75 gallon stocking advice

[BIG-G]

EBA are great fish they will coexist with just about anything.
I keep them with angles, tetras and barbs.
For the plants question they don’t really eat or set out to uproot plants. If you end up with a pair they will display and as part of that they will grab leaves and shake them and sometimes tear tender plants.
It’s not really a big problem just something I’ve seen.

 

[AV23]

Yeah, male tapajos have definitely been a bit on the agro side in my experience. I could only imagine a mated pair. A bigger group would be better like you said to spread out aggression. I’ll have to go with a different geo in that case.

I would be interested in checking that out. I’ve seen blue acara at an lfs, they were nice as well.

Good to know that with EBA and plants tho. I can live with that. I think I’m definitely including acara in the tank at this point. I’ve always wanted to keep them and their temperament gives me a lot of options.

 

[AV23]

Hey guys, sorry to come at u all with more questions but I purchased my 75 gal a couple weeks ago and have it cycling atm. In the time being I have been thinking about the stock and the feedback I received. As mentioned earlier I was planning on acaras and/or geos but with the space constraints in mind I have been considering a CA setup. I have some cockatoo apistos in other tanks that I considered transferring over but I feel like i wouldnt enjoy them as much in a 75. I also floated the idea of transferring my angel rather than buying geos or an acara. When it comes to CA I only have some limited experience with firemouths and convicts. CAs like Nics, savs, rainbows are great looking fish, but Im not sure which ones would fare well in a 75g and how accommodating they would be towards tankmates. If u guys had some stocking suggestions in regards to CAs it would be greatly appreciated.

 

[HybridFinatic]

I would look into all the Amatitlania. Very cool genus! duanes

 

[AV23]

I'll have to look into it more! I like convicts, theyre only members of the genus that im familiar with. Just worried about getting some that potentially taking over the tank. Probably shouldnt do a pair.

 

[sevs and sajicas for me]

Look into sajicas. they are probably my favorite CA cichlid. Closely related to convicts with less attitude and more color.

 

[jeaninel]

I really enjoy my Thorichthys maculipinnis. I have a group of 6 in my 75. In my opinion they are more colorful and stay just a bit smaller than firemouths. I have had several batches of fry. Wish I had some better pics. These 2 were guarding eggs here.

 

[AV23]

WIth the limitations should of a 4 foot tank and my lack of experience with CA I ended up deciding to stock the 75 with a small group of Bolivian rams and an angelfish from other tanks and a group of apisto agassizii I found at an LFS along with with some schools of tetras and cories. Would have been nice to have some larger fish or try something new but after a month I couldn’t find any LFS with any steins. Maybe at some point I’ll move one of the groups of dwarf cichlids and replace them with a pair of keyholes or a festivum but for now I’m happy with it and it’s at capacity I would say. I’ll try to post some clearer pics with better lighting when I can.

Thanks for the feedback guys. I arrived at completely different point but it wasn’t for nothing, helped me avoid some potential complications down the line.

 

[excaliber]

I'd be careful with Electric Blue Acara in any size tank. We just got 5 about a month ago. They had to be split up into 3 tanks on day two as there were two pairs in the group. Most people say they do well in larger groups just like you are hearing about the Red Heads. We were told to put them in the 75 and let them work it out.
That lasted a day as one of them was hell bent on killing everything in the tank other than it's partner. It got serious really quick.
That fish was removed immediately and lives alone with 4 cory cats.

That left 4 in the tank. One breeding pair and two that were getting picked on.
We removed the breeding pair and they live in a 40 breeder. The other two that were getting picked on are having issues now as the bigger one is chasing the other one.
Semi aggressive my ass. These things are more like velociraptors.

I guess it depends allot on the individual fish but I'm not impressed at all with the temperament of the EBA . From my limited experience with them they are downright mean unless they are alone or a M/F pair by themselves.

Now that I have only two in the 75 I'm wanting some Read Head Tapajos too.

Almost everyone says they do best in groups of 5 or more.
All I know is I'm not doing this again. I'm going for a small group of 3 males that are 3-4" or larger so they can hold their own with the EBA's.
A pair of the same sex EBA may be fine but if they are male and female good luck keeping anything in that tank with them.
If the Red Heads pair up expect mayhem in that tank.

 

[Zanzag]

Ive got a pair of regular blue acaras that have taken over my whole 55. Dont bother with the columbian tetras or cory cats but had to pull 1 of 2 firemouths that were with them because the female is relentless. Leaves the other firemouth alone but shes pretty rough on her boy.
Heres her keeping him in line.