75 Gallon Stocking

[FishyFiend19]

Hello there! I came up with 2 ideas for stocking a 75 gallon tank this far. I have previously had many tanks, but this will be my biggest one so far.

I am thinking of doing a planted tank with black substrate and a black background.

I am looking for opinions, advice, alterations, etc.

Stocking #1:
15 white skirt tetra
6 german blue rams
40-60 chili rasbora
1 pearl gourami
13 dwarf chain coaches

Stocking #2:
15 white skirt tetra
10 otos
11 false juli corys
6 kuhli coaches
2 german blue rams
10 ghost shrimp
2 nerite snails
40 chili rasbora

In addition to this I will be setting up a new 29 gallon tank and I am thinking about the following stock.

5 african dwarf frogs
2 cockatoo apistos
5 guppies or 15 endless
11 hasbrosus corys
1 amano shrimp

Any and all comment and suggestions are welcome.

 

[Byron]

Welcome to TFF. Some general comments applicable to all scenarios.

Forget the White Skirt Tetras. This is a selectively bred variant of the Black Skirt species Gymnocorymbus ternetzi. They frequently decide to fin nip sedate fish, so any cichlids and gourami will be targets. You also do not want the dwarf rasboras (chili rasbora) in with this tetra. There are many tetras suitable, and some medium-sized rasboras. Just avoid active species with sedate fish.

The blue ram needs higher temperatures than many other tropical species, with 80F (27C) minimum. The rasbora and pearl gourami are OK with this, but not the cories. If you forget the blue rams you can be more accommodating of most other species with 76-77F (24-25 C). Temperature is very important to fish as they are endothermic and temperature drives their metabolism, and just 1 degree can be significant to some species.

The dwarf frogs and fish do not do well together. And cories need sand, especially the case with the C. habrosus which is one of the "dwarf" species. Another cool water fish, 74-75F max.

Going forward from this, it will help to know the GH and pH of your source water, as you have mainly soft water species but Endlers or guppies, whichever, will need harder water. Yours may be OK, but without the numbers we don't know.

I wasn't happy with a black substrate when I did one, and changed it for play sand in a dark grey. Under tank lighting (5000K to 6500K for plants) and water the black was darkish grey and showed every spec of detritus. Black sand will be expensive so just a caution.

 

[FishyFiend19]

Thank you for that. I had no idea about the white skirt tetras being fin nippers. Are they supposed to be kept separately?

I keep reading 78 minimum for the GBR. Hmm, what about replacing those with cockatoo apistos?

Are there any fish that do well with ADFs or do they have to be in a species only tank?

What brand would you recommend for dark grey play sand?

 

[Colin_T]

Hi and welcome to the forum

What is the pH and GH (general hardness) of your water?
You can usually get this information from your water supply company (via website or telephone) and it is worth knowing. If they can't tell you then take a glass full of tank water to your local pet shop and ask them to test it for you. Find out what the GH test is done in (eg: ppm or dGH) because they have different results.

------------------------
Fish that are considered fin nippers should not be kept with slow moving fish or fish with long flowing fins. They usually get along fine with other fast moving short finned fish but they should be kept in large groups to help avoid stress that encourages fin nipping.

Other fish commonly referred to as fin nippers include tiger barbs, serpae tetras, Beunos Aires tetras, and blind cave tetras. These fish get along with other big tetras and barbs but they should all be kept in large groups consisting of at least 6 (preferably 10 or more) of each species

------------------------
Frogs should never be kept with fish because they catch diseases from the fish and most fish medications kill frogs. If the frogs get sick, they usually die from the disease or medication. If you want frogs, keep them in a tank by themselves.

 

[Byron]

Thank you for that. I had no idea about the white skirt tetras being fin nippers. Are they supposed to be kept separately?

I keep reading 78 minimum for the GBR. Hmm, what about replacing those with cockatoo apistos?

Are there any fish that do well with ADFs or do they have to be in a species only tank?

What brand would you recommend for dark grey play sand?

Colin answered much of this. I use Quikrete Play Sand in my tanks and have been for over six years now with no issues. It is completely safe for fish (it is the most refined of the industrial sands so not rough) and plants grow well in it. It looks natural, and being small grained it increases the perception of space. I am able to get Quikrete Play Sand from Home Depot, and it is a dark grey mix. Some stores apparently have a buff toned mix which will work too. I am told that Lowe's also carry the latter, maybe individual stores may have either.

Apistogramma need warmth but not as high as the blue rams. And the cockatoo will likely be tank-raised (as opposed to wild caught). Apistos can make life for cories a bit rough, especially at feeding time since both feed from the substrate (this applies to the rams too) but it seems to generally be an annoyance rather than damaging conflict.

On the fin nipping issue, this is something that you have to take into consideration for many shoaling species when you want to combine them with larger sedate fish like cichlids and gourami. Even normally peaceful tetras can turn nippy when placed in a tank of angelfish for example. There are those species such as Colin mentioned that are notorious as fin nippers and should never be combined with sedate fish or fish with long fins. But many other species have to be considered carefully as well. Generally speaking, all of the danios and many of the barbs are in this category, while most of the rasbora are not. Tetras vary, as do pencilfish. Hatchetfish are the only characin group that never cause trouble across the three genera. Related to this is the level of swimming activity; active swimmers do not mix with sedate fish. All of this is one reason why many (but not all) of the pencilfish and all of the hatchetfish are excellent "dither" fish with dwarf cichlids.