135g stocking?

[Seedy J]

I'd like to do a relatively peaceful SA community in my 135g tank (72"x18"x24"). So far I've got:

5 Black belt silver dollars (Myleus schomburgkii)
1 "Tiger severum" (sold as Heros severus "Curare" but is likely something else, too young to tell)
1 "Red spot" lenticulata pike (Crenicichla lenticulata)

Am I full or do I have room for some more fish? I'd like to keep the tank from looking overcrowded. I want to add some kind of pleco (the biggest, most colorful one that can go in a 135) and I'm also interested in some geophagus or uaru if there's space, or I'm open to other suggestions. I know the pike could potentially be aggressive, but I've read on here that they're usually only mean to other pikes and fish that are small enough for them to eat. If he doesn't work, I'll figure something out.

For what it's worth, the 135 isn't set up yet. The fish are in 40 breeders (pike in one, severum and SDs in another) and I'll be setting up the 135 once they start to outgrow the 40 breeders.

 

[Seedy J]

Bump... anyone?

 

[fishhead0103666]

duanes I figured this is around your area.

 

[Gourami Swami]

I think your list sounds about right for a 135. Could probably stick another cichlid of your choice (SA, not too mean), I would say you have room for one more decently sized fish, in my opinion.
The pike can be a risk for sure, but I do generally agree with what your saying about them only being aggressive to other pikes. I usually don't keep pikes in a community, but I did years ago, with a 14" female johanna, in a 6 foot tank like this one. She was a big old girl who didn't take any crap, but she didn't go starting problems either. Of course, this is anecdotal and your experience may be different.

 

[Seedy J]

Sounds good, thanks. So do you think I can add a pleco and another SA cichlid, or could I just do one of those? If I can just do one I'd probably go for the pleco since I don't have a bottom feeder or algae eater yet.

 

[Gourami Swami]

Well, it's a matter of opinion, not a cold hard fact one way or the other. Some would probably tell you that you have too many fish, and others would say you have more room. I don't think that the pleco will add any compatibility problems to the tank.
IMO- you could try both, and monitor your nitrates, making sure they stay within acceptable ranges (many of us aim for about 20ppm max right before water changes). If you need to, up your water change schedule. If you don't want to have to do as much maintenance to keep the water clean, err on the side of understocking (which would probably be to not add either)

 

[Seedy J]

Well, it's a matter of opinion, not a cold hard fact one way or the other. Some would probably tell you that you have too many fish, and others would say you have more room.

I've noticed that well-meaning forum users will say you need a 400 gallon pond (bare minimum) for a single betta, and most fish stores will tell you that 10 gallons is plenty of room for a manatee. The truth lies somewhere in between .

I'll probably try the pleco and another cichlid. I'm going to make a sump out of a 40 breeder so the tank should have good filtration, and I do water changes once every week or two regardless of water parameters.

 

[Rocksor]

SD's are like ravenous garbage disposers. They won't let anything stay on the bottom too long. They will even eat the poop coming out of a pleco, I assume they can't regurgitate. Considering the black belt SDs are much larger full grown than the regular SD's, I would not add any more fish long term. You will play food catch up to the bottom feeder, which will lead to more nitrates.

5 x 5-6" regular SD's didn't seem to add too much to the bioload. I was able to scale back about 50g of water changes a week (doing 150g+) after I rehomed them. At the time, I would consider my stocking roughly 75% capacity, nowhere near overstocked in terms of bioload.

As far as the lent being potentially aggressive, I would say compared to other pikes, they are on the top of the list for aggression, more aggressive than atabapo and vennies.