New 75 Gallon - Community - Stocking Tips

[ThaDude]

I am helping a friend set up his new 75 gallon tank today.

Basically, all he is missing is a filter & fish.

Before we decide on what filter to get, we have to figure out what type of fish will inhabit the tank.

He wants to do a freshwater community tank, preferably with a lot of color.
I believe he wants to have non aggressive/semi aggressive stock.

I am looking for suggestions on what to stock the tank with, to get him started in the right direction.

What, in your experience, makes up a successful colorful active community tank?

 

[twin_caleb]

Personally I would get filters up and going first before I started thinking about fish, but eitherway in response to ur question...jaguar catfish are very colorful and cool as hell...I haven't owned one but a buddy of mine does...some dwarf cichlids, rainbow sharks/red tailed sharks, there are a bunch of different colorful gourami, needle fish are semi aggressive and have a great green to them once they get a bit bigger, or he could go with a BUNCH of exodons.

Personally though, I would go with some rainbow sharks, a couple hoplo cats (both of which I have kept before and hoplo's albeit not too colorful have a great personality) and a couple needle fish...I have kept all of these together and didn't have ne problems, and i gave a good balance of top middle and bottom swimmers

 

[ThaDude]

Right on.
I'd love to get the tank started cycling as soon as possible;
However what kind of fish you keep can influence what type of filter is better
(example, HOB for current, Canister for calm, etc)

No worries, we're not going to dump the fish in today! This is the research stage.

As far as fish size, i believe we're aiming in the 6" or above area.. (grown)
75 gallons would just look goofy with little tetras and such!

Thank you for the suggestion so far;
If possible, include tank pics!

 

[johnnycoolxx]

Get a super red severum, a uaru, 2 flagtails, a green scat, an ornate bichir, a white angel fish, a vieja and a geo. Those are all relatively peaceful fish and you have almost every color in your tank: red/orange, purple, silver, green, brown w/white, white, pink and green.

For filters, get one that comes as close to a 10x turnover rate as possible. So if you have a 75 g tank, try to get a filter or a combo of filters that have a rating of 750 gallons per hour (or the best you can do based on what you can afford). You could do an AquaClear 110 (500 gph) and an AC 70 (300 gph?) to get there. Or if you want a quieter filter, get a canister like an eheim.

 

[andyjs]

Get a super red severum, a uaru, 2 flagtails, a green scat, an ornate bichir, a white angel fish, a vieja and a geo. Those are all relatively peaceful fish and you have almost every color in your tank: red/orange, purple, silver, green, brown w/white, white, pink and green.

Flagtails don't generally like each other, especially in small spaces and they will eventually need a larger tank. Scats are brackish fish and would do best with some salt in their water. Also, I've never had a vieja, but I believe they can be very aggressive.

I do like the idea of the sev/uaru combo. With them, there would still be room for some other tankmates. For some color, you could add some larger tetras. You could also do some bottom dwellers like cories or some medium-sized loaches

 

[TTTT]

And ornates are a bit big for a 75g.

 

[ThaDude]

Well, I talked with him that night, brought some books over, and came to these conclusions:

He' wants to go semi- aggressive/aggressive. He seemed to like the color of the african cichlids.
They will be in a 75 for life.
The tank will be planted.
The tank he inherited used to be for saltwater fish.

He's previously owned oscars, and enjoyed their habits.

For now, I have him picking up some pea-sized gravel, a heater & lids.
(figured it'd be best to start with the simple stuff first.)

I told him to go to World of Fish (MN) and see if there was one fish in particular that caught his eye, and from there we could decide what type of tankmates would be best, and what type of filter to purchase.

I brought 2 books over that have pictures of many fish. However, 1 of them did not show cichlids at all, and the one that did had a very limited variety.

So, I guess a good question to ask you good people here at MFK is, what would be a good 'centerpiece' cichlid?
It doesn't necessarily have to be solitary-
Being colorful IS a plus, but not necessarily essential.

As far as the africans go, I think he'd be a little disappointed with the final size of them. (printed closeup pictures seem so much larger)

As always, please include pics if possible!