90g South American Stocking

[Dallascowboys16]

Hukit is one of the most respected people on this forum and I recommend that you don't rip on him for using COMMON SENSE and practicing practical fish keeping. Now lets get this thread back on track and talk about stocking.

 

[ktomminello]

Honestly- and I'm wondering if hukit will agree, and I'm just getting started in NW cichlids with a 150g and my stocklist is, so far- 1 pair gold cons, 1 Dempsey and 3 pacu (only raising them till 5-8 and then turning them in for another 3 moderate sized pacu), and I don't inches thin inches k my copper veil oscar will behave well enough, lol- I rescued 5 baby red belly piranha and figured 90g for a couple nights while I fixed up 55g bowfront for my oscar and his buddy, a lava red cherax lobster- piranhas were 2-3 inches, I didn't think a tight school of 5 of these would be that much of a threat for my then 5 inch oscar... I was right :-( my oscar and cherax worked together to take out 2 of them- the 'nippers'- over night... My oscar is now about 7 inches and my cherax is 8 inches- however- my Dempsey (just a 1 inch baby, more like 3 now that I've had him for a week), my pair of cons is about are about 4 inches and my pacu are about 5 inches, piranhas have been rehomed and I don't dare put my bully oscar in there- not until the others grow a little bit bigger and maybe gain some aggression- I've been warned about when my breeding pairs' fry are free swimming, though at my lfs they had a free swimming batch of fry and were in a 40b with a few pink cons and they stayed in the corner with their cave and plants around them- I got all the decor in their 'territory' from my lfs and set it in my tank the same as in the original from the store in the corner of my 150g and so far I don't think they have even seen each other yet, lol, and I'm concerned about when they are older if I try introducing my oscar and I'm wondering if my 6 mottled hoplo cats will be safe and am considering breaking tradition and trading out my hoplo cats when my clown loaches get bigger (I have 3 in with my SE Asian biotope, but they will get too big for my 60g)...

Long story longer, I'm running a tetra pond filter at 900-1200 gph and 2 AC110, for surface movement and 4 Fluval U3s midway down across the back and I know from my experience with my moms 100,000g river system and my 500g Mekong tributary section (29 inch mystus leucaphasis, redtail cat and, I can't help myself- 1 18inch red oscar, 2 (12 and 16 inch) tiger oscars and a 32 inch true giant gold gourami and several mystus sp- hi fin mystus) and I'm running 2 filtration required and I still have found that I have to maintain my filter sections and circulation units every other week...

My warning about stocking a 90g with as many of the territorial ca cichlids suggested is the amount of aquascaping required to create safe spots, 'homes' for these guys to call their own isn't for the faint hearted (or shallow pocketed)- that being said, along with that amount of decor and messy fish leaves soooooo many places for excess food, detritus and rot to hide and create problems if you're not careful to move all decorations and vacuum plants and substrate thoroughly weekly....

If I was using my 90g for ca/sa cichlids, I would honestly go for either one large centerpiece fish like an Uaru or blue acara or the likes and a school of hoplo cats or skunk loaches plus a couple rubber pleco
OR
A couple pairs of rams, a school of diamond tetra and a school of panda cories and 3 or 4 albino bristlenosed plecs. Granted, any 3-4 inch dwarf cichlids, medium bodied tetra and smaller plecs would work..

Just my opinion...

 

[Oscar98]

If that tank were mine to stock i would do one 8-12" centerpiece fish and a school of silver dollars.

