75 Gallon Stocking - Is This Way Too Many Fish?

[jennesque]

I'm in the process of combining my tanks into a 75 gallon tank and so I am looking at stocking options. I like to keep south american themed tanks since they work well with my soft, acidic water. This will be a planted tank, and I want community fish.

Right now I have 11 cardinal tetras, 11 rosy tetras, 5 hatchetfish, 6 baby BN plecos and one angelfish. I plan on rehoming all but 2-3 of the plecos and the angelfish. I'm hoping I have room to stock the following:

11 cardinals
11 rosy tetras
11 pencilfish (N. eques)
11 silver hatchets (well, actually two are marbled..)
2 BN plecos (I have albino and calico/chocolate coloured ones)
1-2 checkerboard cichlids
And then perhaps a school of cories?

Is that too many fish?

 

[sawickib]

I'd drop the roseys but not sure otherwise on overstock

 

[kiwi210]

Just use your common sense, if you see its getting overcrowded and territories are being invaded, separate some of them. Be aware that your fish may seem small now as juveniles but will grow a couple inches within the next year or two. South American cichlids, especially the dwarfs, seem to be a little less aggressive than African cichlids but still might get territorial and aggressive as they mature. Keep an eye on them, if you see some aggression or fins missing, separate the cichlids so they don't kill your community fish. A common saying is "an inch of fish for every gallon." I would NOT recommend following this because there is no way a 75 inch fish could fit in a 75 gallon tank. 

 

[jennesque]

My cardinals and rosys aren't juveniles any more. The pencilfish will be wild caught so they may not be juveniles either.

Checkerboard cichlids stay pretty small and are probably the most shy and least aggressive of cichlids so I'm not too worried about them.

I'm mostly worried about the center of my tank being over crowded. Although, I've had 11 hatchets, 9 cardinals, 9 of another tetra... Similar to rosys but they were very nippy, a BN pleco, and a bolivian ram in my 37 gallon and it didn't seem over crowded. This would be approximately double.

I know the pencilfish and cardinals stay in a pretty tight group.. The rosys too, but not quite as much. So one group of fish at the top, three groups of fish in the middle, and the cichlids and cories on the bottom.. And then thr plecos doing their own thing lol. It doesn't seem too bad in my mind.

I mean, on aq advisor it says 87% stocking level. I know that's not the end-all-be-all website for stocking..

I'd drop the roseys but not sure otherwise on overstock

I probably wouldn't pick the rosy tetras if I were starting from scratch.. I'd just get slightly larger schools of cardinals and pencilfish. But I already have the rosys, and I do like them. They're pretty calm and I like their coloring.

 

[kiwi210]

You should be fine with those cichlids but just be careful! Some may be more aggressive than you think. 

 

[eaglesaquarium]

I mean, on aq advisor it says 87% stocking level. I know that's not the end-all-be-all website for stocking..

Generally speaking that's basically a worthless resource.