id needed asap

[Woefulrelic]

It might be worth mentioning that I have used PFS almost exclusively, and most certainly would not change that in the 300. I vaguely recall Dr.B mentioning that poly can drain really easily. I'll keep up the research, for now I feel like I definitely don't know enough about polys to confidently commit to one in particular, there is just too many available!

 

[Askaleymanfish]

My biggest bully right now is a chocolate, and he is pretty mild. The list would be 2-4 severum, 2 chocolates which might end up separated if they pair off, and a few mesonauta. I could do a cichlid free 75, but I'm pretty sure that limits a lot of possibilities.

A 75 limits nothing except how many u can have lol I'm a prime example I have a 75 with 7 bichirs and a spotted gar and all r thriving well ..just gotta hit up the extra maintanence lol and all but 2 r wild caught ...but I am smart enough to no once they get 18" they need to be rehomed .. But if u have a 300 gal i recommend starting out with the bigger boys 16"+ much easier in my opinion to maintain the beasts than it is the baby's and on top of that if u go by 2-3 bigger boys u will be hooked that much quicker there is nothing quite like it lol very very satisfying .... For about a week lol then u need MORE..... MUCH MORE!!!! Lol just dive in dude we r here to help between all of us we can tell u anything u need to no lol

 

[DMD123]

Getting that first one is always the hardest. It took me about two years of asking questions and researching before I committed and bought my first. I started with a delhezi and then a sen. Soon I added a weeksii, an albino sen, a gold dust, lol

I was soon up to five but they were all very small and i rehomed some and grew out the weeksii and del. Now with a tank upgrade on the way i decided to add some more and am back to five! I am going from a 210 to a 300 and i could house some of the big lower jaws but i like my collection of upper jaws so that is what i am sticking with.

Just buy one....

 

[Woefulrelic]

A part of the hobby you jump in head first, looks like it may be the way to go. I'll look around a bit and try to find something nice to start with, after I figure out what I like. Is there any reason to limit to upper or lower? Also which would have better color on pfs?

 

[DMD123]

Size is probably the main issue most lower jaws get very big while the upper jaw stay smaller with the exception of weeksii, ornate and teugelsi which get big. Other things to consider are activity level. Some polys like sens, dels, palmas palmas are pretty much active outgoing fish you see out all the time. Others are pretty much tank decor and dont do anything during the day, lol.

 

[Woefulrelic]

I hadn't considered activity to be honest. I appreciate the bigger upper jaws you listed, they all look quite nice. I think I will go forward looking at stocking lists and find something nice and available. In the next week or so I will have the 300 up and running, lightly stocked, so I will look with an open mind and hopefully find some poly that can compare with the rest of you.

 

[Askaleymanfish]

I hadn't considered activity to be honest. I appreciate the bigger upper jaws you listed, they all look quite nice. I think I will go forward looking at stocking lists and find something nice and available. In the next week or so I will have the 300 up and running, lightly stocked, so I will look with an open mind and hopefully find some poly that can compare with the rest of you.

No bichir will look good on pool filter sand u need black for upper jaw or red/ garnet for lower jaw

 

[kno4te]

Black Sand or pfs for upper jaws? Not red?

 

[Askaleymanfish]

Pfs will make (all) bichirs washed out.... Upper jaws look best on black .... Lower jaws look best on red mixed with 10-20% black or garnet sand

 

[DMD123]

While you may not get optimal color with the pfs, you can still keep a poly, lol. Likely a delhezi would look good on it and a sen. I keep my polys on CaribSea Peace River sand and its pretty light colored and they dont look too bad. If you want to be a hardcore poly keeper you will want to change to a darker substrate. For me my pearsei and cichlids are first and i want a natural looking tank, so the polys get what they get for the substrate.