 

[Nothing]

Thanks everyone for the help! This is the tank now, nowhere close to done I just threw some miscellaneous leftover ornaments in there for now until I can do the makeover. I need to wait for my basements renovations to get completed because I can expand my room, and then I'm moving the tank into my closet and making a nice display. The driftwood in the tank will be moving on to the final setup, and nothing else but the one live plant I've got so far. Oh, and here's the severum too

 

[Oscar98]

Thanks everyone for the help! This is the tank now, nowhere close to done I just threw some miscellaneous leftover ornaments in there for now until I can do the makeover. I need to wait for my basements renovations to get completed because I can expand my room, and then I'm moving the tank into my closet and making a nice display. The driftwood in the tank will be moving on to the final setup, and nothing else but the one live plant I've got so far. Oh, and here's the severum too

Awesome!! I like severums, especially the red spotted ones. Good luck!

 

[cbourg746]

Very nice severum.

 

[Nothing]

Okay so now there is a possibility I can rehome the pleco. Which would be great. Assuming I do that, what would be a good clean up crew for my tank? I hear Otos are the best, but would a severum try and make a snack of them? I've also read Cory's can be an issue so I don't want to risk it with them.

 

[Mogurako]

Bristlenose pleco would work well, I don't see why you couldn't add corys.

 

[Nothing]

I've read a couple horror stories of people's full grown severums trying to eat the a Cory and having it get stuck in its throat, resulting in either them losing both fish or having to cut up the Cory to get it out of the severum, and I really don't think I have it in me to do that. I know it's a pretty small chance, but with that possibility there I'm just a little cautious of the Cory's. Yeah, okay. BN Plecos seem to be the first choice for a lot of people, I was thinking of getting something different but that's probably the safest bet. With the significant decrease in bioload due to the common plecos removal, would that open up enough room for another trio of smaller geos, rams maybe? Or just one larger fish like another severum?

 

[Freakgecko91]

Rams: Yes, Geos: No. I'd look into some guianacara if you like geos, or maybe a species from biotodoma (cupido, wavrinii)

 

[Nothing]

If I were to go with some German Blue Rams, how many should I get with my stock list? A pair? Three? Five?

 

[Nothing]

Or instead of the rams, would an elephant nose fish be alright with that stock? Pretty fascinating fish that one. Or would the rams be a better choice?

 

[Nothing]

Scratch the elephant nose I'm not going to risk it. Are there any oddball species anyone would recommend that would go well with my set up?

 

[bettaowner]

A pink tail chalcelus might work

 

[Mogurako]

A pink tail chalcelus might work

A single specimen might work, so long as there's nothing else that likes to hang out on top of the tank.

 

[ktomminello]

Uaru, if you are looking for a larger friendly, or a curviceps or 'smiling' cichlid? Maybe a 3 females and one male dwarf (apisto or ram).... A larger non cichlid oddball- pink or green kissing gourami or a school of Rosy barbs and a school of black ruby barbs (if you're open minded enough to a semi-aggressive tank as opposed to an Amazon tank). You could add a school of surface ditherers- makes for an absolutely wonderfully active tank with enough color and biological similarities to work....

 

[Nothing]

What would you think of a blue acara? I've never seen any pink tails at any of my LFS if memory serves

 

[Nothing]

Those are all good suggestions too Uarus look nice, and GBRs are always something I've wanted so I wouldn't mind going for that. Having a surface dweller would also be quite handy as I don't have any yet. Would a group of hatchetfish fare well in my tank? Or maybe some upside down catfish? My oh my so many options...

 

[ktomminello]

Those are all good suggestions too Uarus look nice, and GBRs are always something I've wanted so I wouldn't mind going for that. Having a surface dweller would also be quite handy as I don't have any yet. Would a group of hatchetfish fare well in my tank? Or maybe some upside down catfish? My oh my so many options...

Upside down cats (syndontis) are African and wouldn't fare well- hatchet fish would do good, though, or a couple threadfin rainbows... Unless you're talking about the giant black upside down Asian- in which I would say 90g is not big enough.

Blue acara and port acara are kind of rough around the edges, sometimes, like all cichlids, personalities are all different... I have a firemouth that's afraid of my baby rams and a Dempsey that takes orders from an oranda, lol....

 

[Freakgecko91]

Good luck finding an uaru haha