75 gallon stocking

[libertybelle]

I just moved and in the process upgraded my 55 to a 75 gallon and am thinking about filling out the schools a bit more and maybe adding something but I'm not really sure...

It's only moderately planted at the moment because I replaced substrate and replanted. It will eventually be pretty heavily planted. I'll post a picture in a comment, a little later.

Here's what it looks like right now:

12 skirt tetras
5 tiger barbs
8 rummy nose tetras
7 adult guppies
5 panda cories
3 peppered corries (I think…. They were given to me as adults so I’m not completely sure)
4 otos
2 nerite snails
quite a few young mystery snails and a few whisker shrimp.

The guppies will be moving back to the guppy tank (they got moved as a place to put them while I was setting up the 29g guppy tank in the new house. The barbs chased them around for the first couple days but actually completely ignore them now so I haven't been in a rush to move them back. (The barbs are the one school I'm not sure I want to add to. The group I have don't seem to bother the other inhabitants but they are nippy enough that I might eventually just give them away locally.)

I'm thinking of filling out the schools to look more like which puts me at something like 80% according to aqadvisor

14 skirt tetras (mixture of different colored glofish, white and black skirts for my toddler's enjoyment!)
5 tiger barbs
15 rummy nose tetras
6 panda cories
6 peppered corries
6 otos
2 nerite snails
A few mystery snails and whisker shrimp.

What do you guys think? Any other ideas for 'finishing off' the tank. The barbs and skirts are nippers and the rummies stay small which limits my possible additions.

[libertybelle]

The tank currently:

[StinkyLoaf]

Hi. That is a really nice scape. Well done!

I have to think tiger barbs will be nippier when in small numbers. In big groups, their aggression is diluted. Unfortunately, you haven’t the room for a decent group of six inch long semi-aggressive fish including the other fish currently in there. I’d consider rehoming the barbs honestly, otherwise you’ll end up with only one or two monster barbs, and missing tank mates most likely.

I would prioritise getting another species of bottom dweller or stocking up on the bottom dwelling species currently in the tank. The latter of these two options would be best. Six minimum is the general rule, but I don’t believe this rule actually works or makes the fish happier than if it were in a group of four or five.

Aqadvisor isn’t a good source because it doesn’t take the bioload or temperament of fish into consideration. It only goes by the size of the fish relative to the tank volume.

[libertybelle]

Thanks! It’s still a work in progress but I’m happy with it so far!

I’m definitely aware of the limitations of aqadvisor but from playing around with it over the last decade I’ve found that it’s a great resource to get you started playing with possibilities. The biggest deficiency in my experience is not taking into account heavily planted tanks. For my tanks, because of how densely I (eventually!) plant them, bioload is almost a non issue. My stocking limitation is by compatibility /swimming space / territory, rather than filtration capacity. In my old 55 gallon I was fully stocked according to AqAdvisor and had to dose nitrates/macros for my plants because they sucked them all up!

I originally had a larger groups of barbs but I’ve had them a few years and lost a few along the way. The five that are left don’t bother any other inhabitants and just ‘play’ amongst themselves and with the white skirts, so for now I’m going to just leave them be. Last thing I want is to shake up the (currently fairly docile, as barbs go) school and end up with them going after tank mates when they’ve been fine with them for so long! I also don’t want to buy more when I am still considering giving them away eventually.

I agree I don’t have room for a large schooling fish, certainly not one that gets 6 inches. Unless you are talking about the barbs? I’ve never heard of them getting bigger then about 3 inches. The ones I have now are about ~3 years old and seem to have nearly capped out in size.

If you take a look at my stocking plan you’ll see that filling out the bottom dwellers was the plan, as well as adding more rummies. Both are only available locally from time to time so I’ll get them the next time I see them.

After doing that the question is, are their other compatible options I should consider that would be able to both stand up to the existing fin nippers in the tank, and not get so big that the rummies become lunch!