# 75 gallon center piece fish with Bolivian Rams?



## halffrozen (Sep 24, 2011)

This may be a tad bit long.. sorry

I call Bolivian Rams BR's.. get used to it in my posts/threads. lol

So, I have a 40gal breeder with 6 BR's, and some guppies to keep the BR's calm with each other.

Before I get into questions, let me say what the plans are for this tank:
There is not going to be live plants.. maybe a FEW. But not much. My substrate will be Beach Sand. I am going to get larger dark rocks form a quarry right down the road form me to get a more consistent look for the tank. And also I find that my BR's ONLY stick to my rock pile.. lol and only the dominant male is allowed in. lol But they LOVE rocks.. idk why. ha

As for the stand, it MAY have a tank below the 75... I was hoping to use my 40.. but it may be too much down there for regular maintenance... still up in the air.

I am upgrading to a 75 gallon and one of the questions I have is, what should my center piece fish be?(I personally am fine with just my BRs.. lol but my wife I know will say "are there even any fish in there!?" lol)

I was thinking Angels? I am wanting something that gets rather big... but that will leave my BR's alone.

Any suggestions would be great.


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## JoeE (Jun 11, 2012)

Angels would do just fine. You do have a fair amount of rams in there so I personally wouldn't keep more than a pair. Maybe get 4-5 juvenile angels to start until you get a pair and rehome the rest. If you're going to do angels make sure not to keep them with the guppies, as the guppies will make a nice snack once the angels get big enough.

I wouldn't stock any more cichlids but you could probably fit two schools of tetras in there as well, as long as they are big enough not to get munched by the angels and aren't fin-nippers. Lemons and Rummynose would both be fine, but there are quite a few cool tetras that would work well with your stocking.


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## halffrozen (Sep 24, 2011)

Cool!

Angels it is!


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## halffrozen (Sep 24, 2011)

Electric Blue Rams... I saw a 6-pack on AB, and I was wondering if those 6 would be good with the 6 Bolivian Rams in the 75 gallon?


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## BelieveInBlue (Jul 17, 2011)

Methinks 12 rams would be a bit too much for a 75. I'd stick with the angels, or maybe something like keyholes. Too much traffic along the bottom of the tank is probably not a good idea; rams are more docile than most other cichlids, but still they can do quite a number on each other.


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## halffrozen (Sep 24, 2011)

Yeah, it was a long shot, but I kinda knew the answer before I posted.. I just wanted to see if anyone had made it work.. Maybe 4 and 4... but 12 is a bit much...

I think I will try and find either a blue marble Angel or another semi-rare bright coloration of Angel.


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## halffrozen (Sep 24, 2011)

I wanted to start a new thread, but remembered I already had this one so I will ask it here! 

I am wanting to get alot of substrate agitation, not with water movement though, with fish.

I was thinking some Cories would be good... but I hear, and has witnessed myself in my tanks, they are a hit and miss with Bolivian Rams. Since both are bottom feeders.

So, would maybe 2 or 3 plecos with some blue snails or Assassin snails be good? Or what?

Really looking for some advice!
Thanks!


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## JoeE (Jun 11, 2012)

Actually, I can't imagine you'd have problems with the cories in a 75 gallon. I have rams and cories tighly packed in a 26 gallon and everyone gets along fine. Bolivians are too apathetic to mess with cories. You could always start with a small school of 5-6 to see if it works out.

The cories would definitely cause more substrate agitation then the plecos, since plecos aren't exclusively substrate feeders. Plus if you ever want to attempt a spawn the plecos will be a problem.

I don't know anything about blue snails, but I don't see why you couldn't add some assassin snails, they usually don't breed enough to become a problem and if you have a pest population of smaller snails they will munch on them happily.


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## TeteRouge (Feb 15, 2009)

Hey HF, you are still doing great tanks! I've had my Blue Lace Angel male and BR male togther for 14 months in my 29, they get along fine. There is an occasional half-hearted nudge if the BR is up around the mid-top of the tank and they are chasing a morsel, but no more than that. I've never seen them pay the slightest heed to the cories, and you know how entertaining they are. Look forward to seeing the tank!


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