New Guy 75 Gal EBA setup questions

[excaliber]

I just wanted to say Hi. New Guy here. I'm just getting into SA Cichlids having no experience with anything larger than a 20 gal. Every search I've done for anything seems to lead me to this site so I signed up.
This is a great site.

I have a new 75 Gal setup 48" L X 21.5" H and 18" W. I have everything but my rocks, wood and fish.
I have an FX-4 and a AC 110 for filtration. A Hydor inline heater with a
INKBIRD ITC-306T Temperature Controller Heating Relay Output so I can control the temp. A Current USA Led + light just showed up yesterday. Substrate will be PFS.

I'm looking at some driftwood this weekend and hope to have the tank filled up by next weekend.
I'm going to have Electric Blue Acara's as my spotlight species.

I'd like to have the EBA with either Rotkeil Severums or Gold Severums and some clown loaches and maybe a pair of Angels.

Do you think I could have 5 EBA with a pair of each Severum and 5 clown loaches for starters? The reason I want to start with 5 EBA is if I get a pair I can move them to another tank and still have 3 EBA that hopefully get along still in there.
Any advice on where to buy the BEST EBA would be awesome. We don't have any places here that sells them.

I'm looking at a driftwood/rock and planted tank combo. Any advice on plants that these fish will not destroy?

Any ideas or advice you would be willing to offer would really be appreciated.

 

[BichirKing]

sounds like a good start equipment wise. aquabid.com has my vote as far as shipping goes. I would look at what the wetspot has to offer just because I know they have quality fish. not sure about the plants but someone will chime in. WELCOME!

 

[BIG-G]

Welcome to MFK!
I raise EBA they are great little cichlids. Not aggressive and you shouldn’t have any problems keep them.
I would say that the other stock would depend on a few things.
Clown loaches get fairly large but are very slow growing.
So you could have some and this would give you time to upgrade if needed.
Angels are ok as well but if you are looking to pair them for breeding it would be best to give them their own tank.
The severums would be my only hang up.
They get pretty big. Can be aggressive if they don’t have enough space. For this setup I would say it’s possible but would be better in a larger tank.
It would be my recommendation that you make the EBA the center piece and build around that.
Because they are mild mannered you have all kinds of things you could keep.
I have a mine in a mixed community with plecos tetras and barbs.

 

[fishhead0103666]

Do the plants have to be aquatic? If not then lucky bamboo and pothos would be a lovely choice. As long as you get bamboo that’s tall enough that the leaves stay out of the water you can keep it in a tank. As for the pothos you just hang the end of it in the tank so it can let it’s root grow in the water.
If they do have to be aquatic then I’m not sure since my severum likes plants. You could try duckweed, hornwort, and anarcharis since they grow pretty fast. Or perhaps java fern, anubis, or java moss? Marimo moss balls are nice as well.
Java fern and anubis are tough to eat so they’ll likely be left alone.

 

[Ogertron3000]

Welcome aboard.
I just shut down my tank that was centred around EBAs. I think Severus will get too big for the tank and will eat most plants you put in there. I had mine with orange head geos and columbian tetras and everything got along fine,I think they would be fine with Angels, I wouldn't mind trying that myself actually. As for plants, I just had heaps of Java fern and Anubis, the fish never paid much attention to them. They are a great fish , look good, peaceful, hardy and easy to breed. Let us know how it all goes, also make sure the tanks cycled properly before you get the fish.

 

[neutrino]

Imo clown loaches don't fit your tank, except short term. I had them years ago, they're super cute when they're small. They seem to grow at different rates for people, mine started @ 2.5", reached 5" within a few months. By about 4" they got pushy in a 75 tank with similar fish to what you're planning. My experience with clown loaches is their behavior depends on their size and their tankmates, once they put on some size they get pushy if they can get away with it. Not a fish I've revisited or kept in the last 20 some years, but I've seen some huge ones, 12" and chunky.

With smaller fish you can do a lot of things you don't necessarily want to end up with. Imo you could easily do the EBA, sevs, and angels as juveniles. Substitute red head geos for the EBAs, make the sevs rotkeil, and the angels wiild Peru scalare and it's a tank I've done. You could keep several severums while they're small, but eventually you'd need to reduce them to a pair or single at some point imo. Sevs and angels have gotten along fine for me if you don't crowd them. I agree sevs don't like to be crowded.

 

[Deadliestviper7]

Get unrelated EBA so you aren't promoting inbreeding, I would be wary of adding Severum pair, at least in a 75 gal

 

[Gourami Swami]

I think you are over-estimating the 75 gallon. 5 EBA's would be about done, cichlid wise IMO. And then could have the other fish (not the severums)

Once you get a breeding pair, which is sure to happen, there won't be much room for other cichlids in this tank. Definitely not for two pairs of breeding severums and a pair of EBAs. Would need more like a 150+ to attempt that.

The clown loaches eventually will outgrow your tank, but they do take years to grow that large, and you could easily sell them for big bucks when they get above 6"

I would get your 5 EBAs, and your clown loaches, and keep them all in the tank. Hopefully you will get a pair of the EBA's, and defending against the other 3 will strengthen their bond. The loaches will be fine until they are larger, and like I said, after 6" you should easily be able to sell them on MFK. Everybody wants big loaches.

Another thing to keep in mind, the loaches will eat the EBA fry, so if selling the baby EBAs is the goal, loaches might make that difficult

 

[Go_redfish]

You've already gotten some great suggestions and advice. I just wanted to bid you welcome too! Glad to have you here!

 

[ryansmith83]

I wouldn't do Heros in this tank. The EBA should be okay. Mine were typical acaras, meaning they were pushy and boisterous. I added some half-dollar sized angels to my tank and the acaras absolutely shredded them. It will depend on the temperament of your fish.

If they are your centerpiece fish, I'd round it out with some kind of schooling deep-bodied tetra or something. Putting several medium to large cichlids in a 75 is tricky, and likely would only work in the short term.