger calvus can be sensitive to water changes (heard on a podcast with a interview with owner of davesfish) .

So I'm at 28 fish. Obviously as the fish mature and hopefully pair off this will thin the numbers out.

To my question

I wanted to get others thoughts on adding some synodontis lucipinnis. Am I already to overstocked or would these work and if so how many? Research I've done seems they prefer/will be more active in bigger groups. So my thought was to get 4-6.

Thanks for any advice.

 

[DJRansome]

I would not add synodontis if you have shellies.

 

[Th1986]

Thanks.

If it's only because they will snatch fry I'm not worried about that. But I'm thinking since you didn't specify that reasoning its because they will harass the shellies? If that's the case that's all I need to hear. The occelatus are my favorite species in the tank and dont want to risk disrupting there behavior.

 

[DJRansome]

Yes the synodontis swarm everywhere with no respect for the shellies...they don't like it.

 

[Th1986]

Ok. Thats a bummer. Thanks for the heads up though. Local breeder had adults 3 for $20 and got excited told him I'll take some after the holidays but guess my stocklist is pretty complete. He breeds cyps too and sells them real cheap so maybe add 4 of those to somewhat satisfy the both of us.

 

[Th1986]

How about a couple bristlenose? They'd love thick coat of algae covering about 50% of the back glass. I dont think theyd harass anyone but would they be harassed by others on my stocklist

 

[DJRansome]

One BN is sufficient for a 48" tank. BN have about a 75% initial survival rate when introduced to an African tank. Wait until you introduce other fish.

 

[sir_keith]

I would not add synodontis if you have shellies.

Totally agree here. I have S. angelicus in a few of my larger Tang tanks, but they never come out in the daytime, so I never see them.