75g South Americans Ideas

[greenmonkey51]

I finished setting up my fish room recently. It has four 75g's. Two are mostly stocked with one being a planted community type and the other somewhat of a community with some Krobia Xingu's that I got today. My last two 75g's are almost fully cycled and I'm having trouble figuring out exactly what I want in them. I figured one would have a group of smaller geophagus with some dithers and a pleco. The other is more elusive as I could go with another geo species, but I'd like something different I think. One idea is some hypancistrus plecos with some keyholes. However a LFS has some H.liberifer that are pretty nice and I could theoretically build around one of them. Just looking for some ideas. Pike and wet pets are pretty much the only things I'm not interested in.

 

[Hybridfish7]

Could look for some australoheros or some other kind of acara. Here's a list of stuff I like that could probably go in a 75 -

Cichlids:
- australoheros sp. red ceibal
- geophagus megasema
- geophagus sveni
- cichlasoma amazonarum
- cichlasoma dimerus
- andinoacara stalsbergi
- pterophyllum scalare "rio nanay"
- pterophyllum scalare "rio manacapuru"
- caquetaia spectabilis or myersi (not sure how they'd do in a 75 but if geos are fine they should be too)
- heros liberifer
- heros sp. "rio madeira"
- heros sp. "rio inirida"/inirida

Characins -
- hyphessobrycon negodauga
- hyphessobrycon paepki
- hyphessobrycon coeruleus
- hyphessobrycon peugeoti
- hyphessobrycon wadai
- hyphessobrycon pyrrhonotus
- hyphessobrycon bentosi
- nanostomus eques
- nematobrycon lacortei

Catfish -
- tatia musaica
- bunocephalus or platystacus
- L034 or L255
- L397
- L239
- L056
- L200
- L128
- any hypancistrus
- CW51
- CW09
- corydoras eques
- corydoras schultzei

A lot of expensive things on this list, but a lot of cool stuff nonetheless.

 

[bkfamus]

I like the keyholes (underrated), hypancistris (L260 personal fav) idea.. maybe add some tetras, cories, otos, whiptails.. maybe even a few angels..

I personally prefer smaller species in 4 foot tanks.. If going with SA, dwarf cichlids like apistos, rams, keyholes, laetacara, dicrossus, ivanacara, bujurquina, etc would work well imo.. some gymnogeophagus would work well too.. the biggest cichlid I'd go with is geo tapajos, steindachneri or guianacaras.. although steinies can be a little rough in 4 footer if you have m/f...

I personally haven't had luck with bigger or more robust species in 4 foot tanks.. Bu I still consider myself a newb.. I started with 4 75s in my fishroom and had to upgrade to 6 footers for the fish I really wanted..

If you decide to try CA, you have alot of cryptoheros, amatitlania, thorichthys species that can work well in a 4 footer imo.. herotilapia multispiosa is another that would work well..

 

[Hybridfish7]

I personally prefer smaller species in 4 foot tanks.. If going with SA, dwarf cichlids like apistos, rams, keyholes, laetacara, dicrossus, ivanacara, bujurquina, etc would work well imo.. some gymnogeophagus would work well too..

If you decide to try CA, you have alot of cryptoheros, amatitlania, thorichthys species that can work well in a 4 footer imo.. herotilapia multispiosa is another that would work well..

I second these, I forgot about gymnogeos and biotodoma. Terrapurpurras and gymnogenys are very nice. I might actually try and get some of the latter, now that I think about it.

 

[ryansmith83]

Heros liberifer grow a foot long. I wouldn’t keep them long-term in a 4’ tank. Or most Heros for that matter.

I’d look into the smaller acaras — Laetacara, Krobia, Bujurquina, etc. Lots of nice 4 - 6” cichlids out there that would do better in tanks that size and give you more flexibility on tankmates.

 

[neutrino]

Plenty of good suggestions already. I second Gymnogeophagus-- if you're looking for something colorful, smaller in most cases, less common, interesting as their own niche, and heaters not needed (so not with Biotodoma or other warm water cichlids, Gymnogeophagus temperature needs are different). There are other cooler water cichlids that can also work with them, including several from Uruguay.

 

[duanes]

Plenty of good suggestions already. I second Gymnogeophagus-- if you're looking for something colorful, smaller in most cases, less common, interesting as their own niche, and heaters not needed (so not with Biotodoma or other warm water cichlids, Gymnogeophagus temperature needs are different). There are other cooler water cichlids that can also work with them, including several from Uruguay.

I agree, one needs to be careful not to mix temperate water cichlids (from places like Uruguay and Argentina) with northern warm water species.
These temperate water species have evolved to spend part of the year in cool water, conditions.
If they are kept in constant tropical water temps, they tend to become susceptible to fungal and other infections.
Below are some Uruguayan species I've kept.
I did not use heaters, and placed tanks with these species on north walls.

Above Australoheros sp "red Ceibal" in normal color.
Below, same species in spawning dress.

Below Gymnogeophagus sp Rio Yerbalito

Below Gymnogeophagus sp "Paso Pache"

Below Cichlasoma dimerus "Bella Union"

 

[greenmonkey51]

I like the gymno idea, unfortunately the cold period does limit tankmates. Also it seems right now that they’re not available it seems.

It just so happened a LFS had some Geo redheads that just came in. That took care of one tank. Yesterday after a lot deliberation, I decided to go with my original plan months ago and ordered a group of G.sveni from TUIC. I will likely grow them out and move them up to a 6’-8’ tank that will get setup next year.

I’ll put up a tank room journal soon.