# Stocking Suggestions



## xr8dride (Feb 24, 2009)

I have two 90g tanks though side by side they are seperate tanks. I know of the usual Guppies, Swordtails, etc... that you see in all LFS but I was wondering what else is out there that I could possibly stock these tanks with. I was thinking one be a community tank and the other with semi-agressive fish...any suggestions? I was just going to stock it with wild fish, sunfish, bass, etc.


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## xr8dride (Feb 24, 2009)

Forgot to mention, both are running Eheim 2217's, Tetra AP150 air pumps, and Rena Cal Top Light Excel 300w heaters. Plants will be artificial (I'm lazy) since they are easiest to maintain.


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## Tropicana (Feb 15, 2009)

Well, i would suggest cichlids to start for one aquarium. They are always good looking. south americans are pritty neat and Africans are also very interesting. I personally house both. What kind of substrate are you using in the tanks and what type of decoration are you trying to achieve? like a Rocky river with some logs or like a amazon river with plants logs and a sandy substrate with tanned water. lol i think you should make a landscape based off of a habitat you like and then see what fish look natural in it. Heh a bunch of malawi cichlids arent at home in a planted aquascape lol.


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## xr8dride (Feb 24, 2009)

Well as you can see in my DIY thread, I have one huge stump seperated, one half in each side of the tank. As for plants, I'll only have maybe one or two artificial in each tank..I want alot of open viewing space. As for the cichlids, do they not require some special attention such as high Ph values? If that's the case, I'm looking for very low maintenance fish...something I can leave for a long weekend without much concern. That was a big part of getting out of saltwater. I do live across the street from Finatics LFS so I will go speak to the owner and his partner, they are great to talk with but carry almost exclusively Cichlids....so many varieties!!!


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## WiyRay (Jan 11, 2009)

If I had a 90 I can probably see myself stocking it with an insane amount of cardinals (or something flashy like that) and then adding maybe like 1 or 2 big fish for show... I'm still wondering if German blue rams can be in the same tank as them. Kind of like the 1600 gallon tank thread... except... not so crazy.


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## redclove (Feb 26, 2008)

if you do some really really small fish in one of them, like some micro rasboras, you could get away with a fairly large school, 20+ fish, maybe even shoaling..


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## xr8dride (Feb 24, 2009)

only 20 in a 90 gallon tank? I've heard of ppl having many more than that in smaller tanks. But I don't want large numbers anyways, but a couple small schools of fish would be decent....looking more for a tank with fish at all levels...bottom feeders, middle and top dwellers. It's just finding the species that with thrive and be peaceful with one another.


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## WiyRay (Jan 11, 2009)

Top - not a huge variety but hatchetfish or halfbeaks seem decent not to mention odd-looking. I really love clown killi's but for the life of me i can't ever keep them alive for any extended period of time.. 

middle - its really up to you, if you want small schools then do just that. anything that you find interesting just buy 6 of them.

bottom - kuhli's... awesome guys but probably will be hard to find in a 90g. so cories are always a good choice. shrimps are good too, I know you're going for artificial plants but some java moss shouldn't be any problem.


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## Tropicana (Feb 15, 2009)

Well german blue rams get along very well with cardinals but cardinals are good egg snatchers so if anyone layed eggs they wouldnt last long. also cory cats are great bottom feeders. The German blue rams are more or less mid-bottom dwellers. but the ph value should be 7ish if thats easy enough. as for cichlids all you need is a layer of crushed coral to keep the ph high enough and basicly its done from their. but one worrie is their pritty aggreswsive and may attack each other if not feed for like a long weekend or so.

Note. I would wait a good couple months before getting German blue rams they need a very cycled aquarium.


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## xr8dride (Feb 24, 2009)

Oh I do plan on waiting a cpl months or more before starting to really stock the tank, 2-4 fish to begin with as i think the fish I'm looking for are going to be hard to find, some of them anyhow.

Here's what I've been looking at, there are more but these may be the hardest to find.


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## redclove (Feb 26, 2008)

xr8dride said:


> only 20 in a 90 gallon tank? I've heard of ppl having many more than that in smaller tanks. But I don't want large numbers anyways, but a couple small schools of fish would be decent....looking more for a tank with fish at all levels...bottom feeders, middle and top dwellers. It's just finding the species that with thrive and be peaceful with one another.


I just mean 20+ or whatever of a single species.. not sure how high you would go in numbers but the smaller the fish, the more you could get..


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## pat3612 (Jan 29, 2008)

I would go with Africans to you can get awesome colors and you can add plecos or other catfish to the bottom . When I had them I always went to the cottage and left them for the weekend fish can go awhile without being fed. You could go with JDs I have mine in with catfish and plecos. If you go with africans ot Jds you could add a shoal of Giant Danios or Rainbows also I made small caves too and added my crays to that tank once the fish were a little bigger.


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## xr8dride (Feb 24, 2009)

Sounds like that is prob the route I will take Pat. As I said, I live directly across the street from a cichlid supplier so it would prob be easiest.


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## Tropicana (Feb 15, 2009)

"Ahh nice fish good luck finding the rare ones. I am a huge fan of the Goby's you are going for, it would be nice to seem some in a good looking tank. Well if you need, i may have some German Blue ram fry large enough to home in a few months. But that will depend on if they survive. A few are looking very healthy though and are about 4mm and eating bbs like nuts.


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## whenfishfly? (Feb 13, 2009)

Yeah those gobies are nice. I really like the blue eyes as well, one of my favorite type of small fish. If I had a 90g community to fill they would be a definite candidate, or the pacific blue eye, along with some zebra oto's and some green fire tetras (Aphyocharax rathbuni) my favorite tetra. Black Morpho tetras (Poecilocharax weitzmani) are pretty cool too..


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## xr8dride (Feb 24, 2009)

Thanks for all the suggestions, each are being taken into consideration...I REALLY want the Gobys...I mean, REALLY! lol


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## CoolestBreeze (Apr 12, 2009)

I love the look of the blue eye gertrudae in your photo but I think they prefer softer water than Toronto tap water. I bought a pair of the related furcata rainbows and they died after a few weeks in frequently changed RO water which I was told was good for them. So the gertrudae maybe a bit fragile. Make sure you get something that's happy with Toronto water.

Go across the street to Finatics and look for Labidochromis caeruleus. They are bright yellow cichlids with black fins. Not only are they extremely beautiful, they are also one of the least agressive of the African cichlids. They will also breed for you (mouth brooders) and fill up your tank for free. Mike has some breeding quality of these fish stashed away on the bottom shelf. They are also a little less fussy as to water than some of the cichlids. I grew them for 10 years and several generations in Toronto water decorated with coral. For contast you can throw in a pair of Haplochromis ahli 'electric blue' as they are also not too agressive. My ahlis never bred for me but they are gorgeous.

For the second tank I would try to do south american cichlids. A few of them will do nicely in Toronto water. I just bought a pair of Apistogramma agassizi at Big Al's on Kennedy and they had a couple of dozen last weekend. I was looking at rams the other day and they are gorgeous. In that tank you could put schools of cardinals and in ninety gallons you could put dozens. You could also have a school of harlequin rasboras. Of course you also need cleaner fish as well.

Then again you could put a few small silver dollar fish or tin foil barbs in and pretty soon you would be able to see huge fish all the way from the other side of the room.

And don't rule out your original idea of pond fish. I've grown Bluegill and pumpkinseeds and small black bass as well as bullheads. I just lost my bullhead after about 12 years due to a seized heater.


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