75 Gallon Stocking Ideas? Pictures much appreciated

[Pazzoman]

Hey Everyone, I been lurking around gathering the finishing touches for my 75 gallon tank. I have bounced around between freshwater and reef tank for the past decade now with tank sizes from 10 gallon to 150 gallon. So now freshwater is calling me back with these petco tank sales and a new house ha ha.

I will be setting up my tank with sand, manzanita branches and stones. Most likely I will be doing some fake plants so if you have suggestions on the most realistic fake plants brand I would appreciate the help! Im on the fence of doing real plants as I think it might be to hard, im trying not to invest in expensive lights/co2 and so on.

As for fish stocking thats where Im torn. Im torn between a mini monster community with polypterus (senegal/delhezi) and other predatory type fish or a community tank focused on breeding. I never bred any fish before, so I like the idea of just trying it out. Not looking for profits of course just for experience. Was looking at possibly a community tank of angelfish/cories/bristlenose plecos. Or if I can have best of both worlds with some kind of combination of it all ha ha. Also I will have a 20 gallon on stand by for fry as well as a quarantine tank.

Appreciate any input also if you have a 75 gallon tank please post up some pictures for inspiration!

 

[Hybridfish7]

Are you looking more for south american fish, or is anything on the table?
my personal go to would be either

option 1:
colony of amatitlania septemfasciata + pair of hypsophrys nicaraguensis

option 2:
colony of cryptoheros cutteri + pair of rio mongo/claro convicts (if cutteri population is high enough they will not hybridize)

option 3:
pair of amatitlania sajica

option 4:
colony of herotilapia multispinosa + pair of archocentrus centrarchus

 

[Pazzoman]

Are you looking more for south american fish, or is anything on the table?
my personal go to would be either

option 1:
colony of amatitlania septemfasciata + pair of hypsophrys nicaraguensis

option 2:
colony of cryptoheros cutteri + pair of rio mongo/claro convicts (if cutteri population is high enough they will not hybridize)

option 3:
pair of amatitlania sajica

option 4:
colony of herotilapia multispinosa + pair of archocentrus centrarchus

Appreciate your input also pretty much everything is on the table. I just painted the back of the tank black, so by the time it is cycled I should have a few more weeks of researching. If I roll with cichlids defiantly like bright colors. I looked through the options, those hypsophrys nicaraguensis are defiantly awesome looking. When you write "colony" how many are you thinking? Also with these options do you think bottom dwellers like cory cats or smaller plecos would be good tank mates, or what you listed is pretty much max for a 75? Defintly like the idea of a pair of main centerpiece fish along with a colony or community of other fish around like the way you listed. Also some south american cichlids I also like are Red Severums (simply because they are bright red) and I used to really like the idea of having orange head geos, but if im not mistaken I think they get to big for my 75.

 

[Hybridfish7]

Appreciate your input also pretty much everything is on the table. I just painted the back of the tank black, so by the time it is cycled I should have a few more weeks of researching. If I roll with cichlids defiantly like bright colors. I looked through the options, those hypsophrys nicaraguensis are defiantly awesome looking. When you write "colony" how many are you thinking? Also with these options do you think bottom dwellers like cory cats or smaller plecos would be good tank mates, or what you listed is pretty much max for a 75? Defintly like the idea of a pair of main centerpiece fish along with a colony or community of other fish around like the way you listed. Also some south american cichlids I also like are Red Severums (simply because they are bright red) and I used to really like the idea of having orange head geos, but if im not mistaken I think they get to big for my 75.

By colony I mean getting two (or more) pairs and letting them raise their offspring in the tank to get a population going. If you like red, then might I direct your interest towards a colony of the lake nicaragua convicts from Ken Davis? He can be contacted at fishfarmusa@comcast.net. Just don't get his Honduran red points. I haven't seen EXACTLY what the nicaraguan convicts look like as adults, but this one was caught a few miles north of the lake.

With the things I suggested before, I wouldn't go with any south american cichlids or cories, and I will also mention there isn't really much in the way of geographically accurate bottom dwellers. I would stick to geographically accurate tank mates (or substitutes) just for the sake of compatibility. In terms of substitutes for this case, you could do buenos aires tetras as opposed to astyanax. I use substitutes when something actually found with my centerpiece isn't in the hobby. I pick "candidate" species for substitution based on visual similarity, and parameter similarity. Buenos aires happen to be one of the most common and readily available species in the hobby, and look exactly like (what is probably) the most common fish in central america.

But back to the nicaraguan convicts, if you do end up going with those, you can still get the aforementioned hypsophrys, as well as archocentrus or herotilapia.