Planning 65 Gallon

[Kristian Tombs]

Hey this is the early planning stages for my 65 gallon I'm getting later this year. It will be planted but I know all about plants because I already own a high tech 10 gallon planted tank.

I'm thinking about potential fish atm. The fish I like are South American Dwarf Cichlids, Rainbowfish, Plecos, Loaches. So a tank with those kinds of fish would be Ideal.

Help me spitball some ideas and plan my tank below guys and gals!

 

[Kristian Tombs]

I did some research and I realised if I gave a potential stock list it might be easier for you guys to help. Apparently rainbow will do fine in lots of small groups of rainbows like this:

3 Boosemani Rainbowfish (4")
3 Turquoise Rainbowfish (4")
3 Red Rainbowfish (5-6")
3 Praecox Rainbowfish (3")
5 Zebra Loach (4")
Bristlenose Pleco (4-5")

I saw all of these rainbows at the fish store today and they are quite laterally compressed which is cool.

 

[Kristian Tombs]

It will be heavily planted and heavily filtered

 

[NYgiantsRP]

You could do that stock, with a couple rams. That would work fine.

 

[Kristian Tombs]

You could do that stock, with a couple rams. That would work fine.

Anyother rainbows that are hardier or nicer looking than the ones listed

 

[NYgiantsRP]

Rainbows are usually quite hardy as long as the tank is cycled. As for looks, you picked the best.

 

[Kristian Tombs]

Rainbows are usually quite hardy as long as the tank is cycled. As for looks, you picked the best.

That's awesome. Any other plecos nicer than a bristlenose? Any loaches nicer than zebras? Could I do an apisto or two?

 

[Brookster123]

That's awesome. Any other plecos nicer than a bristlenose? Any loaches nicer than zebras? Could I do an apisto or two?

Pleco's get way nice.. How much you want to spend? I just dropped $70 on a l-134 (I know I'm crazy) just had to have him! You could do a pair of apisto's for sure. I have a pair if double orange cac's and they rock. But than again gbr's are awesome too.

 

[Kristian Tombs]

I saw snowball, Green and blue phantoms, golden nugget plecos today and I loved all of them

 

[Kristian Tombs]

What's a fancy but hardy pleco except the BN? I heard golden nuggets die frequently beacause there stomach bacteria dies when they are shipped over

 

[Luananeko]

Anyother rainbows that are hardier or nicer looking than the ones listed

That's awesome. Any other plecos nicer than a bristlenose? Any loaches nicer than zebras? Could I do an apisto or two?

Threadfin Rainbows are hardy and get very cool looking when full grown. They don't look like much when sold as juvies at the store, but I'll attach a pic of one of my males so you can see the adult form. The males get long black extensions on their fins and they do some very cool fin flicking displays to shoo off other males or to court females. They're also smaller than some of the other suggested rainbows, meaning you can stock more of them and have the males displaying near constantly. They work great as dither fish for Rams or Apistos.

Here's a pic of one of my males:

And here's what they look like displaying to each other (not my pic):

Loach-wise, check out Dwarf Chain Loaches. They stay smaller than the Zebras (max out at 3-4") and have a very pretty pattern. They're pricier than other loaches though, but very hardy. Apistos and Rams do get along so long as they each have their own space if you want a pair of each. Here's what they look like:

 

[Kristian Tombs]

Threadfin Rainbows are hardy and get very cool looking when full grown. They don't look like much when sold as juvies at the store, but I'll attach a pic of one of my males so you can see the adult form. The males get long black extensions on their fins and they do some very cool fin flicking displays to shoo off other males or to court females. They're also smaller than some of the other suggested rainbows, meaning you can stock more of them and have the males displaying near constantly. They work great as dither fish for Rams or Apistos.

Here's a pic of one of my males:

And here's what they look like displaying to each other (not my pic):

Loach-wise, check out Dwarf Chain Loaches. They stay smaller than the Zebras (max out at 3-4") and have a very pretty pattern. They're pricier than other loaches though, but very hardy. Apistos and Rams do get along so long as they each have their own space if you want a pair of each. Here's what they look like:

Thank you so much for your long message. I'll ta ke a look at thread fins if I see them. Dwarf chain loaches are really expensive at my LFS :'(

 

[Kristian Tombs]

Any other cool plecos?