Struggling with fresh water requirements

[Alejandro Monteagudo]

I love many of the new requirements, they are fun and add a hole new level of complexity to the game.

However.... I am finding it impossible to fill tanks with fresh water fishes... either they need so much stuff that they need a massive floor space to be kept or I can´t find any "simple" fishes to compliment the more complex ones and make tanks with them. Also none of the live rocks are available and I could swar the plants in saltwater are more efficent

All the while I think... I thought fresh water was easier to keep than saltwater....

I don´t think the fishes that are in the game need fixing, but I do believe there is a need for more "simple fishes" that can be combined with the more advanced ones in interesting ways.

Is this just happening to me or are people facing similar problems?

[krishnath.dragon]

I am not really having this issue myself. But I tend to fill out the tanks with the smaller species even in Saltwater, and it just so easy to do in Freshwater.

You can basically divvy up the freshwater species in two categories: Requires acidic, and doesn't require acidic. After that, it's just the same issues as with the saltwater species. Can this be kept with that y/n? Is this a carnivore y/n?

Of course, for ease of keeping certain species, they're better kept alone because of their natures. I personally keep the Convict Cichlid's by themselves in a deep corner tank filled with rocks (including slate, of course), and cave tetras in a deep wall tank (Because it looks awesome when filled with rocks/caves).

I've found that once you hit the breeding requirements, the extras you get can be a good supplemental income for the aquarium to fund extensive remodeling.

But that said, I do agree that the game would benefit from more "low-level" and easy aquatic animals for freshwater (but I feel that way for saltwater as well, thank Hades for modded fish).

[Alejandro Monteagudo]

Could you give me a few examples of fishesyou are combining? cause at the moment, I am struggling a lot to fill deep tanks with fishes, let alone combining them, and I have never had that issue with saltwater, even before the million modded fishes, there was always ways of at least almost filling the tanks with what you had

[Fortuna]

I haven't had too many issues finding compatible fish, but I do find it's somewhat tricky to fill up tanks with the freshwater fish if I use all the non-heavy requirement ones in earlier tanks. There does seem to be a few less low requirement fish in the later ranks, compared to salt water where there's at least one or two low requirement fish per rank, plus the corals that just need water quality and lights.

From what I've found, the Midas and Convict Cichlids are useful to put in non-acidic tanks, since they have no requirements aside from the Midas' territorial nature. Congo Tetras are a decent filler for the plant destroyer acidic tanks, since they can use up the spare plant points. Adolfo's Cory and Cardinal Tetras are as well, and those two I like using with the bigger acidic fish like the Redtail Catfish, because at size 2 they're too small to be eaten.

One of my favourite tanks in the final freshwater campaign mission had a Pacu (grows big enough that it can't be eaten), Redtail Catfish, two Ripsaw Catfish (can't be eaten period), five Adolfo's Cory (too small for the Redtail to eat, uses the plant points from the Pacu's plant destroyer) and eight Cardinal Tetra (again too small and using up plant points). Size 275 bridge tank, at 163 capacity. I could probably get two more of the size 2 fish, looking at it, I have spare plant points, and I could do more with it if I moved the 4x4 plane decoration one of the quests gave me out of it. I really enjoyed working on that tank for the variety I managed to get into it.

[krishnath.dragon]

Originally posted by Alejandro Monteagudo:

Could you give me a few examples of fishesyou are combining? cause at the moment, I am struggling a lot to fill deep tanks with fishes, let alone combining them, and I have never had that issue with saltwater, even before the million modded fishes, there was always ways of at least almost filling the tanks with what you had

Mind you, I haven't gotten that far yet, but in general: Angelfish + Cardinal Tetra + Sunset Pleco + Red Eartheater is a good combo, bonus points for all of them coming from the Amazon area.

I keep Convicts in a species only tank, which I fill with them. Same with Cave Tetras. You can combine the two however. But I keep them species only to get them to breed constantly (I then move the eggs to a seperate tank to maximize the survival rate, once the fry are adults I sell them off. A decent supplementary income.)

I tend to keep Midas Cichlids in a single pair in a tank with at least size 40, but that is to get them to breed.

Rainbows and Tinfoils I keep in a lagoon tank together as well.

Basically, all you need to think about is if the species are compatible, just like with saltwater. If they have the same requirements and are peaceful towards each other, you can usually put them together.

[Alejandro Monteagudo]

Too small to be eaten? I haven´t noticed that change... I´ll have to pay more attention.

Maybe I just don´t have enough variety yet, I am on Kairoby and everything seems to need it´s own tank.

I did manage to combine a gazilion tetras with the 2 stingrays and a load of coryes.

Also some crabs and the fishes that need to be only 2 so they can breed... but that tank isn´t full

But normally I put 3 of each and that is not working for me.... maybe I need to change the way I look at filling tanks, less variety and more ammount.

Thank you for your advice.

[krishnath.dragon]

Originally posted by Alejandro Monteagudo:

Too small to be eaten? I haven´t noticed that change... I´ll have to pay more attention.

