SA Cichlid 80gal Stocking ideas

Hiya everyone! Hope you are all having a great day, I'm new to this site so I'm just getting the gist of it.
So I have a fairly large 80gal tank currently stocked with 2x threadfin acara and 2x juvinile gold severum ( When the sevs grow I plan on moving them into a 125gal ) and I wanted to add more fish but I'm spoilt for choice. Any Ideas?

What are the tank dimensions (length x width x height)?

What is the GH (general hardness), KH (carbonate hardness) and pH of your water supply?
This information can usually be obtained from your water supply company's website or by telephoning them. If they can't help you, take a glass full of tap water to the local pet shop and get them to test it for you. Write the results down (in numbers) when they do the tests. And ask them what the results are in (eg: ppm, dGH, or something else).

Colin_T said:

What are the tank dimensions (length x width x height)?

What is the GH (general hardness), KH (carbonate hardness) and pH of your water supply?
This information can usually be obtained from your water supply company's website or by telephoning them. If they can't help you, take a glass full of tap water to the local pet shop and get them to test it for you. Write the results down (in numbers) when they do the tests. And ask them what the results are in (eg: ppm, dGH, or something else).

Click to expand...

Dimensions are 120cm x 50cm x 50cm

GH is around 125, KH 100 and PH around 7.2, thank god for bogwood because it usually keeps my tank water at around 6.8.

This sounds like a fun project with upgrade plans I'm always slightly wary especially with big fish, as simply put life happens sometimes and they dont always happen.

Stocking wise you do have a really broad range of options - probably slightly frustrated by these lock downs though. I like to keep threadfins with Geophagus I had mine with Winemilleri and Red Heads and all did well. You water is nice and soft for them so should avoid issues I faced - susceptible to disease and potential hole in the head in harder water. You could go a size down to Guianacara or even smaller to Cupids. There are a mix of Acara species that could work, blues, yellows (metae), Diadema, Krobia Xinguensis.

I dont think I'd go for any of the bigger cichlids here like True Parrots or Chocolates I think you have enough bulk with the Sevs What do you think to some of the easier to keep Pikes? The dwarfs are pretty steady going but if you wanted something bigger Saxatilis has a good reputation and (if you have the money) Zebrina are stunning.

I always think its important to balance out south american tanks with characins, catfish and oddballs. If you wanted something for the surface Silver Hatchetfish are a good option as they get a decent size. Mid sized tetras like Lemons, Flame or if you wanted something larger Bleeding Hearts are nice schoolers, Splash Tetras are hugely under rated fish IMO and some get to a surprising size so worth looking into. Headstanders are interesting and some really interesting species available now if you can hunt them out.

For catfish I prefer Whiptails to Plecos but the fancy L numbers are pretty amazing L95 is fantastic but there are a bunch of smaller ones too - been quite into Blue Baryancistrus recently. Whiptail wise though Lamonicthys, Sturisoma are cool For bottom dwellers there are a range of options I've had flagtails and dwarf hoplos in the past but plenty of cool Cories and Brochis around now too. Always wanted to do a school of Cories with some rogue Brachyrhamdia mixed in to try and witness the natural behaviour. Wood cats are a group often over looked, some are totally invisible once in a tank and just hide 100% of the time but some species are pretty active. I had a couple of small Ageneiosus that stayed in the top corners of the tank all day just hovering facing the sun and then as soon as the tank lights went out patroled the entire tank looking exactly like a reef shark which was really cool.

One thing I would say is that it would be good to switch to a much finer sand substrate then you have right now as it looks a bit too course for your threadfins to be filtering as an earth eater

Wills

That’s lots of options wow! haha thank you so much, I definitely like the blue acara idea, In fact I think I will get a pair of blue acara next! You have a very good point about my substrate, I wish i thought of this before adding my threadfins, could’ve stocked geophagus red head tapajos oh well I’ll have to see what i can do about it for my threadfins so they don’t end up damaging their gills with the larger gravel in case they try sifting it.

I love the lemon tetra idea, would you reckon i could mix lemons and congo’s say if i tried doing six of each tetra? I feel like i’d be pushing the stocking limits especially if i’m thinking about Blue acaras and catfish.

For the catfish i love the whip tail varieties they look amazing! and I actually have a juvie albino bristlenose plecostimus in my 60L who I was hoping to move to a larger tank when he’s big enough to be in with the boisterous cichlids, but i definitely will look into whiptail catfish because i love that idea!

Bulk wise definitely got everything with my baby sevs because as cute and tiny they are now they’re going to be huge and i’ve already fallen in love with them

Just be careful with adding Pairs as breeding fish can seriously throw off a tank I’ve kept communities of singletons with good success. Congo tetras would probs be fine but they are not South American haha

Very true, I remember making the mistake of adding a pair of large angels into my old community tank based off the fish stores knowledge and before i researched anything... catastrophic.
I read somewhere that blue acaras are quite mild compared to most cichlids but then again when breeding time comes around it’s every fish for itself! so I’ll probably just go with the one like you advised. I know they’re not but i do love the colours and finnage on congo tetras so so much haha and this would be a perfect opportunity and thank you so much for all your advice! You’ve helped me so much with the project so far

With your Severum's. have a look at my thread
These guys get big in the background you can see a pair of jewel cichlids. You can also try something like Silver Dollars. But watch small fish with these guys.

I’ll go have a look now, I was looking at silver dollars but i’ve also seen the size and the group size of these fish aswell which made me think to put them in a 125gal if I can manage to get one hopefully at some point, thank you for replying!

Hey everyone! Just thought I'd let you all know I've finally figured out what I'm stocking the tank with!
Today I added male and female Bolivian rams which have taken a liking to my acaras and try to mimic them which is interesting to watch, the sevs love them and dont mind having them in they're little hideouts which I'm shocked and happy to see! I now plan on adding 10x columbian tetras which I will likely get in a few weeks time and was thinking of 6x zebra loaches as I love the personality and the smaller size compared to clown loaches is a must. Got to say Bolivian rams are beautiful fish and have worked out extremely well so far so i totally recommend to anyone who likes rams as they are also much hardier than the blue varients but a little bit more boisterous I've also noticed as soon as I added them. All in all this tank has already been my biggest success and thanks so much for everyones help with it