The more I read the more confused I get. I am making a list of fish I want for my 75 g once it cycles, and the specter of overstocking it looms large. I would like a group of clown loaches, which can get to be 12'' long each, but can I have other fish in there too? It seems to me once the clown loaches hit their mature size there wouldn't be any room left ("room" as in good water parameters) for any other fish. I would like to have a selection of rainbow, zebra danios, tetras, platies, hatchet fish and blue dwarf gourami, if possible. I'm used to small tanks with small fish so the thought of stocking this 75g has my mind reeling. Help!
Stocking question for 75g
- Thread starter Debisbooked
- Start date
First of all, congrats on the new tank!
Clown Loaches do get large but they take their sweet time. What is your definition of a 'group'? I currently have 5 and they are about 3" each. Rainbows would do very well in your tank. I dont know about the dwarf Gourami, but I had a Blue Gourami and it was very aggressive towards my Rainbows; I swapped her for a Pearl Gourami, a much more peaceful gourami. 3 to 5 Hatchet fish will be good as they stay on the top of the tank. You could also get a school of small fish, like the Rasbora or Neon Tetra, in a large school, they look fantastic. Angelfish are another interesting addition. I would deffinately recommend a dwarf cichlid like the German Blue Ram or Apistogramma. Apistogramma are gorgeous (I just bought a pair of caucatoides triple red and they are fantastic) fish and you should deffinately grab a pair. In a 75G you should be ok with a pair of Blue Rams and Apistos
If you decide to get both, get the Rams first and after a month get the apistos.
I would recommend that you stock it slowly, that way you can decide which fish you really want.
Clown Loaches do get large but they take their sweet time. What is your definition of a 'group'? I currently have 5 and they are about 3" each. Rainbows would do very well in your tank. I dont know about the dwarf Gourami, but I had a Blue Gourami and it was very aggressive towards my Rainbows; I swapped her for a Pearl Gourami, a much more peaceful gourami. 3 to 5 Hatchet fish will be good as they stay on the top of the tank. You could also get a school of small fish, like the Rasbora or Neon Tetra, in a large school, they look fantastic. Angelfish are another interesting addition. I would deffinately recommend a dwarf cichlid like the German Blue Ram or Apistogramma. Apistogramma are gorgeous (I just bought a pair of caucatoides triple red and they are fantastic) fish and you should deffinately grab a pair. In a 75G you should be ok with a pair of Blue Rams and Apistos
If you decide to get both, get the Rams first and after a month get the apistos.
I would recommend that you stock it slowly, that way you can decide which fish you really want.
jhj... did you just get those apisto's at aquarium adventure? I just got a double red from there yesterday. As far as a 75 goes, mine is probably overstocked to most people. ALot of folks say 2" per gallon others say thats way to much. I just calculated that I have about 100" of fish. I have 3 clown loaches (they take years to get to even 6" usually, and I have yet to see one bigger than that), pair of dojo loaches, a zebra loach, yoyo loaches, tiger loach, skunk loach, printed loach... did I miss any loaches? Oh yeah, horseface loach. We also have 3 plecos, a big lace cat, congo tetras, serpae tetras, 6 rainbowfish, 4 sae's, buttefly, 2 apisto's, dwarf frog... well that mostly sums it up. Probably end up getting a bigger tank, I have already migrated from a 40g and it was a pain in the but.
jhj said:
Thanks for calming me down jhj. I did not realize that it takes years for these fish to get that big. So three do alright together? I do not have to have five or six? Could I also have other bottom dwellers with them, like a group of cories?
I think I was talking about pearl gourami's when I said dwarf. I do want fairly placid fish. The German Blue Ram look interesting too. I have only seen Apistos in books, never in a local store.
I also want to thank you for telling me about Byerly's in a former post. My husband and I went to Columbus and got the tank from Jacks Aquarium and Pets when they were on sale in January. My son made me a lovely stand using plans posted on the Internet, adding a few decorative embellishments. (Once the tank has fish and plants in it I will post a picture). We almost decided against visiting Byerly's because we were tired and the long trip back home was still to come but we went there and I am so glad we did. What a fantastic store! I have never seen fish so well cared for before. They were bursting with health and happiness. I bought two black skirt tetras to go with the three I have in a 10g just because I couldn't leave that store without buying something. I want to go back after the tank cycled to choose more fish. Byerly's is well worth the six hour round trip. It's in an interesting neighborhood too.
