# New 75 gallon tank



## cshouston (Aug 29, 2009)

Hey all, so tomorrow I have a new 75 gallon tank arriving :dancing: and I had some ideas I wanted to get feedback on if possible. On top of adding a bottle of SafeStart, I'm moving one of my AquaClear 70s on to the tank for mature filter media. There will be a total of two AquaClear 70s to start and eventually I'll also be adding a Rena XP3 to the mix.

To start with, on Thursday, I'm only adding five medium Silver Dollars and a smallish pleco to the tank. This weekend I am ordering a Green Terror, F1 "Orinoco" Oscar, and a Geophagus brasiliensis from Jeff Rapps to finish off the tank. Is this a pretty decent stock or can I get away with anything else? There's a gorgeous dwarf Pike (well, 8" adult) at my LFS I'd love to add.

Thank you in advance for your insights and opinions.


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## cshouston (Aug 29, 2009)

Forgot to mention, currently the GT is 5", the Oscar about 4", the Pearl 4.5", and the Pike around 5-6".


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## DeadFishFloating (Oct 9, 2007)

My personal opinion is that you'll need to upgrade to a larger tank when these fish near maturity. At thier current sizes your tank will be fine, but I believe most of those fish grow too large to be kept in a 4 foot tank.

Just my personal opinion.


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## cshouston (Aug 29, 2009)

Fair enough. In fact, I'm thinking that I'll forgo the Oscar in favor of the others. That should cut down the waste output significantly and provide more space as they get larger. Regardless, I'm also considering a 125 gallon tank in the next year or so.


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## ahud (Aug 22, 2009)

Upgrading tanks does not always work out. You have a ton of options for stocking that tank. Why not consider some fish that could live in it for life?

You have a lot of options to be able to observe some breeding behavior as well.

Just my two penny's :thumb:


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## Chubbs the Jellybean (Jun 16, 2009)

You could do a chocolate instead of the terror or the oscar to be your centerpiece fish for the tank, and then maybe have per say a pair of salvini or HRPs, which could work depending on the species of the pike (so many are mis-labeled in LFSs)

Just my thoughts :thumb:


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## cshouston (Aug 29, 2009)

ahud said:


> Upgrading tanks does not always work out. You have a ton of options for stocking that tank. Why not consider some fish that could live in it for life?
> 
> You have a lot of options to be able to observe some breeding behavior as well.
> 
> Just my two penny's :thumb:


Can you make a few recommendations?


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## cshouston (Aug 29, 2009)

Chubbs the Jellybean said:


> You could do a chocolate instead of the terror or the oscar to be your centerpiece fish for the tank, and then maybe have per say a pair of salvini or HRPs, which could work depending on the species of the pike (so many are mis-labeled in LFSs)
> 
> Just my thoughts :thumb:


Not too keen on the chocolate cichlids. The salvini look quite nice, though. The pike is most likely mislabeled as they call it a "Trinidad Pearl Pike", but when they called the wholesaler for more info, he said it was from Brazil. So, all told, I have no clue what kind of pike that is and am most likely passing on it now.

Perhaps one Oscar, a pair of salvini, the silver dollars, and some other kind of dither fish?


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## TheFishGuy (Apr 21, 2005)

A pair of salvani will kill an oscar.


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## ahud (Aug 22, 2009)

Check out:

Apistogrammas
Blue acaras
dwarf pikes
Laetacara species
Keyholes

Like I said you have a ton of options. By your proposed stock list you seem to want to pack in different types of fish. If you want more fish you can't pick ones that get 10-12". That oscar would grow to want that whole tank to himself. 75 is just not that big of a tank.

You could do a community setup with the species I listed above (not all of them). You still have other options, but I listed smaller fish because you seem to want a full tank.

Silver dollars get big, they are not one of my choices for dithers.

Do a little research before you post your stock list. People don't mind giving advice, but some questions are easily answered by doing a quick google search on the fish.

Hope we get this figured out :thumb:


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## cshouston (Aug 29, 2009)

Thanks ahud. I did just that over the last few hours and decided to start with a group of about six Firemouth cichlids until I end up with a pair. To those I am adding a shoal of six green cory cats and a large school of tetras (not sure what type just yet). I will start thinking about the larger fish later on once I have the 125 gallon tank, or possibly one larger than that.

Thanks. Also, good to know about the salvini, thanks!


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## Chubbs the Jellybean (Jun 16, 2009)

TheFishGuy said:


> A pair of salvani will kill an oscar.


Good call fishguy- im trying to learn as much as possible as I go, i got into cichlids last year so lots to learn


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## TheFishGuy (Apr 21, 2005)

THey call the salvani the mini goupote... They can certainly live up to it as they will spawn and get more aggressive sooner than an oscar...


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## mok3t (Nov 28, 2008)

+1 with TFG

Salvinis are nasty little fish anyway, add eggs/fry to protect and it makes it 100% worse.


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## cshouston (Aug 29, 2009)

So, plans changed once I got the 75 all set up and headed out to the LFS. I ended up not using the AquaClears and just using the Rena XP3 by itself. If necessary, I might consider adding a Fluval 305 to the set-up if necessary, but for now I think the Rena alone is enough.

Right now it houses a tiny 1" Electric Blue Jack Dempsey and a 2.5" Geophagus brasiliensis, as well as three Corydoras labelled "Yellow/Green Cory" (pretty, but no idea what species) and six Buenos Aires Tetra as dither fish.

It feels SO empty, and while I know the EBJD and Pearl cichlid will both grow eventually, I was wondering if perhaps there was room for something else, like another brasiliensis or even just some platys or guppies. Something to liven it up a bit while the centerpieces are dwarfed by their environment.

edit: what I'd like to do, in order of preference, is:

(a) Add 1-2 more brasiliensis, perhaps try for a mated pair.
(b) Add 5 small 1.5" firemouths and try for an eventual pair.
or
(c) Add one more Electric Blue Jack Dempsey and hope they're not both male.

Would any of these be viable long term in a 75 gallon tank?


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## DeadFishFloating (Oct 9, 2007)

Juvenile EBJD's are rather delicate fish. I certainly wouldn't want any other cichlids in the tank that are more aggresive than them. Most people here raise them to about 3 inches before they consider housing them with other cichlid species.


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## cshouston (Aug 29, 2009)

I read about that not long after my last post, actually. I was going to tear down my 29 gallon tank now that my 75 is set up, but decided instead to use it as a grow-out for the EBJD. He'll be alone in there save for a small pleco that I decided not to put in the 75 gallon tank.


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## TheFishGuy (Apr 21, 2005)

cshouston said:


> I read about that not long after my last post, actually. I was going to tear down my 29 gallon tank now that my 75 is set up, but decided instead to use it as a grow-out for the EBJD. He'll be alone in there save for a small pleco that I decided not to put in the 75 gallon tank.


Be sure to do a lot of water changes. A normal water change scedual on a 29 will not allow the fish to grow rapidly.. which is what you'd want...


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