5 ft 120G CA/SA display tank stocking

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fishie111

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Dec 3, 2008
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New England
I'm trying to complete the stocking list for my 5ft 120G tank. It is overfiltered (1 XP4 and 1 XP3) and while recently moved, the biomedia in the filters has been running for several years.

Ideally, I'd like to add 1 or 2 more eartheaters to stir up the sand substrate- I love watching them and it has the dual purpose of keeping the sand fresh.

Here is the current stock list:

1 Severum (fully grown at 6 inches)
1 Blue Acara (fully grown at 5 inches)
1 Blood Parrot
1 Firemouth
1 Satanoperca leucosticta (pulled last night from a LFS display tank and has not yet displayed any sifting behavior)
2 BN plecos
12 Columbian Tetras

I did a "sanity check" with AqAdvisor and my current stocking level would be 86% when all the fish are fully grown, so I think it is acceptable to add 1 or 2 more cichlids if they are fairly peaceful, and possibly a couple more tetras.

Does anyone have any recommendations for me to consider?

Thanks!
 
i think its pretty stocked. no need to max out what you can keep in the tank. your water will thank you later.
 
i kind of agree,sounds like its full,with good movement.do the eartheaters do better in a group? maybe you can add 2 more of the sanoperca....
 
fishie111 said:
I'm trying to complete the stocking list for my 5ft 120G tank. It is overfiltered (1 XP4 and 1 XP3) and while recently moved, the biomedia in the filters has been running for several years.

Ideally, I'd like to add 1 or 2 more eartheaters to stir up the sand substrate- I love watching them and it has the dual purpose of keeping the sand fresh.

Here is the current stock list:

1 Severum (fully grown at 6 inches)
1 Blue Acara (fully grown at 5 inches)
1 Blood Parrot
1 Firemouth
1 Satanoperca leucosticta (pulled last night from a LFS display tank and has not yet displayed any sifting behavior)
2 BN plecos
12 Columbian Tetras

I did a "sanity check" with AqAdvisor and my current stocking level would be 86% when all the fish are fully grown, so I think it is acceptable to add 1 or 2 more cichlids if they are fairly peaceful, and possibly a couple more tetras.

Does anyone have any recommendations for me to consider?

Thanks!
Click to expand...

Personally, I love geophagus. If it were me, I would look to get rid of 2-3 of the current cichlids and get a group of 4-5 small growing geos, like 'red head' tapajos, 'blue lip' argyrostictus, taeniopareius, parnaibae, or pelligrini.

If you don't want to remove any of the current inhabitants, you could add a single 6-8" cichlid or two 4-5" cichlids. Geophagus brasiliensis is a nice medium size earth eater that hits 6-8". You could also look into getting another Satanoperca. I would stay away from gymnogeopahgus as they almost all require yearly temperature cool downs in order to survive. The unfortunate side of earth eaters is that most of them (~75%) really need to be in groups to truly thrive. And many of the ones that do best on their own are large growing.


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I actually have another 5ft 120G tank that I am about to set up. I was planning to make it a planted community tank, starting with a pearl gourami and some tetras that I currently have in a small tank, but I may have the option of moving some cichlids there instead. I like the idea of a group of small geos if I can find a good supplier.
 
fishie111 said:
I actually have another 5ft 120G tank that I am about to set up. I was planning to make it a planted community tank, starting with a pearl gourami and some tetras that I currently have in a small tank, but I may have the option of moving some cichlids there instead. I like the idea of a group of small geos if I can find a good supplier.
Click to expand...

Geos are earth eaters, so they don't often coexist with plants all that well. Many will move the sand from around the bases and destroy the roots, which of course kills the plants. I would look into getting some artificial plants if you want to have the appearance of a planted tank without the cost of constantly replacing live ones.


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I was going to try to keep the plants potted to keep the damage down, but it turns out that I have found room in my new condo for my 36G in addition to the two 120s, so the 36G will be home to the live plants, gourami and tetras.

So now I have two 120G tanks to work with for the stock in my initial post and some additional cichlids.
 
fishie111 said:
I was going to try to keep the plants potted to keep the damage down, but it turns out that I have found room in my new condo for my 36G in addition to the two 120s, so the 36G will be home to the live plants, gourami and tetras.

So now I have two 120G tanks to work with for the stock in my initial post and some additional cichlids.
Click to expand...

Earth eaters are rapidly becoming my favorite type of cichlids. My two other great loves are severums and acaras. Geos have interesting behaviors, do well in groups and a phage some fantastic colors available. I highly recommend them to anyone with the space for them. :)


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I love eartheaters. I used to have a 4 Pindare in a 75G several years ago. I'm trying to decide now whether to go with Guianacara (Jeff Rapps has some, but no small geos at the moment) or go on Aquabid to get Tapajos.

Also wondering whether moving the Parrot and Firemouth will leave enough room for a shoal upstairs- then the upstairs tank can be all SA instead of a mix. It would probably work if I move the Satanoperca also.
 
fishie111 said:
I love eartheaters. I used to have a 4 Pindare in a 75G several years ago. I'm trying to decide now whether to go with Guianacara (Jeff Rapps has some, but no small geos at the moment) or go on Aquabid to get Tapajos.

Also wondering whether moving the Parrot and Firemouth will leave enough room for a shoal upstairs- then the upstairs tank can be all SA instead of a mix. It would probably work if I move the Satanoperca also.
Click to expand...

I bought four of the Guianacara from Rapps earlier this week. Love them so far. They went in with my equal sized geo red heads that I got from Rapps months ago. They get along so far as I can tell. The Guianacaras do seem a little pushier than the geos though. Still...I am looking forward to watching them grow. :)


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