75 Gallon stocking ideas

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MississippiNick

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Oct 22, 2018
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I was gifted a 75 gallon tank by a friend cleaning out his attic , it needs re-sealing but is otherwise in good shape. I have a bit of a conundrum when it comes to stocking tho.

I've usually kept community tanks of smaller fish in smaller tanks, but in this case I've decided I wanted to do a theme.

My choices are :

Amazon style jungle tank:

group of 6-8 blue marble angelfish

2 schools of tetras (maybe cardinals and rummynose)

julii cories for the bottom

probably a rubberlip pleco or similar

open to subbing any of the above out for an appropriate cichlid as well

OR

African tank

Ctenepoma or 2

congo tetras school of say 10-15

senegal bichir

maybe a ropefish or an elephant nose


my tanks are always heavily planted, but low tech (only use ferts and lights no Co2)

so do you think these two plans are doable? am I going overboard on stocking in either case? (or could I use more fish ?)

I've been out of the hobby for about ten years and just getting back in, so I'd love to hear any and all opinions! (and alternatives)


thanks in advance for any and all replies!
 
I like both options and think your stock levels are reasonable, personally I am a fan of #1, but I would go with whatever one you think you will enjoy more. At the end of the day it's your tank not ours!
best of luck
 
Thanx! Yeah, I was more interested in finding out if my ideas would A- work on an aggression level and B- work on a numbers level. I'm planning on going with two large sponges for filtration + a ton of plants, so I wanted to know if either were doable.

I'm so stuck on which to choose tho! Both sound good , it may come down to availability of the fish honestly. I'd prefer to get as much local as I can and my fish store choices are ok but not great. I've never ordered fish online before, but am not opposed to it.
 
Personally I just love stock #2, but if you’re going for an African theme tank then you just HAVE to have an African brown knife fish, they are the poster fish for Africa if you ask me. I’ve heard that leaf fish are best kept either singularly or in a group of 6. Now, have you ever seen an albino Congo tetra? They’re absolutely beautiful and angel like so I’d go with maybe all albino or 10 albino and 10 normal. I’m actually planning a school of them for one of my tanks. Why stop at 1 rope fish? I’d say 3 or maybe 6 if you can manage with the extra maintance needed. I noticed that you only have a senegal bichir for the bottom, that’s awfully boring with having just one... You know where I’m going with this ;) I’d say grab 3 of them. This may be a bit overstocked but personally I’m prone to overstock a tank so....
 
fishhead0103666 said:
Personally I just love stock #2, but if you’re going for an African theme tank then you just HAVE to have an African brown knife fish, they are the poster fish for Africa if you ask me. I’ve heard that leaf fish are best kept either singularly or in a group of 6. Now, have you ever seen an albino Congo tetra? They’re absolutely beautiful and angel like so I’d go with maybe all albino or 10 albino and 10 normal. I’m actually planning a school of them for one of my tanks. Why stop at 1 rope fish? I’d say 3 or maybe 6 if you can manage with the extra maintance needed. I noticed that you only have a senegal bichir for the bottom, that’s awfully boring with having just one... You know where I’m going with this ;) I’d say grab 3 of them. This may be a bit overstocked but personally I’m prone to overstock a tank so....
Click to expand...

That's a lot of fish! I may do some version of the above, with Congo Tetras of both types, a bichir, a brown knife, a ctenepoma and maybe a butterfly fish and elephant fish...

It really depends on availability and cost and not overtaxing my filtration too.
 
Why not over filtrate? On my 75 I have without really thinking maybe 500 gallons worth of filtration?
 
I think a nice school of larger tetras would be a great idea for a 75. Congos, alestes, or sperichthys are good options if you want to go african. Otherwise I highly recommend a group of argenteus tetras.

You could always mix in some tankmates as you see fit too.
 
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Option 2 is going to be a PIA. Leaf fish are hard to get on pellets usually. Rope fish are escape artists so you have to seal up your tank top. Most people use duct tape.

The elephant nose isn't a beginner type fish. They get bullied really easily, feeding them enough will be a pain, and they're also specialized feeders with small items like insect larvae etc. I've used straws with bloodwork etc to get them food.

Have you thought about a group of quality firemouths with a supporting cast as an option?

If you got the dough. A schoutedeni puffer(s) with a supporting cast would be great for a planted tank. It will give you an interactive oddball fish to replace the elephant nose.
 
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Backfromthedead said:
I think a nice school of larger tetras would be a great idea for a 75. Congos, alestes, or sperichthys are good options if you want to go african. Otherwise I highly recommend a group of argenteus tetras.

You could always mix in some tankmates as you see fit too.
Click to expand...

I meant to type *arnoldichthys, not sperichthys. Idk what sperichthys is lol.
 
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