3 Clowns would be fine, in my smaller tank I actually had 2, but 3 really fine. Clowns are fun, but I have heard that they get a little testy with other bottom feeders. That being said, I had 2 clowns with a goby, rope fish and dwarf frog...all stayed on the bottom in a 29G and I never had any problems, in fact the clowns always hung around with the rope fish. It seems that 'Loaches r Cool' has kept many bottom feeders and they were fine. Plus the 75G is a huge tank, enough room to stay away from trouble.
byerly's is really cool, they have a fantastic selection. Jack's does not have a huge variety of fish, but they are also nice and healthy. Aquarium Adventure has their semi-annual sale this week and all the fish are 50% off- plus they had a huge selection of fish, that is where I got my caucs. Also AA has the best selection of plants in columbus
I am glad the tank is working out for you......Congragulations!!
byerly's is really cool, they have a fantastic selection. Jack's does not have a huge variety of fish, but they are also nice and healthy. Aquarium Adventure has their semi-annual sale this week and all the fish are 50% off- plus they had a huge selection of fish, that is where I got my caucs. Also AA has the best selection of plants in columbus
I am glad the tank is working out for you......Congragulations!!
Debisbooked said:
Aquarium Adventure is the way to go all the way.
Now to take care of business... I purchased clown loaches last year at about 1" and now they are in the neighborhood of 3-4" So that whole they grow S-L-O-W thing is kind of relative. If they are being fed a lot of frozen and the tan k is understocked/big with the right amount of water changes (I do somewhere in the neighborhood of 30-35%/ week) they will grow. They have lived w/ diff bichirs, corys, corys... you name it and the only thing they were mean to was a yoyo loach. Next, I would skip the dwarf gourami and go with either a honey gourami, pearl gourami, or moonlight... IMO those are the only 3 species of gourami that are not little ba$tards. I have had way to many fish die at the fins of a gourami. If you want a top swimming fish that is not as cliche as hatchets go with an african butterfly fish but just keep in mind the size of your other fish (tetras) when purchasing it. rainbows would be a great addition to your tank if you are keeping those with clown loaches I highly recomend you crank up your heater a little more because they like WARM water.
Now to take care of business... I purchased clown loaches last year at about 1" and now they are in the neighborhood of 3-4" So that whole they grow S-L-O-W thing is kind of relative. If they are being fed a lot of frozen and the tan k is understocked/big with the right amount of water changes (I do somewhere in the neighborhood of 30-35%/ week) they will grow. They have lived w/ diff bichirs, corys, corys... you name it and the only thing they were mean to was a yoyo loach. Next, I would skip the dwarf gourami and go with either a honey gourami, pearl gourami, or moonlight... IMO those are the only 3 species of gourami that are not little ba$tards. I have had way to many fish die at the fins of a gourami. If you want a top swimming fish that is not as cliche as hatchets go with an african butterfly fish but just keep in mind the size of your other fish (tetras) when purchasing it. rainbows would be a great addition to your tank if you are keeping those with clown loaches I highly recomend you crank up your heater a little more because they like WARM water.
All my loaches have done fine together the only aggression I have ever seen is sometimes the yoyo's will chace another loach or fish if they get neair their little spot under the driftwood, and my skunk loach was a bit mean when we first put him in there but he must have calmed down. If you have a lot of loaches though... expect to go through some extra money buying food as the 3 clowns can easily scarf down a large cube of frozen food themselves.
I have had my clowns for about 1 yr, I got them just shy of 2" and there probably in the 3"-4" range. Slow is relative, but these guys are slower growing then say my pleco, scat, mono, severum. My 'guess' would be if you buy them small, say 1.5" and put em right into a big tank, feed em well, they might break 5" in 2.5-3 years? If they start out in a smaller tank and arent under perfect care all the time then maybe a couple more years on that figure. Anyways, thats just IMHO.
BTW, AA rocks! But I typically only get stuff on there 50% sale because it seems there regular prices are high. Exception being if they have a rare loach, because it seems they are the only ones I have ever seen rarer loaches like zebra's and batik etc.
jhj... your avatar rocks hehe.
I have had my clowns for about 1 yr, I got them just shy of 2" and there probably in the 3"-4" range. Slow is relative, but these guys are slower growing then say my pleco, scat, mono, severum. My 'guess' would be if you buy them small, say 1.5" and put em right into a big tank, feed em well, they might break 5" in 2.5-3 years? If they start out in a smaller tank and arent under perfect care all the time then maybe a couple more years on that figure. Anyways, thats just IMHO.
BTW, AA rocks! But I typically only get stuff on there 50% sale because it seems there regular prices are high. Exception being if they have a rare loach, because it seems they are the only ones I have ever seen rarer loaches like zebra's and batik etc.
jhj... your avatar rocks hehe.
im probably over stocked on my 75, i have three loaches, 2 f swallow tail peacocks 1 m swallow tail, 2 m kennyi, i daffodile barchardi, 1 m red jewel, 1 rainbow shark, 2 f peacocks, 1 flame fin peacock, 1, zebra, 1 f sunshine peacock and 1 golden peacock and 1 male electric blue alhi ta dah!! i totally dig peacocks.. i have several more in several other tanks.. one thing ive learned is to have alot of plants, plastic or real and lots of little caves and taverns.. i was told that because i had such a large load in my tank, and this gives the less intimidating fishes places to go.. now i dunno if thats true, but its working so far.