Maybe I just don´t have enough variety yet, I am on Kairoby and everything seems to need it´s own tank.

I did manage to combine a gazilion tetras with the 2 stingrays and a load of coryes.

Also some crabs and the fishes that need to be only 2 so they can breed... but that tank isn´t full

But normally I put 3 of each and that is not working for me.... maybe I need to change the way I look at filling tanks, less variety and more ammount.

Thank you for your advice.

Several freshwater species are schooling and require large schools. The Cardinals for example, you need at least 8. Others can only be kept singly, in pairs, or in the case of the killifish, in multiples of 2.

[Fortuna]

Originally posted by Alejandro Monteagudo:

Too small to be eaten? I haven´t noticed that change... I´ll have to pay more attention.

It's new with some of the freshwater species, I noticed while playing the campaign. A couple of the predators have their "danger to animals size X" warning as 3-X, so they won't eat size 2 fish. It's actually super neat, I really enjoy it since it lets you have one or two big fish with a bunch of little tiny ones. Makes the tank look more full than when you just have a few big fish in it.

[fubberpish]

Originally posted by krishnath.dragon:

Originally posted by Alejandro Monteagudo:

Too small to be eaten? I haven´t noticed that change... I´ll have to pay more attention.

Maybe I just don´t have enough variety yet, I am on Kairoby and everything seems to need it´s own tank.

I did manage to combine a gazilion tetras with the 2 stingrays and a load of coryes.

Also some crabs and the fishes that need to be only 2 so they can breed... but that tank isn´t full

But normally I put 3 of each and that is not working for me.... maybe I need to change the way I look at filling tanks, less variety and more ammount.

Thank you for your advice.

Several freshwater species are schooling and require large schools. The Cardinals for example, you need at least 8. Others can only be kept singly, in pairs, or in the case of the killifish, in multiples of 2.

Wait, the killifish can be kept in larger groups than two as long as it's in multiples of two? Is this true also of the butterfly ram?

[krishnath.dragon]

Originally posted by DaLilFishie:

Originally posted by krishnath.dragon:

Several freshwater species are schooling and require large schools. The Cardinals for example, you need at least 8. Others can only be kept singly, in pairs, or in the case of the killifish, in multiples of 2.

Wait, the killifish can be kept in larger groups than two as long as it's in multiples of two? Is this true also of the butterfly ram?

It shouldn't be. Although I haven't kept it in the game yet. I've been an avid (freshwater) fishkeeper for almost four decades by now, and Butterfly Rams, like most dwarf cichlids, are quite territorial towards conspecifics as adults and should only be kept in pairs in captivity, however some dwarf cichlids from the genus Apistogramma are more communal outside of breeding season, and can be kept in family units.

I suggest you check the specifics in game, as it is listed under their traits.

[Alejandro Monteagudo]

Originally posted by krishnath.dragon:

Originally posted by DaLilFishie:

Wait, the killifish can be kept in larger groups than two as long as it's in multiples of two? Is this true also of the butterfly ram?

It shouldn't be. Although I haven't kept it in the game yet. I've been an avid (freshwater) fishkeeper for almost four decades by now, and Butterfly Rams, like most dwarf cichlids, are quite territorial towards conspecifics as adults and should only be kept in pairs in captivity, however some dwarf cichlids from the genus Apistogramma are more communal outside of breeding season, and can be kept in family units.

I suggest you check the specifics in game, as it is listed under their traits.

I had 5 in my tank... they were unhappy, sold one... everyone is happy now.... I don´t know if in real lifeprofesional aquariums can keep multiple pairs as tanks are much bigger and might allow for multiple couples to have a territory.

In game Butterfly Rams in game don´t have the territorial trait so you can fill a tank to the brim so long as it is in pairs

[krishnath.dragon]

Originally posted by Alejandro Monteagudo:

Originally posted by krishnath.dragon:

It shouldn't be. Although I haven't kept it in the game yet. I've been an avid (freshwater) fishkeeper for almost four decades by now, and Butterfly Rams, like most dwarf cichlids, are quite territorial towards conspecifics as adults and should only be kept in pairs in captivity, however some dwarf cichlids from the genus Apistogramma are more communal outside of breeding season, and can be kept in family units.

I suggest you check the specifics in game, as it is listed under their traits.

I had 5 in my tank... they were unhappy, sold one... everyone is happy now.... I don´t know if in real lifeprofesional aquariums can keep multiple pairs as tanks are much bigger and might allow for multiple couples to have a territory.

In game Butterfly Rams in game don´t have the territorial trait so you can fill a tank to the brim so long as it is in pairs

In real life you can have multiple pairs of Rams in the same aquarium as well, provided the aquarium in question is large enough that they can have each their own territory (about 3' in aquarium length generally suffice), but even in smaller aquariums, the "fights" they have extremely rarely lead to injuries. It's mostly about determining who is the alpha. As long as the tank is sufficiently planted so the weaker male can hide.
But as dwarf cichlids go, rams aren't all that violent.