What to do with a 75

[trustemedia]

I just got a 75 gallon.

Now, what to do with it. I contemplated going saltwater, but I am afraid it will end up being too much work and way too expensive. If anyone has info to the contrary, I would be glad to hear it. Maybe there are different variations of saltwater I do not know of.

My second thought was doing a cichlid tank. I ended up with some from my LFS and I would like to move them to their own tank anyway, so would already have a head start. Besides the 4 I already have, I would prefer to do a Lake Tanganyika tank. Not sure if any other fish would go with them or do them only, which is fine. Experience with them? (I can always ask in that thread, too.) Right now, I'm leaning cichlid tank.

Thirdly thought of turtles - but I think too dirty, even though different. Mudskippers seem cool for something different.

What would you do with a 75 gallon?

I want to do something different, but fun that we will enjoy watching. Not too hard and easy on the pocketbook.

 

[bettaowner]

I'd create a rainbow fish, angelfish, or loach tank

 

[Freakgecko91]

Cichlids for sure, either South/central American or Tanganyikan

 

[GodFan]

Dude African Leaf Fish (the real African Leaf Fish not the Bush fish petsmart sells). You could do say 5 ALF, 2 schooling fish, and some oddballs like brown african knife, banjo cat, etc. The African Leafish can be housed with virtually anything as long as it cant swallow them or vice versa. I have had one with a young African cichlid and the cichlid thought it was leaf I guess because he didnt hurt it. They eat live only.

 

[aquandrew]

what kind of cichlid do you already have?

 

[trustemedia]

I haven't looked into loaches that much. I'll have to give them a once over for sure.

The African Leaf Fish looks really cool and looks like it would be a really cool set-up with the banjo cat, etc. I'll have to do some research into those. I'm liking that idea.

The cichlids I have now, I am ashamed to say, are a mystery. My LFS gave me 4 and didn't know what they were and didn't even have the tank labeled. I don't usually take anything without researching it first, but I did that day for some reason. They are very young and were tank bred and raised locally and then given to my LFS from someone getting out of breeding or moving or something. I posted a pic in the cichlid forum with no positive ID. They are coloring up more (or at least one is as I assuming now I have 1 male and 3 females) so I could try again. They are peacocks for sure. What kind I don't know, so would be 4 Lake Malawi African Cichlids (from what I have gathered so far - I'm just learning.) They are extremely peaceful and good community fish. They were just getting hints of yellow on them and now the one larger male is getting more blue on him as well. So... we'll see.

 

[Freakgecko91]

I haven't looked into loaches that much. I'll have to give them a once over for sure.

The African Leaf Fish looks really cool and looks like it would be a really cool set-up with the banjo cat, etc. I'll have to do some research into those. I'm liking that idea.

The cichlids I have now, I am ashamed to say, are a mystery. My LFS gave me 4 and didn't know what they were and didn't even have the tank labeled. I don't usually take anything without researching it first, but I did that day for some reason. They are very young and were tank bred and raised locally and then given to my LFS from someone getting out of breeding or moving or something. I posted a pic in the cichlid forum with no positive ID. They are coloring up more (or at least one is as I assuming now I have 1 male and 3 females) so I could try again. They are peacocks for sure. What kind I don't know, so would be 4 Lake Malawi African Cichlids (from what I have gathered so far - I'm just learning.) They are extremely peaceful and good community fish. They were just getting hints of yellow on them and now the one larger male is getting more blue on him as well. So... we'll see.

There really aren't any rift lake cichlids that are extremely peaceful and community, just an FYI

 

[Aquamandan]

75 gallon would be great for an all cichlid aquarium. Let us know what you decide!

 

[trustemedia]

How many cichlids do you think I could stock in a 75? I know it may be hard to say since they come in various sizes, but an estimate would suffice.

 

[Rivers2k]

I got out of saltwater a while ago. I think Saltwater is for people that like chemistry sets there is a lot of time and effort that goes into keeping a good healthy saltwater tank. I did it for a while but then decided i wanted a tank that didn't require so much effort.

If you want the color you can go with African cichlids as you already mentioned. A school of bosemoni rainbows. Adult German Blue Rams are the most colorful fish i have ever scene and not as aggressive as Africans. I have also seen 75's with large schools (20-30fish) of cardinals and cherry barbs with a few silver mollies. That looked really cool. Just make sure you have a quarantine tank for new fish because one sick fish can wipe out your whole tank. I wont tell you how I know this

My personal favorites are puffer fish but the require brackish water. My 75 has a FW puffer called a Fahaka but he will need to be upgraded to a bigger tank. Very personable fish, kind of like a puppy.

 

[Freakgecko91]

I got out of saltwater a while ago. I think Saltwater is for people that like chemistry sets there is a lot of time and effort that goes into keeping a good healthy saltwater tank. I did it for a while but then decided i wanted a tank that didn't require so much effort.

If you want the color you can go with African cichlids as you already mentioned. A school of bosemoni rainbows. Adult German Blue Rams are the most colorful fish i have ever scene and not as aggressive as Africans. I have also seen 75's with large schools (20-30fish) of cardinals and cherry barbs with a few silver mollies. That looked really cool. Just make sure you have a quarantine tank for new fish because one sick fish can wipe out your whole tank. I wont tell you how I know this

My personal favorites are puffer fish but the require brackish water. My 75 has a FW puffer called a Fahaka but he will need to be upgraded to a bigger tank. Very personable fish, kind of like a puppy.

There are many true freshwater puffers, more so than just fahaka, there are actually more freshwater than there are brackish if I'm not mistaken

 

[Rivers2k]

There are many true freshwater puffers, more so than just fahaka, there are actually more freshwater than there are brackish if I'm not mistaken

Yes you are correct but the common ones in the trade today are mostly brackish. I just mentioning what I was doing with my 75. I thought my post was long enough.

