Need ideas for large peaceful fish- that stay peaceful

spiff44

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Hoping someone has some good ideas.. I'm looking for large peaceful fish- that stay peaceful in presence of smaller fish.

So far, Silver dollars, clown loaches, kissing gourami and rainbow sharks are fitting the bill. But I would like more variety if possible. None of these fish mess with a neon tetra sized fish even when they are 50 times bigger. This is what i'm looking for.

Was toying with the idea of Tinfoil barbs and/or Bala sharks, but from reading i have done it sounds like they would eat the smaller fish for sure. I'm also not interested in Pacu as they get too destructive as they get bigger.

I appreciate any ideas. TIA
 

justarn

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mbu puffer work often ive read, what about ripsaw catfish, big plecos like the blue eyed one??-) asian giant carp? fire eels, hit and miss maybe? elephant nose or other morymids, syno cats, just a few ideas?
 

DMD123

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Silver dollars are not that peaceful when it come to smaller tankmates. They will eat small fish that fit in their mouth if they have an opportunity.

I have a large Pearsei that is very easy going and gets along well with smaller fish. I dont know how it would do with Neon sized fish but a bit bigger barbs and what not he does fine with.
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rodger

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Most all of the fish listed will eat anything that will fit in their mouths. Kissing gourami get huge and eat little ones. I have 10" silver dollars and a RTGG that ate little tadpoles 2 days ago. Mbu and Niger will eat anything that is easy. Really no fish is safe from predation if there is a big difference in size. I never heard of Plecos being predatory, though. They will suck the slime coat off of fish.
 

justarn

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very cool fish man, much overlooked!-)
 

spiff44

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Thanks for the replies, but I have had completely different experiences with some of those fish. I have an 8in+ silver dollar and it will cruise right through a school of torchlight tetras and the tetra's show no fear because the silver dollars have never shown any inclination to eat them.

Can it be because I'm overfeeding?

The kissing gourami don't even eat the food I throw in, they survive completely off their filter feeding. In fact, I would be concerned about them never seeming to eat except they're the fastest growing fish in the tank and always seem to be pooping. So no worries there. They also ignore every other fish in the tank except the other kissing gourami.

I did try regular goldfish, these definitely eat small fish. so no carp either.

The other suggestions I'm pretty sure would be predatory, the puffer, eels and catfish.

The pleco was a good idea.. but i rate them with the Pacu.. they get too destructive as they get bigger.

Right now I have decent sized schools of X-ray tetras (these actually got kinda big..up to 3in), Torchlight tetra's(up to 2.5in) as the smallest fish in the tank and none have went missing since I removed a couple goldfish about 6 months ago.

That Pearsei looks awesome and might be exactly what I'm looking for except that one might get too big. Wow, never considered cichlids... i thought they were all predatory. A smaller version of that would be perfect. I think any non-predatory aggression is alleviated a bit with enough tank room.

..time to research cichlids... thanks guys!
 

justarn

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what about Leptobotia elongata loach 2ft max size?
 

DMD123

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A single silver dollar might be why there was no issue. I had seven red Hooks in my 210g and as a pack would cause total chaos during feeding. Would take down full size night crawlers and attack small fish that were newly introduced.

I cant guarantee the pearsei would work but they are pretty calm. But they do get BIG. I just acquired a Regani recently that I think would do pretty well with smaller tank mates. Excuse the bad picture, it was sick when I got him.
View attachment 1011968

Lots of options with cichlids but might need to step up tankmates to the size of Australian rainbows, giant danios, Buenos Aries Tetra.
 

justarn

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this looks pretty cool too[video=youtube;ECWWZ1m2tsM]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECWWZ1m2tsM[/video]
 

spiff44

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I have 15 silver dollars.. all 6 years old. None show any interest in eating other fish. I do keep a fresh supply of greens in the tank, usually Romaine. Maybe this keeps them satiated.

That's a gorgeous fish, doesn't look sick at all. I'm tempted to get some of those but I'm concerned how big they might get. Is there anything just like them but smaller? (i'm still checking out the various cichlids)

That elephant nose is cool too. I might have to get a couple.
 
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