I'm picking up a 415 gallon and 360 gallon acrylic for my new place and can't decide how I want to divide up the fish.
The 415 is 96x32 footprint and 31" tall with a center overflow. It will be a room divider and be visible from all sides.
The 360 is 96x24 footprint and 36" high. I'm going to put a black background on it and have it against a wall.
The fish being upgraded into these tanks are a South American eartheater community and my random monsters tank, whose stock is listed below.
4 distichodus
3 12" black arowana
5 IT datnoid
3 big bala shark
1 ctenopoma
1 black ghost knife
2 silver shark cats
2 pictus cats
1 Uaru
The plan is to put the Uaru and the cats in the SA tank since they're SA fish (the Uaru isn't in there now because it's currently planted). Ideally I'd be able to keep the black aros with the eartheaters, and maybe eventually add a ray, and have a nice big Amazon tank. As long as I don't keep any of the juvies in there for the Aros to snack on, I should be able to get away with that setup and add in some nice big Altifrons, some more Uaru, some Sevs, etc and really stock it heavily.
Which leaves the Dats and Distichodus by themselves, basically, in an Eastern Hemisphere tank with the balas and ctenopoma. I'd need to get more dats and probably a bunch more balas as dithers. Plus I'm sure there'd be plenty of other interesting fish I could find to add (though the idea of a giant school of distichoduses could be really interesting... though if it didn't work I'd be stuck with a bunch of fish I couldn't rehome.)
The height of the 360 seems like it'd be a bit wasted on eartheaters. But the big distichoduses would probably enjoy the race track effect (and built-in sightline break) from the center overflow. Likewise, having three black Aros, obviously they'd prefer the nice big 415 footprint too. Then again, I could always leave them in with the eastern hemisphere fish if I had to, even though that'd mess up the geography a bit.
I'm going to leave the planted tank at my girlfriend's place (where all the tanks are now) and maybe put discus in it, or just a buttload of schooling fish. Will probably leave the l. curviceps behind too, as well as the clown loaches in there now, because they aren't SA but could become datnoid food in the big tank.
If these were your tanks and fish, what would you do?
My favorite fish in general are the eartheaters, but I'm a huge fan of the distichoduses too, obviously. And I want to do what's best for all the fish and give the aros a happy home. Both tanks will be displayed in a living area so it's not like the ones that "only" get the 360 won't be seen as much. I can see an argument for having a nice big peaceful 415 Amazon tank, but at the same time it also makes sense to put the bigger more aggressive fish into that tank. So I can't decide at all. Help.
The 415 is 96x32 footprint and 31" tall with a center overflow. It will be a room divider and be visible from all sides.
The 360 is 96x24 footprint and 36" high. I'm going to put a black background on it and have it against a wall.
The fish being upgraded into these tanks are a South American eartheater community and my random monsters tank, whose stock is listed below.
4 distichodus
3 12" black arowana
5 IT datnoid
3 big bala shark
1 ctenopoma
1 black ghost knife
2 silver shark cats
2 pictus cats
1 Uaru
The plan is to put the Uaru and the cats in the SA tank since they're SA fish (the Uaru isn't in there now because it's currently planted). Ideally I'd be able to keep the black aros with the eartheaters, and maybe eventually add a ray, and have a nice big Amazon tank. As long as I don't keep any of the juvies in there for the Aros to snack on, I should be able to get away with that setup and add in some nice big Altifrons, some more Uaru, some Sevs, etc and really stock it heavily.
Which leaves the Dats and Distichodus by themselves, basically, in an Eastern Hemisphere tank with the balas and ctenopoma. I'd need to get more dats and probably a bunch more balas as dithers. Plus I'm sure there'd be plenty of other interesting fish I could find to add (though the idea of a giant school of distichoduses could be really interesting... though if it didn't work I'd be stuck with a bunch of fish I couldn't rehome.)
The height of the 360 seems like it'd be a bit wasted on eartheaters. But the big distichoduses would probably enjoy the race track effect (and built-in sightline break) from the center overflow. Likewise, having three black Aros, obviously they'd prefer the nice big 415 footprint too. Then again, I could always leave them in with the eastern hemisphere fish if I had to, even though that'd mess up the geography a bit.
I'm going to leave the planted tank at my girlfriend's place (where all the tanks are now) and maybe put discus in it, or just a buttload of schooling fish. Will probably leave the l. curviceps behind too, as well as the clown loaches in there now, because they aren't SA but could become datnoid food in the big tank.
If these were your tanks and fish, what would you do?
My favorite fish in general are the eartheaters, but I'm a huge fan of the distichoduses too, obviously. And I want to do what's best for all the fish and give the aros a happy home. Both tanks will be displayed in a living area so it's not like the ones that "only" get the 360 won't be seen as much. I can see an argument for having a nice big peaceful 415 Amazon tank, but at the same time it also makes sense to put the bigger more aggressive fish into that tank. So I can't decide at all. Help.
