Stocking Ideas for my tank 😁

[What is a fish??]

Hey guys i have a tank which is 16 inch deep and 3ft long and 2ft high. I have a angelfish and convict in it right now. Some ideas that i had are as follow :

1. I want to add some more south american cichlids with some kind of schooling fish have a tank with alot of activity. What are some pros and cons of this and what are some stocking ideas ??

OR
2. I want to add a big and powerful fish Such as a midas and take out all the other fish. What are some pros and cons of this and what are some stocking ideas ??

Thanks in advance

 

[Deadeye]

First things first, pick either the angel or the convict, in that size tank only one will be comfortable (and my money is on the convict removing the far more peaceful angel). I would then go for a pair of what you keep + dither fish to create the community idea from #1.
I would pick based on what your current parameters are. Convicts, like most Central American cichlids, come from high pH, hard water, while the most common South Americans, like Angels, come from low pH, soft water.

A Midas will never fit comfortably in a 3 foot tank. A male can cap at well over a foot, giving it less than 3 times its length just to move around (not a good quality of life there).

 

[What is a fish??]

First things first, pick either the angel or the convict, in that size tank only one will be comfortable (and my money is on the convict removing the far more peaceful angel). I would then go for a pair of what you keep + dither fish to create the community idea from #1.
I would pick based on what your current parameters are. Convicts, like most Central American cichlids, come from high pH, hard water, while the most common South Americans, like Angels, come from low pH, soft water.

A Midas will never fit comfortably in a 3 foot tank. A male can cap at well over a foot, giving it less than 3 times its length just to move around (not a good quality of life there).

i understand.
1) I am selling the convict as that was the plan. i was thinking of a couple male angels and severum and some dithers.
2) all of these fish are breed in australian water so its all the same(I am from australia.)
3) Midas was just an idea of what kind of fish i would like to go with. Anything big that could live in that water and is aggressive.
4) thanks for the reply.

 

[duanes]

One of the things we humans tend to misunderstand about water, is thinking water is just water.
And that how organisms evolved to fit into their particular aquatic ecosystem over millions of years, is small potatoes, and that a few generation raised in a tank of one city water type, might absolve all those millions of years of adaptation.
Or even that the water in eastern S America, is the same as water in western S America.
Or even one river system in Western Australia might be the same as that in Sydney, or Darwin
Water quality parameters for each of the 20 natural waters ...ResearchGatehttps://www.researchgate.net › figure › Water-quality-pa...

 

[PhishMon84]

a pair of angels and some lemon tetras + a bushynose pleco and that tank is full. nothing large is going to live well in that size tank

 

[SalviniCichlidFan]

i understand.
1) I am selling the convict as that was the plan. i was thinking of a couple male angels and severum and some dithers.
2) all of these fish are breed in australian water so its all the same(I am from australia.)
3) Midas was just an idea of what kind of fish i would like to go with. Anything big that could live in that water and is aggressive.
4) thanks for the reply.

I don't think severums would be a good idea. They grow to 8 inches - 1 ft which means that they're bodies are more than half the depth of the tank. Here's my suggestion at a nice tank:

pair of angels
1 school 8 of tetras of the same species
3-4 corydoras
1-2 apistoma, keyholes, or ram cichlids

 

[Deadeye]

a pair of angels and some lemon tetras + a bushynose pleco and that tank is full. nothing large is going to live well in that size tank

I would go with this plan (sub the tetras for whatever medium sized one you want).
Anything over 6 inches is going to have a hard time in that size tank.

 

[What is a fish??]

I would go with this plan (sub the tetras for whatever medium sized one you want).
Anything over 6 inches is going to have a hard time in that size tank.

I don't think severums would be a good idea. They grow to 8 inches - 1 ft which means that they're bodies are more than half the depth of the tank. Here's my suggestion at a nice tank:

pair of angels
1 school 8 of tetras of the same species
3-4 corydoras
1-2 apistoma, keyholes, or ram cichlids

Those are some nice ideas... Would i be able to keep 2 blue acras and 2 angels. And all of them are going to be same sex as i dont want any breeding. What do you guys think about that?

 

[SalviniCichlidFan]

Those are some nice ideas... Would i be able to keep 2 blue acras and 2 angels. And all of them are going to be same sex as i dont want any breeding. What do you guys think about that?

Might be a bit crowded with the blue acaras since they're bulky fish. Instead of having 3-4 big fish in your tank, I'd recommend having 1-2 big fish and building a school of smaller fish around that big fish, which is the angelfish pair in your case. That would look a lot better aesthetically. Trust me, a large school of tetras swimming around the angelfish pair looks a lot better than 2 angelfish and 2 acaras.

Also, I wouldn't recommend a bristle nose pleco. Plecos emit too much poop for what they're worth (just buy an algae scrubber). And by removing a bristle nose pleco from your list, you can replace it with 3-4 Cories, some other 1-2 inch community fish, or more tetras to build up a bigger school.

Also, I can tell that you want multiple cichlid species in your tank, so that's why I recommended keyholes instead of acaras. They grow smaller and are more peaceful than acaras, but they offer the personality of any other cichlid if not better. This way you can keep more fish in your tank like a school of tetras.

 

[What is a fish??]

Might be a bit crowded with the blue acaras since they're bulky fish. Instead of having 3-4 big fish in your tank, I'd recommend having 1-2 big fish and building a school of smaller fish around that big fish, which is the angelfish pair in your case. That would look a lot better aesthetically. Trust me, a large school of tetras swimming around the angelfish pair looks a lot better than 2 angelfish and 2 acaras.

Also, I wouldn't recommend a bristle nose pleco. Plecos emit too much poop for what they're worth (just buy an algae scrubber). And by removing a bristle nose pleco from your list, you can replace it with 3-4 Cories, some other 1-2 inch community fish, or more tetras to build up a bigger school.

Also, I can tell that you want multiple cichlid species in your tank, so that's why I recommended keyholes instead of acaras. They grow smaller and are more peaceful than acaras, but they offer the personality of any other cichlid if not better. This way you can keep more fish in your tank like a school of tetras.

Understood. I saw this really nice tank at a pet store. It was smaller then my tank probably around 40 gallon and had multiple(about 5) fully grown angels in it and school of some fish and alot of plants. if i could creat something like that with a pair of german blue rams i will be more than happy. How does that sound ??

I like the way keyhole cichlids act and how peaceful they are but the colour pattern on them is not the best i think. Thanks for the suggestion tho.

is that over stocked ??