Planted Aquarium 180 Gal Stocking Options

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Milfsplitta

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Dec 18, 2014
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G'day Mates,
I'm currently in the process of trading in my discus to go for a community aquarium with more active and interesting fish. Yet, I don't know what i should stock.
My tank Specs are 6x2x2 180 Gallons.
2 big Canister Filters Eheim
1 big Heater Eheim
1 Aeration strip
1 3 ft hollow log
2 Pieces of mangrove root which are very big
4/5 Plants
Substrate is gravel
Water Conds is normal

Fish i will have remaining once i trade in discus are roughly
10 - 12 Neon Tetras (quite small)
and 10-12 Leopard Cories - Sterbai

Now what I'm looking for are Active Fish, A few Centerpiece fish, Preferably Cherry Shrimp, No guppies or mollies.
Hope Ive given you guys a bit of useful info for you to help me out a bit! XD
Cheers Guys!
Thanks for ze help
 

Rafini

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Jun 24, 2012
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You might want to switch the neons for cardinals. I have read a lot recently how they seem to be very weak and die off. I was lucky to get 6 of them for free, only one survived and I did some research and I found that a lot of people recommend getting the cardinals instead, some sources of Neons just seem to be weakened and not very good at surviving.

Just something to think about, you could also put some Harlequin rasboras in, I have a small group of 8 or so and they shoal together, eat a lot and are amusing to watch :)
 

Milfsplitta

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Cheers for the advice about the tetras/cardies, Definitely something to consider,
Well, some of the fish advised to me on other forums are,
Rummy nose tetras, Red Rasboras, Bolivian balloon rams, Angel fish, Pearl gouramies, Dwarf Gouramies, Otto cats, Different breeds of cories (my cories are julli insted of sterbai) and maybe a BN.
Advise has stated that these fish would be fairly (not opinion of all) suitable with cherry shrimp.
So yeah, some stuff to think about it guess.
 

Rafini

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When I set my tank up I also wanted the cherry shrimp so I did a great deal of research. The angels I'm not too sure about, they feed on neons in the wild and I'm sure a shrimp may be too tempting for them. but again depends on the individual fish. all of the fish you mentioned would leave the shrimp alone. I read to leave most barbs out because they have a high prey drive and some of the more medium sized barbs may try and go for the shrimps
 

Milfsplitta

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haha Funny you mentioned that, my next question was to be about the gold barb.
Apparently, according to livefish (our online fish delivery provider)
they are perfect for community tanks, yet follows to state that they exhibit typical barb behaviour, wouldnt trust them with the angels from my past experience with tiger barbs.
and seems like the neons have got to go. Got a friend who's willing to swap with cardies so no drama's :)
but another question i have about shrimp imparticular is can you mix say, gold shrimp and cherry shrimp? they wouldnt battle it out would they?
 

Rafini

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the information I could find suggested that certain species of neocardinia should be kept with only others in the same genus. so basically that similar shrimps can be mixed.I have seen cherries in with ghosts and some filter feeding shrimp all harmoniously living in an LFS tank for quite some time.

But i dont have any shrimp so I'm just telling you what my research lead me towards haha. cherries are the easiest to keep and breed so I suggest starting with a group of 6-10 and go from there
 

Milfsplitta

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easy,
my lfs said negative to angels in regard to shrimp. but gave me a few suggestions on stocking a heavy planted tank.
Not many suggestions on this post :S. But lfs said prodominetly tetras. succer catfish and rams.
 

FreshyFresh

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Milf- (lol).. That's a nice big tank you've got. Is it a 6 footer? Your options are endless. You could load it up with huge schools or shoals of smaller fish. What type of substrate? Sand is best with corys. Like Rafini said, red cherry shrimp will breed like crazy given the chance. When I started my little planted 10g, I added a bunch of ghost shrimp and 10 red cherries. The ghosties were only pennies a piece at my LFS, and the RCS were $1/ea. Eventually the RCS shrimp took over and I have so many, I net some out once a week to feed to my Oscar and Severum.

How about 6-7 Silver Dollars for activity? They're like a group of Keystone cops. A good clean-up crew too. They don't let any food go to waste. I like cardinals over neons as well. I like their coloration and size better. A huge group of corydoras is super entertaining too. They're very comfortable and active when in big groups.
 

tanker

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All good ideas, but sorry Freshy, he has 4-5 plants. A school of silver ddollars and it will be a dessert (yum, salad).
I have a mixture of Neons and Cardinals, if you get good stock and acclimate well, they are about the same--except Neons like cooler water (72-76) and Cardinals would like water warmer (74-82).
I have fairly large angels with my Neons and Cardinals, and if thye grew-up together and are well fed, thye have not eatten any smaller fish. I still would not keep angels with shrimp though.
I love golden barbs, I have found them to be very peaceful, even with angels. They will and can grow to about 4-5 inches though.
 

FreshyFresh

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Gah! Good call tanker.. as is your custom and all. Didn't think about the plants.
 
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