Rio 400

Hi There

Im about to purchase a rio 400 and am looking for some info on what fish to put into it, i looking into getting a bala shark or two, what fish go very well with these?? what kinda set-up should i use?? any info would be appreciated

Thanks

Mark

Don`t want to knock anyones taste in fish but a Bala shark in a 400l tank is a total waste. It means you cannot put cichlids into it.

not a problem, i appreciate it, what do you reccomend??

A massive Haplochromis tank with peacocks, one of the Nimbochromis species. Steveni/teaneolatus/Similis. Some quieter Mbuna like Acei/Curuleus/Msobo and some Fontosas.
Maybe even a Syno or two.

bala sharks are best kept in groups of 6 or more. You tank could handle it but it would be fairly boring.
Before I make any suggestions of what fish to put in your tank, coukd you please state what your water parameters are. Especially ph and hardness

cheers lads....all good ideas....i was thinking of getting 2 bala sharks and some more variety....but will be getting some guppies and plattys to start off my tank....then maybe some neons...very cool fish those neons

Hi fishlover,

Neons are lovely, especially in a nice sized shoal, however I would suggest that you go for cardinals instead. They are better looking IMO

Regards,

Monty

rainbowfish. last for years and will do better with your bala shark. In the the wild neons are almost considered annual fish. Some goes for cardinals. £ years is a very good age for either. Rainbowfish, especially the larger species will make it to double figures. Melontaenia boesemani and M.praecox are lovely fish, will do well in almost any water. Also fairly easy to come by.
Glossolepis species are nice too but need hard water

+1 for cardinals over neons. The red running the full length of the body looks a lot nicer when they shoal in a nice big group. In a 400 litre tank you could have a very nice cardinal shoal. 400 litres is a very big tank though. Have you considered some hap cichlids? Think anthony has a video on youtube of his 400l hap tank. Looks nice and nice use of such a big tank

Some good and valid points there to mull over.I have a question for you fishlover, if you do decide to go with a community tank you will have a lot less looking after to do in regard to water changes etc etc.What comes with that is a boring fish community and probably alot of restocking of neons/cardinals every few months/years.With cichlids more effort is required and a little more research has to be done in regard to water parameters and behaviour of certain species.However this is worth it,behaviour of these fish is nothing short of amazing.I have Nimbochromis Livingstonii which are an ambush predator,they bury themselves under the sand and pretend to be dead,eventually smaller fish/fry swim up to them and start to pick at them,then boom,the fry are sucked in and devoured.These fish are like dogs when you walk into the room,begging for food,unlike most community fish which run and hide!Your tank could easily support these fish.Also most cichlids (African) breed with ease every 2 months usually.If you have a rockscape in your tank you will have loads of fry living among them.If you like you are more than welcome to come and have a look at my tanks and I have loads of advice I can give you if you are gonna set up a Malawi tank.

Sorry to anyone who is not a Malawi keeper if I come across a bit biased, I also love community fish especially sunshine platies.If I had a spare Rio 400 Id certainly consider filling it with platies,then fill it with cichlids!!!!!

Sorry to anyone who is not a Malawi keeper if I come across a bit biased, I also love community fish especially sunshine platies.If I had a spare Rio 400 Id certainly consider filling it with platies,then fill it with cichlids!!!!!

Your an evil man Chris.

"ChrisM" wrote:

Some good and valid points there to mull over.I have a question for you fishlover, if you do decide to go with a community tank you will have a lot less looking after to do in regard to water changes etc etc.

