my 180 is ready to be stocked! But what with?

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cougar579

Candiru
MFK Member
May 11, 2005
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Ok guys and gals need your input. I am either going to do an African cichlid tank,South American Central American mixed,or going with a RTGG and some tank mates. Need suggestions on the tank mates for the RTGG. It would be good to hear all the pros and cons of each stocking suggestion. I have kept all kinds of fish but have been out of the big tank hobby for about 4-5 years.
 
I would go with predatary haps in the tank. Tyrannochromis and buccochromis come to mind. They have great colors and you cold do some nice synodontis catfish in there.
 
Here is an african cichlid tank I did for a restaurant. The species mix was from what fry I had available at the time, but you could mix whatever you wanted. The trick is to overfilter and way overstock the tank. This reduces aggression between tankmates. I didn't lose a single fish from aggression for two years. Hurricane Issac just wrecked that system unfortunately. Lost 75% of the fish, pretty much anything over 2 inches.

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-_keEY9N4Rg

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If it was me I would either do a cichla group, freshwater rays and a leichardti arowana (your going to have to upgrade in two years or so with the rays unless you get some true mini marbles) or a blue type frontosa tank with a school of cyprichromis.

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African cichlids don't deserve big tanks IMO, apart from the real predators which aren't really available.
I'd say go native. 1 lmb as centerpiece with few bullheads and sunfish.

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If you want movement and color, it is hard to top all male haps and peacocks. The down side is you will need to go through a bit of trial and error before you get a stable community. It doesn't help that the females are colorless and immature male looks just like females.

So you are stuck with buying a bunch of juv. at 5-10 bucks a pop and weed out the females later or buying males at 20-50 a piece...not cheap considering you'll need at least 20 fish.

A second alternative is breeding groups...you will need one male and 3-6 females. The male's color is going to be even more amazing, but you have to put up with silver females.

You can do Mbunas tank, but you will need lots of rocks and the fish tends to be small and they don't interact with owners that much.




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