175 stocking ideas!

[MatthewM]

So I just got lucky with a 175 gallon tank that I'm picking up early next week for a Christmas present! Trouble is I never even have really dreamed about how to stock a tank like this! Ideas please guys tell me what you would do with this size of a tank? Ive thought about a mixed mbuna tank as well as a tank with only a few large fish like a gar a large cat a a BGK but I can't decide! What would you do? I'm open to all suggestions!

 

[TheCrazyFishLady]

An African cichlid set up would look great. I don't believe any true gar can fit in 175g, but some of the Asian ones can. Large catfish is pretty broad. Any specific species in mind?

I'm excited for you though! 175g sounds like an awesome project.

 

[TheCrazyFishLady]

Edit: Sorry, I wasn't thinking. There are other false gars (not from Asia) that could fit too.

 

[MatthewM]

The gar I was thinkig of is the meddle nose I think liveaquaria states they get to 1 and a half feet! The cat I was thinking about was a lima shovel nose! I just can't really decide if I want to go with lots of the smaller guys for a impressive wow kind of tank or some of the bigger species that you don't exactly get to keep very often!

 

[toddnbecka]

IMO a variety of smaller species is more interesting than a couple big fish. A BGK and a group of silver dollars would be sweet though. My 125 houses severums, silver dollars, Colombian and white skirt tetras, kubotai botia's, a few yellow Lab's just for color, and a big old Synodontis eupterus. Also a zebra knife fish that I never see unless I strip down the tank.
The 220 has 6 species of Tanganykian cichlids (38 total), a group of M. parva rainbows, a couple of Tang spiny eels and a group of Synodontis petricola. Also a number of BN, I have those in just about every tank now.

 

[Mudfrog]

What are the tank dimensions? That is the biggest factor when picking out a few of the larger species. Are you into oddball fish or the more typical big pet store fish?

I wouldn't house a gar with BGK as they need different water temps. I would look in to: BGK (if you like those), a few bichirs, some synodontis or sun catfish, a small school of clown loaches and some Silver Dollars or something similar to use as dither fish.

 

[MatthewM]

I havnt acually picked it up yet but the tank is 6 feet long and is say nearly 2 front to back and close to 3 high! I like the more common species but some of the large one intrested me simply because its not often you have the opportunity to have a tank large enough to raise them! However I agree with the earlier post about several smaller species being more impressive overall! I'm just curious as to some species of both larger and smaller varieties any of you might keep in a tank this size!