# Exodons?



## Fishman123 (Dec 11, 2007)

Hello everyone, and thanks for taking your time to help me out. I'm starting up a 20L soon, I'll set it up and everything once I pick out lighting and finish the stand. My main concern was whether or not I would be able to keep Exodons in it, they are semi-aggressive fish and I would think they would not get along with the algae eaters keeping my tanks clean. Any thoughts or experiences? Thank you.


----------



## Adragontattoo (Jun 3, 2007)

http://www.angelfire.com/biz/piranha038/exodon.html

This is not a community fish and does not do well even in a shoal of its own kind.


----------



## Jessie (Apr 23, 2007)

I had a school of 8 Exodons in a 55g and in my experience, they behaved much like tiger barbs and kept the aggression within the shoal. I had Caecilian rubber eels and Aussie Rainbows in the tank as well and experienced no back lash to them. In fact, something extremely active like Giant danios (or Aussie rainbows) make decent dithers.

If you wanted to keep Exodons, I would recommend a larger tank... at least 40g. A 20g smells of disaster for these guys. They are absolutely not shrimp friendly.


----------



## Six (May 29, 2006)

A LFS used to keep a school in with red bellied pirhana. It was pretty cool.

A friend of mine kept 12ish of them in a 92 corner with some easy plants. They would rip apart anything that went in there. I would not suggest them unless you had a larger tank and kept it species only. 

I hope you try them, they are pretty cool. 
GL


----------



## Fishman123 (Dec 11, 2007)

Yeah I guess having a planted tank without shrimp wouldn't be that much fun  . But I would like to stock it with something a bit more rare than cardinals or neons, any ideas?


----------



## Six (May 29, 2006)

Fishman123 said:


> I would like to stock it with something a bit more rare than cardinals or neons, any ideas?


Thank goodness! 

Any soft water fish would work. Someone on here has a pirhana planted tank, I love it. You can do Erythromicron rasbora (see www.franksaquarium.com for some ideas on those), some oddball danios (I keep D. chopre and love them to death. Active and beautiful.) You could do Apistogramma, chocolate gourami (challenging), or you could even do a Tanganyikan cichlid tank with hard water plants like Anubias and Vals.

GL!


----------



## Fishman123 (Dec 11, 2007)

Ah, excellent ideas Six. Apistos are amazing, would I be able to keep 2-4 specimens of different species, kinda like a community? I was also wondering about Killi's, would I be able to keep several males together? Thank you very much.


----------



## Ltrepeter2000 (Sep 21, 2005)

Recommend that if you are looking at Apisto's to keep it species specific. You dont want to mix them up as they tend to end up with one species winning out by which point you may not have breeders left of any species. Apistos will also make snacks out of most shrimp species especially in your small accomodations. I would recommend that you get a 6 pack of juveniles of one Apisto species if thats what you desire. As for a tank that has shrimp.....well, endlers, smaller rasboras, danios, white clouds, corys, dwarf gouramis come to mind. You want to find smaller fish or fish that almost never spend time in the lowest parts of the tank.


----------



## Six (May 29, 2006)

Amanos would work with Apistos. I'd suggest beginner friendly species like Caucatoides or Agassizi's. They are, as stated, possible shrimp eaters, but Amanos wouldn't get eaten. Large adult shrimp also would not likely get eaten. I personally kept Pelvicachromis with shrimp and while the shrimp population didn't increase, it was constant. It kinda depends on the tank and how well planted it is as well. If you're doing cichlids in the tank, I definitely wouldn't suggest S grade CRS or anything 

I agree, one species would be best. You'll get much more enjoyment out of a courting/breeding pair than an eclectic mix of species. They will show more color and better/more interesting behavior with just a pair or trio. 

HTH


----------



## mpagri (Dec 7, 2007)

back to exodons for a second, my LFS has a nice sized school of them in their own tank. they are awesome, just look like regular ol' tetras until you drop a frozen pinky mouse in there.


----------

