260 gallon aquarium

[Kyleallen22]

I just ordered a 260 gallon setup 72lx24wx36h
Looking to have an interesting cichlid tank, please let me know what you would eventually have in there, inspire me! I love cichlids and I don’t know what to put in there!

[charliebankston]

Wow! That's a big tank! Awesome! I have a 215g with 2 oscars, a blood parrot, a black belt, a Pearlscale, a jack dempsey, a convict and a firemouth. I'm thinking about adding a salvini to it one day. It's a fun tank. You could do severums, or discus or geophagus instead. Acaras are pretty. Or some honking big schools of tetras, lol

[Brookster123]

Not sure how deep your pockets go? 20- 4" discus and 100 rummy nose tetra. Huge pieces of spider wood.

[charliebankston]

Originally Posted by Brookster123

Not sure how deep your pockets go? 20- 4" discus and 100 rummy nose tetra. Huge pieces of spider wood.

That would be gorgeous

[Kyleallen22]

Originally Posted by Brookster123

Not sure how deep your pockets go? 20- 4" discus and 100 rummy nose tetra. Huge pieces of spider wood.

I love this idea, and I plan on keeping the tank as pristine as possible but I work away from home sometimes and wouldn’t want to risk killing discus with less than pristine water while I’m away.

I’m torn between doing a large selection of dwarf cichlids with dither fish and maybe some angels and doing an Oscar or two with some “hopefully compatible” tank mates.

[Kyleallen22]

Originally Posted by charliebankston

Wow! That's a big tank! Awesome! I have a 215g with 2 oscars, a blood parrot, a black belt, a Pearlscale, a jack dempsey, a convict and a firemouth. I'm thinking about adding a salvini to it one day. It's a fun tank. You could do severums, or discus or geophagus instead. Acaras are pretty. Or some honking big schools of tetras, lol

Sounds awesome Charlie! Do you have any pics of your setup? Have you had any aggression issues? Did you get them all around the same time or what order did you introduce them?

Thinking of doing something similar now. I also really like green terrors but have heard they may be too aggressive with other big personalities.

[charliebankston]

Ime, the adding of cichlids together so they can "grow up together" is hogwash. Maybe that'd work with a puppy and kitten, but these dumb fish act pretty much just on instinct. When they get older, they'll get bossy. That being said, I've said many times before, esp when it comes to cichlids , what works for one person may not for you, and vice versa. We have about 20+ species of cichlid. They're all aggressive to 1 degree or another. We did buy an 8" green terror for that 215g before I added the Pearlscale. For a day all was cool, then the Gt had ev1 shoved into one end at the back, lol. And I'm talking about 7-8" fish. Not guppies. He's now in a 90g with a convict and a 12" pleco. He killed my 5" Salvini in there tho. So there's my experience with a Gt. The convict is fine, he doesn't take his s***.

[charliebankston]

It's a 7' tank also, so hard to get a full pic. Ev1 in there is 7-10" except the jack dempsey and pearl scale (about 6") and the fire mouth and convict (about 5")

[charliebankston]

Gt in 90g with peekaboo con

[charliebankston]

125g with rummy nose and discus

[Kyleallen22]

Originally Posted by charliebankston

Gt in 90g with peekaboo conAttachment 320072

Love the GT, beautiful fish. your story has convinced me it might limit what I could put in the big tank with it though!

[Kyleallen22]

Originally Posted by charliebankston

It's a 7' tank also, so hard to get a full pic. Ev1 in there is 7-10" except the jack dempsey and pearl scale (about 6") and the fire mouth and convict (about 5")Attachment 320071

Great pic! I really like those bigger rocks in there. The blood parrot and Oscar really stand out there too.

[Kyleallen22]

Originally Posted by charliebankston

Ime, the adding of cichlids together so they can "grow up together" is hogwash. Maybe that'd work with a puppy and kitten, but these dumb fish act pretty much just on instinct. When they get older, they'll get bossy. That being said, I've said many times before, esp when it comes to cichlids , what works for one person may not for you, and vice versa. We have about 20+ species of cichlid. They're all aggressive to 1 degree or another. We did buy an 8" green terror for that 215g before I added the Pearlscale. For a day all was cool, then the Gt had ev1 shoved into one end at the back, lol. And I'm talking about 7-8" fish. Not guppies. He's now in a 90g with a convict and a 12" pleco. He killed my 5" Salvini in there tho. So there's my experience with a Gt. The convict is fine, he doesn't take his s***.

I agree that they don’t get to know each other the same way a cat and dog would, my thinking, was more that I would add the most aggressive or fastest growing fish last to reduce the chance of casualties or fish snacks. Your story with the GT shows that it may be more luck based than anything though.

I’ve seen flowerhorns in community tanks but I would be afraid to try it myself.

[Kyleallen22]

I think now I’m leaning in the direction of getting mostly severums with a couple of EBA and some geophagus.

Maybe a Jack Dempsey or another random cichlid or two.

[Kyleallen22]

I’m thinking something along these lines:

White sand substrate, 2 large pieces of driftwood (I already have both of these) some fake plants attached to slate. It will be filtered for now with 2 FX6 canister filters which I also have already.

4 Geophagus Parnibae (Red head tapajo)
4 Geophagus Surinamensis
4 Geophagus Winemilleri

1 Green Phantom l200 or a Gold Nugget Pleco

2 Green Severum
2 Rotkeil Severum
2 Gold Severum
(Maybe 2 more?? Either Turquoise Red Spot or Red Tiger)

2 EBA

Maybe a jack Dempsey or firemouth or pair of Nicaraguan parrots, I will wait and see how stocking everything else goes.

Please let me know what you think!
Any critiques or ideas are always appreciated.