Tank ideas - 175gallon!

[Philbe]

yep..gotta have a pleco....
Or for a really active tank a school of danios of some kind. Tough as nails and will give the eyes a workout following them around the tank. Add a few angel fish, a loach or 2 , a few diamond tetras and a few cherry barbs and that would be colorful and forgivable to mistakes.

 

[karfixer]

A Silver Arrowana with a few Clown Loaches.

 

[pharoh08]

Oscar all the way, fits everything u say, nothing like the aquatic puppy dog to draw a persons attentions, maybe even a pair. i think a nice looking tiger would be ur best be with color.

and defintley not expensive in any area except filtration and maybe food, but decor and fish are as cheap as they get.

maybe a large tiger oscar an a sailfin pleco.

 

[travelinman1969]

An albino tiger oscar, a silver arowana, a bala shark and a huge pleco. When they outgrow it call me, I'll come get em.

Really, I hate to say that I know what I'm talking about when it comes to this but I do. It's been years and the kids today are a lot crazier than we were. I've been there, they are gonna be rough with em. Oscars are your best choice, they can live through about anything. I hope that by learning to care for a fish tank some of them may learn to care for themselves. Good Luck, it's a worthy comitment.

 

[Bwana]

No experience with them, but they're relatively big, and colorful...Discus?

 

[Fishsmurf]

Originally posted by Bwana
No experience with them, but they're relatively big, and colorful...Discus?

Not a good idea IMHO, I mean they look amazing, however they would be too expensive to buy, fairly high maintenance and skittish.....

Although you have specified larger fish for ease of sight how a large school of something bright, maybe cardinals (would that work?) and a some gouramies?

Otherwise I'm with the Oscar crew.....

HTH.....

Oh and a plec....

 

[Rhys]

i think the oscar idea is great, sandy substrate, large slate to make caves etc (not to much of it tho) also a bottom feeder, maybe a pleco??

 

[gideon]

why does everybody love the pleco? messy(waste!!!!!!!!!!!!!!), doesn't do much for algae when large, and other than coming in interesting patterns and colors, a huge tank space hog! by the way got one to trade its about 7 1/2" or 8" long not including tail fin. Want more room for my golden SAE and my "unidentified cichlids" (soon to post digi. pics) and those two wonderful balas; henery and june, hope one is a female and i cant forget my lonely african marbled head stander who lost its buddy two years ago. That fish rocks!!!

 

[PumaWard]

Not a good idea IMHO, I mean they look amazing, however they would be too expensive to buy, fairly high maintenance and skittish.....

While they are expensive, the rest is really untrue. Adult discus are as easy to maintain as any other tropical fish out there, the ONLY difference is that you have to have a high temperature (84F-88F optimum) to keep them in good health (no different than other fish except it's higher than the norm). Also, if your discus are skittish, there's something wrong. Happy, healthy discus are a bad as oscars when it comes to begging.

The only reason I didn't mention them is because of the cost of adult discus. But I might mention that my brother just got ~5'' (nearly adult) for $16 at a fish auction, so they might be something to look into still.

 

[Fishsmurf]

Originally posted by delmore
requirements:
*Must be easy to maintain
*Freshwater (maybe brackish)
*fish should be very robust
*large, colorful fish (some of the patients can't see very well)
*heated or cold water tank
*no plants
*fish should not be very expensive

Please describe what type of fish would work, and the substrate and set up to use.
Thanks for your ideas!!! [/B]

Puma,

My comments were mainly based on the point highlighted above, the fact that they can be high maintenance if the water params that delmore has are not suitable for Discus and you then get into RO etc.

The additional fact that that delmore did state that he would be teaching the maintenance staff how to service the tank which would suggest that they (the maintenance staff) have little or no experience with our aquatic friends.

Whilst I agree with comment that adult discus are fairly easy to maintain I would possible suggest that whilst this would be true to an aquarist with some experince I do not neccessarily agree that a newbie would find it so.....

But your brother got a great deal, when I kept them in the Uk I was paying approx $80-90 for a good juvenile......