Other FW puffers are Dwarf (smallest) MBU (Largest) Target Family of puffers, SAP or amazon puffers (schooling puffers), Avacado or bronze puffers (meanest in my opinion). Arrowhead puffers, congo puffers, red eye puffers, hairy puffers.

 

[Freakgecko91]

Just making sure because it seemed misleading, appreciate the clarification for the OP

 

[Plecolover18]

i would do discus, there KINDA hard to care for but when you do research on them they seem easy, also cichlids you can choose your content to do and go from there

 

[trustemedia]

I have a couple Figure 8 puffers already. But, I had to move them from my main brackish tank to a tank of their own because although they are babies, they are nippy already. Knew it would be a 50/50 shot with them. Some people have luck, some don't. Mine are good and don't cause confrontation, but they see anything that looks like it might be a snail, like a brown spot on a fish, and they go for it. But, yes, we love them. Like little spaceships.

I'll check out the discus. I see alot of people who have Discus tanks. Never really researched them, though.

These have all been great ideas. Keep them coming!

 

[trustemedia]

Do Discus and Cichlids live together well? Or is that a complete no-no?

If I do just cichlids am I limited to how many different species I can have? And how many of each species?

Are there any other fish that cichlids get along with or could live with in a 75 gallon tank?

If I added my 4 tank bred peacock babies and went with a South American theme instead of just cichlids, what else could I put in there - bottom, middle, and top?
(Right now mine are even living with baby fish and don't even bother them one bit, but I assume they may behave different when they get older)

I like the oddballs, but also like color so a little torn. Just want to see what my options are.

I am definitely going to move the baby cichlids I have now to the 75 gallon so I need to work off of that.

 

[Freakgecko91]

1.) discus are south american cichlids, they are extremely fragile and prefer softer water. No they will not do well with peacocks

2.) peacocks are not South American, so you can't really go with a South American theme when you have Rift lake cichlids (peacocks are from Lake Malawi)

3.) peacocks do best with peacocks and some of the lesser aggressive Mbuna like yellow labs

4.) basically, these fish haven't mature yet, and aggression sets in later in their life. They may be calm, they may be quite aggressive, depends on the species, size, and gender

5.) tank mates for peacocks are limited to certain loaches, some pleco species, and (IMO best suited) synodontis species

 

[trustemedia]

Ok, then discus are out.

I know they are from Lake Malawi, I stated that earlier:

They are peacocks for sure. What kind I don't know, so would be 4 Lake Malawi African Cichlids

.
I meant African earlier - sorry for that confusion.

Well, I really don't want anymore Peacocks. I already have 4.

I don't really like loaches or plecos at all from what I have seen of them. Loaches don't look good to me and plecos I heard are loads of bioload.

I either want to do Lake Tanganyikans with them, if possible.
or... an oddball tank as suggested earlier. If not possible, I may just move Peacocks to another tank and not work around those.

Some of the African fish I have seen, been recommended, etc.:
leaf fish suggested earlier - I guess the real one is South American, not African, but the bush fish is African. I would consider the real one as it is a neat fish and as long as the tank works together ok, it doesn't have to be perfect (all African only)

lung fish
knife fish
congo tetras
stingrays
elephant nose
butterfly fish
bush fish
rope fish
upside down catfish
birchirs
glass catfish
striped eel catfish
hemisynodontis membranaceus
auchenoglanis occidentalis (giraffe catfish)
ageneiosus marmorata nanay
featherfin catfish
polypterus birchir
delhezi birchir
anaspidoglanis macrostoma
giant danios
puntius denisonii
banjo catfish
microctenopoma sp aff congicum
Microctenopoma ansorgii - Ornate Bush Fish

I wonder if the cichlids I have now would work with any of these above or any of the Lake Tanganyikan cichlids. This will help me decide which direction I need to go in.

Thanks everyone for all your help from all your experience. It's exciting putting this together and I appreciate everyone helping me make this work. Especially when you all probably get asked these things ALL the time.

 

[Rivers2k]

Your peacocks wont work with most of the fish you just listed. The list is to long to go into why on each. The problem with rift lake cichlids is they can only go with rift lake cichlids. Your options if you want to keep the peacocks are basically other peacocks or mubuna. You can get larger frontosa but they must be larger because they aren't very aggressive but they will hold there own, they will outgrow a 75. You could also get a few leleupi or tretacephalus they are beautiful fish and nasty little buggers. I here some cats work but I am not much into cats so I don't know.

So hear is the list

1. more peacocks
2. some mbuna
3. Frontosa (if larger than peacocks and will out gorw a 75)
4. Leleupi
5. tretacephalus
6. some cats but not sure which kind

 

[bmarine]

Your peacocks wont work with most of the fish you just listed. The list is to long to go into why on each. The problem with rift lake cichlids is they can only go with rift lake cichlids. Your options if you want to keep the peacocks are basically other peacocks or mubuna. You can get larger frontosa but they must be larger because they aren't very aggressive but they will hold there own, they will outgrow a 75. You could also get a few leleupi or tretacephalus they are beautiful fish and nasty little buggers. I here some cats work but I am not much into cats so I don't know.

So hear is the list

1. more peacocks
2. some mbuna
3. Frontosa (if larger than peacocks and will out gorw a 75)
4. Leleupi
5. tretacephalus
6. some cats but not sure which kind

I agree. And sometimes it isn't always good to mix the different rift lakes. You can, but something could go wrong. A lot of people don't really like mixing the lakes. You can definitely try it and it could work out fine, but you could also have problems. Kind of a 50/50 chance.