75 gallon stocking ideas

[Ancistrus Fan]

Good news, it looks like on Live Fish Direct you can buy sexed fish like electric blue acaras and various rams, and on Imperial Tropicals they sell sexed apistos and I inquired about buying sexed firemouth and other Thorichthys species so maybe that could be an option. So there are possible options if I dont want to breed and still keep some cichlids. Would it be nuts to keep a single sex group of the fish I mentioned, whether it's all male or all female?

Do fish from one continent. Don’t do firemouths/ thorichythys with dwarf SA fish. You could do an angelfish, electric blue acara and a group of Bolivian rams(or a pair of appistos). That would work and then with some dithers and maybe a Bristlenose is will be a nice tank.

 

[SCM_2123]

Do fish from one continent. Don’t do firemouths/ thorichythys with dwarf SA fish. You could do an angelfish, electric blue acara and a group of Bolivian rams(or a pair of appistos). That would work and then with some dithers and maybe a Bristlenose is will be a nice tank.

I don't plan on mixing Central and South American species. One or the other.

 

[SCM_2123]

I can't really say, haven't had a lot of experience with these species, but with social groups you may not see their natural behavior, or full coloration if kept in single gender groups would be my concern. Even in the all male african tanks, it's usually 1 display tank with a few backup tanks to move fish to that have been injured from aggression, or discolored and stressed from being at the bottom of the heirarchy, or get too aggressive and violent trying to be the alpha male. It's just not a natural condition, and hard to maintain long term. The species you've discussed are much more social and less aggressive, but if you put 6 or 8 male cichlids in a 75 gallon tank I would still expect territorial disputes.

I know they're less colorful but what about females in groups? Electric blue acaras, rams, and angelfish don't look too different gender wise and there are some pretty female apistos.

 

[Cal Amari]

Couldn't say, haven't kept them

 

[Ancistrus Fan]

I know they're less colorful but what about females in groups? Electric blue acaras, rams, and angelfish don't look too different gender wise and there are some pretty female apistos.

They won’t interbreed. As long as you don’t get the electric blue ram and the electric blue acara and then I don’t know but don’t do that as the EBA is half EB ram. Gender doesn’t really matter that much, I sexed my Bolivians and it wasn’t too difficult. If you want appistos 1m 1f is the best. For the acara and angels singles are better(if you don’t want breeding) as they can be more aggressive.

 

[Hybridfish7]

They won’t interbreed. As long as you don’t get the electric blue ram and the electric blue acara and then I don’t know but don’t do that as the EBA is half EB ram. Gender doesn’t really matter that much, I sexed my Bolivians and it wasn’t too difficult. If you want appistos 1m 1f is the best. For the acara and angels singles are better(if you don’t want breeding) as they can be more aggressive.

Electric blue acaras are not half electric blue ram. I don't know where people get this idea. They would look very different and probably not get the exact same size/proportions as normal blue acaras if they were. I don't know how you'd pull that off anyway, you'd probably kill a ram trying to get milt out of it to fertilize JD eggs because a fish that size is not hatching out of ram eggs.

It is just a recessive gene like the blue gene in electric blue jack dempsies, when you breed them to normal blue acaras the fry come out looking like normal blue acaras. I don't know why people don't think the same gene can't pop up repeatedly, when we have electric blue jack dempsies, blue diamond discus, thai silk flowerhorns, and arguably honduran red points (also a recessive blue gene). The electric blue gene in rams doesn't even behave the same, it's incomplete dominant, crossing them to normal (or any other) rams makes weird purplish fish with a large blue patch and bigger face spots.

Also apistos are polygynous. Females will chase males off once eggs are fertilized and he will go spawn with another female. Might as well get multiple females at that point but he does not seem keen on breeding, so I would honestly say a few males of something like cacatuoides would be fine in a 75... given we're going the amazonian route.

 

[Hybridfish7]

I know they're less colorful but what about females in groups? Electric blue acaras, rams, and angelfish don't look too different gender wise and there are some pretty female apistos.

All females is fine. If you go the central american route most female central americans (of species that are dimorphic) are more colorful than the males.

 

[Caperguy99]

Get a big mess of exodon tetras - they act the way the public expects a piranha to act. Small but furious.

 

[SCM_2123]

They won’t interbreed. As long as you don’t get the electric blue ram and the electric blue acara and then I don’t know but don’t do that as the EBA is half EB ram. Gender doesn’t really matter that much, I sexed my Bolivians and it wasn’t too difficult. If you want appistos 1m 1f is the best. For the acara and angels singles are better(if you don’t want breeding) as they can be more aggressive.

All female or all male acaras would likely fight? I'm not opposed to singles, just so long as they aren't the type of fish that might languish or be stressed like tetras.

Electric blue acaras are not half electric blue ram. I don't know where people get this idea. They would look very different and probably not get the exact same size/proportions as normal blue acaras if they were. I don't know how you'd pull that off anyway, you'd probably kill a ram trying to get milt out of it to fertilize JD eggs because a fish that size is not hatching out of ram eggs.

It is just a recessive gene like the blue gene in electric blue jack dempsies, when you breed them to normal blue acaras the fry come out looking like normal blue acaras. I don't know why people don't think the same gene can't pop up repeatedly, when we have electric blue jack dempsies, blue diamond discus, thai silk flowerhorns, and arguably honduran red points (also a recessive blue gene). The electric blue gene in rams doesn't even behave the same, it's incomplete dominant, crossing them to normal (or any other) rams makes weird purplish fish with a large blue patch and bigger face spots.

Also apistos are polygynous. Females will chase males off once eggs are fertilized and he will go spawn with another female. Might as well get multiple females at that point but he does not seem keen on breeding, so I would honestly say a few males of something like cacatuoides would be fine in a 75... given we're going the amazonian route.

The males won't fight? For some reason I was under the impression this would be like having male bettas together.

All females is fine. If you go the central american route most female central americans (of species that are dimorphic) are more colorful than the males.

Which ones do you recommend? I know with Nicaraguans the females are more colorful. I know the Thorichthys females are also pretty similar to males.

Get a big mess of exodon tetras - they act the way the public expects a piranha to act. Small but furious.

Thanks for the suggestion, I'm just not really a fan of those.

 

[Hybridfish7]

All female or all male acaras would likely fight? I'm not opposed to singles, just so long as they aren't the type of fish that might languish or be stressed like tetras.

The males won't fight? For some reason I was under the impression this would be like having male bettas together.


Which ones do you recommend? I know with Nicaraguans the females are more colorful. I know the Thorichthys females are also pretty similar to males.

Thanks for the suggestion, I'm just not really a fan of those.

Female Amatitlania myrnae

This exact female was bought from Chris Butcher on aquabid.
Males of everything I've suggested aren't really going to kill eachother like bettas.