Possible 125 Gallon Project...

[Blazeitchris]

I've been thinking about it lately and I think I want to put together my first "monster" tank. I think the jump from 55 to 125 (6ft) isn't too crazy and greatly widens my stocking selections. To narrow it down I'd like to stock SA/CA cichlids.
Filtration: I'm trying to decide between a Fluval FX6/Aquaclear 110 combo or building a sump (I have no experience with these btw).
Substrate: Either pool filter sand or Black Diamond sand blasting sand.
Heater: Aqueon 300w
Lighting: Finnex Stingray 48"

Now the fun part, stocking:
1 Tiger Oscar
1 Jack Dempsey
1 Salvini cichlid
1 Synodontis Eupturus OR school (4-5) of Pictus cats
1 Fire eel (Really interested) OR Bichir of some sort (I don't know anything about them )
1 Green Terror OR Blood Parrot OR Texas cichlid

Any advise is welcomed! Thank you.

 

[xDestro]

Make room for more bichirs once you get one u won't stop

I don't have any experience with some of the species u listed so I'll let other member chime in on that.

I would personally go with fx6 ac110 combo but I'm in same boat as u with so sump experience but I would think sump would ultimately be better

 

[Backfromthedead]

well the salvini and jack dempsey and texas and/or green terror are inevitably gonna be bitter enemies. you'll probably end up with all of them hiding and harassing the oscar constantly, and you can expect a few deaths.

if it was me, id focus on one or two types of cichlids and bottom dwellers that could work better together. the number and types of cichlids youre talking about would quite frankly just end badly. i would go with either

oscar, green terror, some kind of sa catfish

or

jack dempsey and syno cats, some larhe schoolers

ill recommend some other cat besides pictus because every time i keep pictus with oscars the pictus get eaten.

i dont know nothing bout bichirs but people who keep them seem to love them.

 

[magpie]

In a 125 you should really do bichirs instead of a fire eel unless you are 100% positive you'll upgrade later, as the fire eel will outgrow the 125. You could do several bichirs in a 125 and many of the species (not all) could be happy in that size tank for life.

There's lots of helpful people in the poly forum if you decide to go that route.

 

[Hendre]

A polypterus focused tank will be easier on aggression and killing each other haha. You could do a few polys with a single mild cichlid of sorts, and I think it'll be awesome

By the way, they're plain out addictive so be careful! One becomes two which becomes three...

 

[Blazeitchris]

well the salvini and jack dempsey and texas and/or green terror are inevitably gonna be bitter enemies. you'll probably end up with all of them hiding and harassing the oscar constantly, and you can expect a few deaths.

if it was me, id focus on one or two types of cichlids and bottom dwellers that could work better together. the number and types of cichlids youre talking about would quite frankly just end badly. i would go with either

oscar, green terror, some kind of sa catfish

or

jack dempsey and syno cats, some larhe schoolers

ill recommend some other cat besides pictus because every time i keep pictus with oscars the pictus get eaten.

i dont know nothing bout bichirs but people who keep them seem to love them.

I was really hoping I could keep an Oscar and jack Dempsey; I just recently heard of salvini cichlids and I thought the color contrast would be interesting. Syno. eupturus is the largest cat I've found that doesn't get huge.

In a 125 you should really do bichirs instead of a fire eel unless you are 100% positive you'll upgrade later, as the fire eel will outgrow the 125. You could do several bichirs in a 125 and many of the species (not all) could be happy in that size tank for life.

There's lots of helpful people in the poly forum if you decide to go that route.

This tank will be my last tank (unfortunately) for awhile. If I went with birchirs what type should I look at? I would think they would have to be large/aggressive enough to coexist with the other stock. Like I said I know very little about these interesting creatures

 

[Hendre]

Bichirs aren't particularly aggressive to anything that they can't eat and won't really fight other species at all. There's upper and lower jaw species that differ a bit, I suggest you look at the Stickies in the "Polypterus" section and get a better idea

 

[Davidiator]

Going to crash your thread B Blazeitchris

I am getting a 150 hopefully today and this is the planned stocking:
BGK x1
Clown Loaches x5
Hi-Fin Pleco x1
Angelfish x6
M Cockatoo Dwarf Cichlid x1
F Cockatoo Dwarf Cichlid x3
Congo Tetras x7
Yellow-Banded Tetra x7
Denison Barb x4
And I have space for more fish as majority of these are not very large.
I was wondering. Could a bichir live with these fish? I like them but don't want an entire tank of them. I only want 1-2

 

[Gourami Swami]

Going to crash your thread B Blazeitchris

I am getting a 150 hopefully today and this is the planned stocking:
BGK x1
Clown Loaches x5
Hi-Fin Pleco x1
Angelfish x6
M Cockatoo Dwarf Cichlid x1
F Cockatoo Dwarf Cichlid x3
Congo Tetras x7
Yellow-Banded Tetra x7
Denison Barb x4
And I have space for more fish as majority of these are not very large.
I was wondering. Could a bichir live with these fish? I like them but don't want an entire tank of them. I only want 1-2

Bro, put this in the threads for your tanks, forum etiquette to not derail someone else's thread with an unrelated question. I know your new here and its fine, but just letting you know so you learn.

To the OP- I would stick with south American cichlids. Oscar is SA. Jack Dempsey, salvini, texas, are CA. Which are generally much less tolerant of other cichlids. South American cichlids live with many other cichlids in close proximity in the wild, so they tend to kill each other less in aquaria.
Some examples of SA cichlids that would work- Severum, Satanoperca jurupari, Geophagus Tapajos redhead, guianacara gaeyi, B. Cupido,

If you really want the jack Dempsey and your pH isn't low, I would say give it a shot. It might not work out, but JD is one of the milder CA cichlids, and I have found them to be great tankmates for Oscars. The problem you might run into, would be trying to mix the JD with the smaller SA's like cupido. Personally I would scratch the JD and go with the SA fish, but if you really couldn't live without the JD, it might be fine.

 

[Hendre]

Will eat your apistos eventually, it could be easily done by most polys. Rest could be okay depending on poly species