180g, my ideal vs reality

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blackberry75

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Jan 11, 2021
Messages
38
I scored a huge tank. In my head I have a picture of what I want, but I understand some of these fish can't live with each other in reality. Here's what I want:

Oscar (albino tiger preferred)
Rainbow fish(just for their colors and look of schooling fish)
Cardinal tetras (same reason as rainbows)
Goldfish and a common pleco because I'm already stuck with them

I'm not married to either schooling fish, I just love the idea of two separate schools of colorful fish swimming around with an Oscar. Obviously the ones in my head aren't appropriate to live with Oscars due to size/water parameters/etc. My question is, what would be some good alternatives to either the schooling fish or the Oscar? The goldfish and pleco are already used to the parameters you'd keep an Oscar in because that's just where my water is in my cycled tanks and heated fish room.

However, I have very little experience with giant tanks or giant fish. I started in this hobby with getting suckered into a lethally over stocked 29g and things progressed from there. My largest tank is a 65 tall and smallest is a 5g snail tank.

The 180 came with an unusual sump system. It uses a float instead of an overflow to remove water to the sump. The tank isn't drilled.

Any and all advice would be appreciated. I've always wanted an Oscar since I first saw one at the zoo aquarium, but never thought I'd have a tank big enough. I just want to be responsible about it and if I have unreasonable expectations it's better for the fish to not get one.
 
I'd skip the Oscar and install the rainbows and tetras. Oscars get huge and are semi-aggressive. Not good for community tanks except with similarly sized fish.
 
I'd skip the Oscar and install the rainbows and tetras. Oscars get huge and are semi-aggressive. Not good for community tanks except with similarly sized fish.
Well that sucks. I imagine there's no way to house more than 1 Oscar in that tank.
 
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