Surely you mean the other way around, livebeares release other toxins into the water than non livebeares dont produce, hence it is very important to do water changes in a comunity tank (say 25% every month), my son who has an african tank is five and very seldom we do
water change, and when I mean very seldom we dont count them in months intervals. You need the biggest external filter you can get your hands on, but I can assure you you will only lose 5% of your fish through aggression on coming to sexual maturity, but once all the fight are all settle down 5% one off is a lot less than say replacing 20% of your stock every couple of years, plus pricing your time doing boring water changes, the pH is no big deal, no need to test for it just make sure you but the smallest possible bag of marine salt and put a handful.
Think of community as a bunch of flowers in a vase, with out roots,
no look at my eyes :shock: :shock: :shock: , now look at my, eyes, :shock: :shock: :shock: you are feeling very tired, :roll: just listen to the sea :wink: sit down and relax , not you are a sleep :cry: , Imagining going to next month s meeting with a goldfish bowl, you are very embarrassed and you have just wet your self, fall deeper to sleep just think of the community tank as the goldfish bowel, now just image seeing the african tank video that Anthony posted its got marine rock and a blue background and it like a marine tank but more fish, you have just return to the ITFS club with a video of the new african tank, every one is very envies of your african tank, now I am going to count from 10 to 1 back wards, when you wake up you, wont want that beginners tank, you wont want to come to the meeting and wet your pants, your are coming to the meeting with Pama Anderson and that african video of that tank that tank is yours 10,9,8,7 O.k you are now deleting your last post, 6,5,4,3,2,1. Welcome back now take a sip of water, you are feeling better now and you have it clear in your mind now what you are going to put in that big tank.

s95.photobucket.com/albums/l159/chris33m...current=DSCN0464.flv


If I attempted to go 1 month without doing water changes on this tank I dont think my fish would be coloured like they are.You make a fair point,there are pros and cons to both setups.

Did just see a female Venustus swimming in that tank. :o
She would look so good in my tank.
I do 45%w/c every week. The fish don`seem to mind the nitrates but the water looks crap. I must have done 6 water changs already this january. I got the nitrates down 200MG/L TO 25MG/L and in my new tank don from 250mg/l to 50mg/l.
I find the carbom and zeolite make the water look cystal clear, can`t find any in the shops and just ritired from Kinsealy

s95.photobucket.com/albums/l159/chris33m...current=DSCN0464.flv


If I attempted to go 1 month without doing water changes on this tank I dont think my fish would be coloured like they are.You make a fair point,there are pros and cons to both setups.

From a suspended, mater (floating dearies), you tank is miles a head of my sons, but from a colouring up point of view, the yellow ones look yellow (10/10), but the blue ones dont (6/10) or maybe (7/10), but that could be because are using white light instead of white with blue.

To answer you question. provided the pH is high and there is no NO2, they can colour to a 10/10 without doing water changes (50% once Evey 2 years), the secret is to have a pond filter (20 gallon size), with a flow restrictor, (after the pump, not before as that would cause cavitation of the pump)as the flow reduces as it clogs then you open the tap more) you must have crush coral gravel in the medium to keep the pH up, and you must check the pH every few months, if you forget one day the will start panting quickly, (sudden pH drop), they its an emergency and a small amount of marine salt needs to added followed by some form of maintenance.

Seee what your saying about the blues,that video lost alot of resolution when it was scaled down to fit onto photobucket,look at these...

i95.photobucket.com/albums/l159/chris33murphy/aul2.jpg

i95.photobucket.com/albums/l159/chris33murphy/aulonocara2.jpg

Woo...... now its 10 out of 10, in the still photo, your right it must be the scaling, down or some thing, I am in the TV/Video business my self www.oceanpalma.com to film fish with a video camera you need a 3CCD camera (semi professional) as it separates the colours like 3 armature camera, each camera, is recording the just one of the primary colours, that why home movies never look like a MGM film unless you are willing to spend 3,500Euros plus on a 3CCD one.
Point taking but you do not need to be doing more water changes and a discus aquarium, Africans are one of the easiest fish to keep, if no one believed my refer to the "Little Britain african fish hypnotist post I did above"

Woo...... now its 10 out of 10, in the still photo, your right it must be the scaling, down or some thing, I am in the TV/Video business my self www.oceanpalma.com to film fish with a video camera you need a 3CCD camera (semi professional) as it separates the colours like 3 armature camera, each camera, is recording the just one of the primary colours, that why home movies never look like a MGM film unless you are willing to spend 3,500Euros plus on a 3CCD one.
Point taking but you do not need to be doing more water changes and a discus aquarium, Africans are one of the easiest fish to keep, if no one believed my refer to the "Little Britain african fish hypnotist post I did above"

I enjoyed that one.