# looking for a centerpiece fish for my 40 gallon tank



## pandamonium (Jan 13, 2012)

hi everyone,

i recently started up an amazon biotope tank and so far its inhabitants are mainly smaller fish. so far i have
3 driftwood catfish
4 GBRs
i am planning on a group of hatchetfish, cardinal/neon tetras, pencilfish and possibly some headstanders.
are there any other amazon fish that would serve as a "centerpiece" to this tank? something that would kinda tie this who set-up together? all suggestions are welcome. 
thanks


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## Byron (Mar 7, 2009)

There won't be space after those additions, whichever. And the GBR's are somewhat centrepiece anyway. And if you get the headstanders, presumably Chilodus punctatus since this is the only "headstander" that works in smallish community tanks, they will be even more of a centrepiece as they get largish. A trio would be best, but they are not easy fish.

You won't want neon tetra as the temp will be too warm (rams need 80F+, neons will not last at this).

Byron.


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## pandamonium (Jan 13, 2012)

Byron said:


> There won't be space after those additions, whichever. And the GBR's are somewhat centrepiece anyway. And if you get the headstanders, presumably Chilodus punctatus since this is the only "headstander" that works in smallish community tanks, they will be even more of a centrepiece as they get largish. A trio would be best, but they are not easy fish.
> 
> You won't want neon tetra as the temp will be too warm (rams need 80F+, neons will not last at this).
> 
> Byron.


byron you always save me from potential tank disaster  ok ill cross neons off the list. i like the headstander since it is a little different from other fish. ill look into getting those last once my plants have all been situated and started to spread.


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## Byron (Mar 7, 2009)

pandamonium said:


> byron you always save me from potential tank disaster  ok ill cross neons off the list. i like the headstander since it is a little different from other fish. ill look into getting those last once my plants have all been situated and started to spread.


I just checked our profile and see i didn't mention about this fish's acclimation, so I will here. This is a difficult fish to get to eat at first. They naturally only eat algae, so having that will help. Try to see if they are eating in the store and if they are not, be wary. Three times I have acquired a group of these, and lost all of them the first two and several of the last group because they just refused to eat. I found the last time it was best to keep them in a small tank, a 10g, well planted, as a QT and for several weeks (3+ months even) until they were definitely eating prepared foods; 2 of the 7 survived. They will adjust best to sinking foods on the substrate, but my last trio eventually learned to go after floating flakes too with the other fish. Once they will eat, they are easy to care for. I have one left now, which is more than three years since I got it. I had two others but sadly they succumbed to the protozoan infection that invaded my 115g tank last month.


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## pandamonium (Jan 13, 2012)

Byron said:


> I just checked our profile and see i didn't mention about this fish's acclimation, so I will here. This is a difficult fish to get to eat at first. They naturally only eat algae, so having that will help. Try to see if they are eating in the store and if they are not, be wary. Three times I have acquired a group of these, and lost all of them the first two and several of the last group because they just refused to eat. I found the last time it was best to keep them in a small tank, a 10g, well planted, as a QT and for several weeks (3+ months even) until they were definitely eating prepared foods; 2 of the 7 survived. They will adjust best to sinking foods on the substrate, but my last trio eventually learned to go after floating flakes too with the other fish. Once they will eat, they are easy to care for. I have one left now, which is more than three years since I got it. I had two others but sadly they succumbed to the protozoan infection that invaded my 115g tank last month.


hmm that seems pretty difficult to handle. in my 10 gallon tank, i have a bit of algae all over. some hair looking algae and some green spot algae. do they gravitate toward a specific kind? i may have to reconsider, though this is a nice fish. are there any other amazonian fish that maybe hit about 3 inches or so? most of my tank so far is smaller fish.


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## Byron (Mar 7, 2009)

pandamonium said:


> hmm that seems pretty difficult to handle. in my 10 gallon tank, i have a bit of algae all over. some hair looking algae and some green spot algae. do they gravitate toward a specific kind? i may have to reconsider, though this is a nice fish. are there any other amazonian fish that maybe hit about 3 inches or so? most of my tank so far is smaller fish.


They won't touch green dot algae nor brush algae. Almost all of the so-called "algae eaters" like otos, pleco, Farlowella, this headstander, etc only eat common green algae that grows on surfaces and which we rarely even see. Snails also eat this.

In a 40g I would not even consider fish at 3+ inches. As I think I mentioned previuosly, your 4 rams will be obvious enough, and with several groups of smallish shoaling fish around them, make a nice display.


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## pandamonium (Jan 13, 2012)

Byron said:


> They won't touch green dot algae nor brush algae. Almost all of the so-called "algae eaters" like otos, pleco, Farlowella, this headstander, etc only eat common green algae that grows on surfaces and which we rarely even see. Snails also eat this.
> 
> In a 40g I would not even consider fish at 3+ inches. As I think I mentioned previuosly, your 4 rams will be obvious enough, and with several groups of smallish shoaling fish around them, make a nice display.


yeah the green dot algae is really hard to scratch off the tank glass. i use one of my mom's baking spatulas (cleaned very thoroughly) and it still sticks. my oto in my 10 gallon primarily eats the brown algae and once in a while ill feed him blanched zucchini. 
ok ill stick with a small fish community tank. hopefully as the rams grow the colors will develop even more.


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## Byron (Mar 7, 2009)

pandamonium said:


> yeah the green dot algae is really hard to scratch off the tank glass. i use one of my mom's baking spatulas (cleaned very thoroughly) and it still sticks. my oto in my 10 gallon primarily eats the brown algae and once in a while ill feed him blanched zucchini.
> ok ill stick with a small fish community tank. hopefully as the rams grow the colors will develop even more.


The way to control dot algae is to clean the glass inside at each water change, whether you see any or not. I use one of those sponge scrapers on a stick, made for aquarium glass cleaning. Just run it over the glass and it will remove the microscopic beginnings of dot algae before you can see it. Forget one week, and chances are you will see green dot algae before the next week. Like all algae, this one occurs in some tanks but not others.


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