What kind of fish can I put in a 50 to 75 gallon freshwater tank??

African cichlids are not community fish. If by pleco, you are referring to the ones often available, those are common plecos that will in the long run outgrow the tank and add too much bioload. Plecos are completely unnecessary. You could always try bristlenose plecos (Ancistrus sp.) if you insist. If you are unsure where to get them, PM me and I'll be able to direct you to proper sources.

Don't mix neon tetras and tiger barbs altogether. Chances are the tiger barbs will harass the neons constantly in the long run. What else do you really like? Mollies will work just fine but you need something else that will readily eat their fry (unless you plan to sell the extra fry). Livebearers if left to breed on their own, can strain your filter and make the water quality deteriorate rapidly.

If you are unsure which fish to try, you could always try goldfish if you are willing to increase filtration capacity by at least 3-4 times the actual tank water volume to compensate their wastes. Goldfish are heavy poo machines so care must be taken when you plan to keep them. Water changes have to be done at least 2-3 times a week even if you plan feeding them once a day only. Let me know what your final plans and I'll be here to help.

On the bright side, most of your ideas involve understocking. 75 gallons is a lot to work with.
Lupin, can't the OP keep two or three fancy goldfish with normal filtration? I don't know if they want goldfish, but I've often been convinced that 60 gal is the minimum for one fancy, and 75 should be fine for two or three round-bodied goldies. I guess normal filtration is relative, though, isn't it?

I'd do one big South American or Central American cichlid. There a lot of options on that menu.

edit: I realize you may want ALL of those fish in your 75. Be careful with mollies, some types need salt and neons don't like salt. You'll need more than five barbs to avoid fin-nipping outside the school. Try nine.

Captive-bred African (rift lake) cichlids from Malawi and Tanganyika seem to thrive in neutral tropical conditions. My LFS doesn't work on their africans at all. PH is neutral and these fish are in amazing health and beauty. And if they ever breed, their offspring will be even more tolerant...so use your head and do some reading on that one.

Lake Victoria fish are okay at neutral pH or higher. Some hardness helps, though, and neons prefer slightly acidic, soft water conditions. Try to find fish from similar biotopes for better success.

Right on. One thing, though. We tried to keep one comet in a 60 long. Within a year, the fish was eight inches long and the nitrates were unbearable. I think my mom over fed the guy, though. Anyway, I hope he finds something that fits well in his 75.

That is a good size tank..

If a community tank is an idea I would suggest a compatible top level/bottom swimmer...

I am biased to clown loaches due to color/personality/bottom dwelling habits. They do a lot of this...scouring the tank for bits of food...

great advice everyone-i agree with Lupins first post. Africans are not community fish and should never be mixed in with the little guys-they will kill them.

i love mollies-in fact im going to go get a few more for my community planted tank. i keep zebra danios (They are hardy little guys ) rummy nose tetras (they arent so hardy-ive lost 4 while cycling the tank but they are great fish!), rasboras (there are sooo many kinds of rasboras), mollies, snails, albino cory cats (great bottom dwellers!), serpae (think i spelled that right-they are red fish, really good looking...)

go to your lfs, see what catches your eye, and research research research.

like Lupin said, i stay away from tiger barbs just because they are fin nippers.

oh, i also forgot-male guppies are really beautiful! you could get some of those too..

do a community that is how most of us learn to keep fish
I would start off with
6 livebearers
4 cories

that will cycle your tank for 1 month

then add
6 hatchet fish or 2 killifish depending on availability
and 12 tetras

then slowly add more fish that catch your eye
good luck with your tank

This was the only way I could get the wifey to put a tank in the house. 75g with over flow. Now I have a 20g in my sons room with 2 small africans and 2 stock tanks in the back yard.

The 75g I started off small and did alot of trial and error. It had an overflow which I wasnt used to. I started it to cycle with 3 feeder goldies (now in the outside stock tank)

Slowly added...

Hifin swordtail male
Mickey MOuse swordtail female
Balloon Platy (didnt want it wife did it disappeared)
5 black skirts

Added 2 angels and 5 neons (warned the wife that the neons were a bad idea)

Black skirts pestered the Angels to death and the neons went the way of the overflow.

Wife wanted 4 guppies. Only one orginal survives out in a stock tank and one orginal baby. Black skirts pestered them. I tried to tell my wife there was a patern but she didnt listen. You can put the glofish she wanted the way of the neons.

At this point I stopped my wife and took over stocking control.

Stocking now
2 swordtails
5 black skirts
6 black neons
4 glowlights
4 serpaes
5 lemon tetra
4 phantom tetras
1 blue gourami
1 gold gourami
1 redtail black shark - algea control
3 wild caught mollies - algea control
5 silver dollars - loves to eat string algea
2 bumblebee cats.

The fish have survived with an occasional death over the smaller ones.

I added these fish one group at a time over 6 months as not to overload the bio load.

Everything and everyone is working well...

I might put about 3 or 4 cories in and cal the tank done.

wrobe00011;3161279; said:

What kind of fish can I put in a 50 to 75 gallon freshwater tank??
Im thinking of 10 neon tetra
3 or more african chiclid
5 mollies
1 pleco
5 tiger barbs
Is it a nice idea ????
If not can you give me other idea what kind of fish can i put in a 50 to 75 gallon tank Ty.

Click to expand...

You have a lot of options. You should get your water tested for pH and hardness.

Cichlids are usually aggressive fish and usually need to be kept with very specific compatible fish.

If you like african cichlids, you should probably do an african cichlid specific tank. Note that they typically live in rocky habitats with very hard water, and they can destroy plants. You also need to pick specific species that are compatible and won't cross-breed, as you don't want to destribute hybrid fry. You also may need to add buffers to your water to raise the pH and hardness.

You can do a community tank, but tetras like soft water. They can tolerate medium-hard water, but they'll die sooner in it. You can usually buy reverse osmosis water from fish stores ($0.25 a gallon at mine) or you can get the RO system and make it yourself.

You can get a single big CA or SA cichlid, they're very aggressive, intelligent fish that can be "trained" and end up behaving almost like an underwater dog.

You could even do painted turtles instead of fish. They're not particular about water parameters at all, as long as they have clean water that's clear of ammonia and nitrites. You need a basking area and lights, but it's pretty easy to DIY an above-tank basking area.

There are a lot of options, but there are also a lot of incompatibilities.