Calling All Monster Fish Experts: 500 Gallon Stock List

[MyraAlam]

Personally I would avoid the rays! Whilst its a perfect tank for rays, you are basing the tank around the Aro and not the Ray, it would need to be the other way round, rays can be really finnicky.

I've also known things like your larger cichlids (vieja, texas, jaguars and oscars etc) to pick at the rays causing injury, if the rays have spots that look like food or their fins, tail and even sting! I've also know fully grown smaller species and sub adult/medium sized rays like motoros eat fish like adult Green Terrors and Discus (therefore severums, uarus, chocolate cichlids etc could be at risk from the rays when older). I know i had my male motoro (with 30cm m, nose to bum without tail) in with a vieja synspillum who kept attacking him and biting him even though the vieja was only about 6-8cm long! Then he was in with angels and discus, he ate all the angels he could before i could get them out (they had been in their 6 months!) and the discus just kept 'picking' at the spots on his body and his clasp until he got and infection.

I've actually been looking into it the past few days and rays are officially off the list! You're right when you say that if they're there, the tank needs to center around them...and my friend's true love happens to be the aro. Thanks a lot for your advice . What large cichlids would you recommend?

 

[MyraAlam]

hi, i would say the best bottom dwellers are

rays
polys
large eels
catfish
plecs
lungfish

then mid to bottom

knifefish

personaly those are your options for such a large tank with an arrowana

if ive forgotten any feel free to mention them

Thanks for the list of bottom dwellers, that's what we needed. Are there any specific fish you'd recommend?

 

[mixmaster jay]

thats what i am upgrading to 8x3x3 soon lol

well out of all them ive got a gold giant gourami and silver arowana, i used to have a 2ft silver with my arow but that died they wher great together

BUT ive now got a 12" silver (i bought it at 8" about a month ago) i tried it then and the gourami didn't like it lol but i am tyring it again in the next day or so and fingers crossed they will work, so if you want it to work i suggest to get a silver 3 or 4" bigger than it

thats what i am upgrading to 8x3x3 soon lol

well out of all them ive got a gold giant gourami and silver arowana, i used to have a 2ft silver with my arow but that died they wher great together

BUT ive now got a 12" silver (i bought it at 8" about a month ago) i tried it then and the gourami didn't like it lol but i am tyring it again in the next day or so and fingers crossed they will work, so if you want it to work i suggest to get a silver 3 or 4" bigger than it

I can't even imagine having a tank that big, my tank is way smaller! His tank is currently empty (obviously) but I get intimidated by the sheer size of it. Is it true that silvers are more prone to drop-eye than other aro species? Personally I think he loves asian aro's (as do I) but as you can tell from my location, we're sort of out of luck. I've also heard that giant gouramis are grouchy about tankmates- should it be introduced at the very end then? Also, do you think a giant gold gourami and a silver aro would make the tank look a bit too....lacking in terms of color? Would it be a single-shade overload?

yeah they are more prone to drop eye but if you don't feed high fat (drop eye is fat deposits behind the eye) foods and have some sort of floating plants that helps to keep them looking up and yep giant gorami's can get grouchy lol im struggleing introducing my new silver arowana at the moment. the asian red is my favourite too but way too expensive

my 12" siver arowana now has all his fins back too

gold giant gorami looking p***ed off because i messed with the tank (as you can see by the colour of the water)

here he is lookig happy and cheeky lol he has a massive personality soooo playfull

 

[MyraAlam]

thats what i am upgrading to 8x3x3 soon lol

well out of all them ive got a gold giant gourami and silver arowana, i used to have a 2ft silver with my arow but that died they wher great together

BUT ive now got a 12" silver (i bought it at 8" about a month ago) i tried it then and the gourami didn't like it lol but i am tyring it again in the next day or so and fingers crossed they will work, so if you want it to work i suggest to get a silver 3 or 4" bigger than it

thats what i am upgrading to 8x3x3 soon lol

well out of all them ive got a gold giant gourami and silver arowana, i used to have a 2ft silver with my arow but that died they wher great together

BUT ive now got a 12" silver (i bought it at 8" about a month ago) i tried it then and the gourami didn't like it lol but i am tyring it again in the next day or so and fingers crossed they will work, so if you want it to work i suggest to get a silver 3 or 4" bigger than it

I can't even imagine having a tank that big, my tank is way smaller! His tank is currently empty (obviously) but I get intimidated by the sheer size of it. Is it true that silvers are more prone to drop-eye than other aro species? Personally I think he loves asian aro's (as do I) but as you can tell from my location, we're sort of out of luck. I've also heard that giant gouramis are grouchy about tankmates- should it be introduced at the very end then? Also, do you think a giant gold gourami and a silver aro would make the tank look a bit too....lacking in terms of color? Would it be a single-shade overload?

yeah they are more prone to drop eye but if you don't feed high fat (drop eye is fat deposits behind the eye) foods and have some sort of floating plants that helps to keep them looking up and yep giant gorami's can get grouchy lol im struggleing introducing my new silver arowana at the moment. the asian red is my favourite too but way too expensive

my 12" siver arowana now has all his fins back too

gold giant gorami looking p***ed off because i messed with the tank (as you can see by the colour of the water)

here he is lookig happy and cheeky lol he has a massive personality soooo playfull

LOL I love those pics, thanks a lot for posting. So the gourami should be added last then?

