180 gallon stocking discussions, help me thin things out.

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dirtyblacksocks

dirtyblacksocks

Fire Eel
MFK Member
Jan 25, 2008
1,542
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Moreno Valley
I've got the following lined up for a stock list in my 180 gallon - with the thought in mind that I've got 15 years in the hobby and understand the uptake an overstocked tank requires, I'm having troubles deciding upon which fish to keep and which fish to eliminate so that this thing isn't just a giant stress tank.

The stock list will be:
1 green terror (gold saum)
1 Vieja synspilum
1 Amphilophus nourisatti
1 Amphilophus rostratum
1 Vieja argentea
1 Pearsi
1 convict
1 sajica
1 tapajos red pike cichlid
1 Vieja regani
1 Nicaraguensis
6 clown loach
5 red hook silver dollar
1 lap. bichir
1 vampire pleco
1 watermelon royal pleco
1 dull eyed royal pleco

To be honest, as it stands right now all of the fish are doing fairly well with little to no aggression shown (the pike gets aggressive around it's own food). I do not know how long this will last - I have a lot of large line of sight breaks, with intentionally low "bridge" areas for smaller fish to escape the chase of larger fish.

What do you all think, is this tank doomed to failure? If you had to remove some of the fish which would you choose? (these are all fish that I have always wanted, and so it's hard for me to decide). I do plan on upgrading to an 8 foot tank in the future and splitting some of these fish into a new more aggressive, predatory tank while leaving others in the 180.

I'm just having trouble making any real decisions here.
 
He seems to ignore the loach, I actually had to get rid of one of my delhizi's because he kept thinking it was some sort of giant worm and biting at it's tail, hehe.
 
labiatus55;2032764; said:
eventually 3 viejas will probably be a prob, pick one
Click to expand...

The viejas and the paratheraps should be fine. The only one I see bringing problems would be the Regani, aside from that one, I think he is fine.

Personally I would get rid of the nicaraguense, convict, and sajica. I would also choose between the red hooks and loaches, seems kind of redundant having both schools of them ( both in terms of bio waste and darter fish). But other than that, really nice stock. Post some pictures once you decide what to keep and what to thin out.
 
I would get rid of the loaches they will eventually eat everything in the tank.:WHOA: But being the nice guy that I am I will save you and your fish. You can give them to me and I will try my best to give them a comfortable home:D
 
Haha you only say that because you've seen them, most are saddle backs :P

I actually had the red hooks in there as dither fish for when I had barred midas and jags in the tank - I'm going to leave them for now and make a decision on removing them after I see how the aggression spreads out in this tank as the fish mature.

I think I'll skip on the regani, as I was debating on him to begin with - incidentally I've got 5 of the argentea, and if they happen to pair young I may just have to scrap this entire tank for a breeding pair.
 
arent viejas real conspecific aggressive?
 
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