210g 7'x2'x2'...What would you stock it with?

[Sacrifice03]

I picked up a 210g tank 7'x2'x2' a few months ago and will hopefully be setting it up in a new house in the next 6 month or so. I've also been a piranha guy but have been out of the hobby for 4-5 years now. Right now I'm leaning towards picking up a big shoal of Caribe piranha or a mixed shoal of piranhas, but with a tank this big I know that I have many options of freshwater fish to keep.

My question is, if you had an empty 210g laying around what would you suggest keeping in it?

 

[fishhead0103666]

Lima shovelnose and other large catfish. Large schooling fish for top water.

 

[Ogertron3000]

If I had the time and money I'd make it a big planted Amazon style set up. Heaps of angels and a few massive schools of tetras, maybe some dwarf cichlid harems and big crew of cories on the bottom. You could add the fish slowly if you don't have the $ to do,it all at once.

 

[tlindsey]

I would stock with only species that would live in the 210 gallon for life comfortably. Personally Biotope setup with SA fish species a few Cichlids, Tetra, and bottom dwelling Catfish. Personally Silver Aro, Pacu, and Redtail catfish would not ever be considered in stock plan.

 

[TheWolfman]

I picked up a 210g tank 7'x2'x2' a few months ago and will hopefully be setting it up in a new house in the next 6 month or so. I've also been a piranha guy but have been out of the hobby for 4-5 years now. Right now I'm leaning towards picking up a big shoal of Caribe piranha or a mixed shoal of piranhas, but with a tank this big I know that I have many options of freshwater fish to keep.

My question is, if you had an empty 210g laying around what would you suggest keeping in it?

I was in the same situation as you are two years ago. I would stick with you intuition and go with the piranha. The reason I say this is because if you go a different route you might regret it down the road. It’s easy to get excited about a new fish, but that eventually wears off and then your stuck with it. If it’s been 5 years and your still thinking about piranha, I would say your probably hooked for life.

 

[Bonytang]

Piranha is very fun to keep though w/a 210 it's a tough call! That size tank would be the coolest to have a big school though if you have an opportunity to score another dream fish it could be time to make it happen.

I just got my 275 together & prepping it for stingray + arowana. If I had another tank I'd definitely do GATF or Hydrolycus Armatus..or something toothy as well.

 

[Matteus]

I was in the same situation as you are two years ago. I would stick with you intuition and go with the piranha. The reason I say this is because if you go a different route you might regret it down the road. It’s easy to get excited about a new fish, but that eventually wears off and then your stuck with it. If it’s been 5 years and your still thinking about piranha, I would say your probably hooked for life.

This was me with the pacu. I couldn’t get them out of my head so I dove in head first. Then I found this forum and realized I wasn’t able to keep it for life due to its size (for now ). Since finding a new forever home for the pacu I have ventured into the new (to me) and exciting world of chichlas. They are a pain in the butt, so picky and finicky, but I feel like they have pretty much taken over my fishkeeping hobby. C.R.E.A.M. Lol. I love them to bits and have revamped almost all my tanks for the last 5-6 months to accommodate them.

I originally got into fish as a kid because of piranhas, had them for years. But I grew bored of them over time. I find that I like having different types of fish that can be compatible and found it difficult to keep piranha with others long term. It sounds neat to have a school of them swarming around in a big tank like that though. I agree with wolfman on this if you are still dreaming of piranhas start there...

 

[daryNV]

Stingrays

 

[Sacrifice03]

Thanks everyone for the replies, keep em coming. I started this thread after hanging out with my bro-in-law lastnight. I was explaining to him that I'm going to be building a stand for the 210g soon and was looking at Piranha's again. His question was why Piranhas. After sitting there for awhile I summed it up as they are a great conversation piece and most people have never seen them in person. Obviously we all know that they are not the monsters that everyone thinks/hopes that they are. To be honest they can be some extremely boring fish, but for some reason they just grabbed my attention about 15 years ago and haven't let up. Of course I enjoyed collecting the species that we don't see as often Serras and such.

I know that what we keep is ultimately just a personal preference, but there's just something about keeping a fish that most people haven't seen in person before that intrigues me.

 

[Matteus]

I can understand that for sure. When I first started out the lfs I went to had a batch of wimples, and they won me forever for that same reason. The way they schooled around the tank was magnificent. I have never seen them since or else I would have tried to keep them. I suppose they are hard to keep because their typical diet is fins more so than flesh. Might be hard/ expensive to feed and keep healthy