 

[cheesy feet]

Giant gouramis get ugly as anything when they get huge, but lovely nonetheless!

 

[mixmaster jay]

lol yeah they do get quite ugly but not all delevelop the hump on their head and there body is slightly different my mate has i 18 grey and thats not got a hump and a lfs near me has a 2ft gold and they are male which ib thought is strange but there is a species of them i just can't remember the name i will find it out, put it in last or get a small one like i did and pop it in , i bought mine at 2.5" that way you can get it to interact with you more as it grows and they don't bother any other inhabitants (well mine didn't it might not be the same for all)

 

[MyraAlam]

Stock List Update


Okay everyone, here's the updated list. Its officially been narrowed down to these fish. Now we just need help with numbers and the order in which we should introduce them into the tank.


1 x Silver arowana
1 x Giant Gourami
1 x Flagtail Prochilodus
1 x Oxydoras Niger
___ Tinfoil Barbs
___ Rotkeil severum
___ Hericthys Bocourti

Someone suggested striped raphael's for the bottom and although we love them, I'm not sure if there'll be room for much else with an ox at the bottom. Can anyone let us know about that? Oh, and when recommending numbers for the cichlids, please keep in mind that we do not want them to breed. Also feel free to let us know if you think someone on this list shouldn't be put into the tank. Thanks a lot.

 

[cheesy feet]

Stock List Update


Okay everyone, here's the updated list. Its officially been narrowed down to these fish. Now we just need help with numbers and the order in which we should introduce them into the tank.


1 x Silver arowana
1 x Giant Gourami
1 x Flagtail Prochilodus
1 x Oxydoras Niger
___ Tinfoil Barbs
___ Rotkeil severum
___ Hericthys Bocourti

Someone suggested striped raphael's for the bottom and although we love them, I'm not sure if there'll be room for much else with an ox at the bottom. Can anyone let us know about that? Oh, and when recommending numbers for the cichlids, please keep in mind that we do not want them to breed. Also feel free to let us know if you think someone on this list shouldn't be put into the tank. Thanks a lot.

Tbh you could fit loads of those cichlids in a 500gal no problem, all are pretty well behaved...So it's likely if you have a male and a female they will breed.I would go with probably 7 x sevs and 5 x bocourti...If that's your complete stocking.

 

[fenne11y]

big eels like Mastacembelus erythrotaenia (fire), favus or armatus are great in a large community tank. there completely harmless to anything that can't fit in there mouth and are real characters. also theyre stunning when there big.

and then theres polypterus like endlicheri endlicheri, endlicheri congicus,weeksii, ornatapinnis, bichir bichir and bichir lapradei which all grow above 20" some with a max of 39" amazing fish sometimes a bit nippy (only to small fish or long fins).love hanging out in groups and you can mix and match the speices, some of these have great markings but all have personality

 

[cheesy feet]

..Hows it being filtered?
All are very messy fish, so large regular water changes would be in order

 

[MyraAlam]

Stock List Update


Okay everyone, here's the updated list. Its officially been narrowed down to these fish. Now we just need help with numbers and the order in which we should introduce them into the tank.


1 x Silver arowana
1 x Giant Gourami
1 x Flagtail Prochilodus
1 x Oxydoras Niger
___ Tinfoil Barbs
___ Rotkeil severum
___ Hericthys Bocourti

Someone suggested striped raphael's for the bottom and although we love them, I'm not sure if there'll be room for much else with an ox at the bottom. Can anyone let us know about that? Oh, and when recommending numbers for the cichlids, please keep in mind that we do not want them to breed. Also feel free to let us know if you think someone on this list shouldn't be put into the tank. Thanks a lot.

Tbh you could fit loads of those cichlids in a 500gal no problem, all are pretty well behaved...So it's likely if you have a male and a female they will breed.I would go with probably 7 x sevs and 5 x bocourti...If that's your complete stocking.

Thanks for your input cheesy feet (if that's not a witty username, I don't know what is LOL) well the reason we didn't want them to breed is not because we don't love the idea of it (who wouldn't want to see their cichlids breed?) but because we're afraid aggression might break out like crazy with the mating pair vs. everybody else. Bloodshed and war would ensue. O_O Do you think it'd be safe? The numbers look good to me, but do you think we should forgo the barbs?

As for the filtering question, we're still setting it all up, but I answered the question earlier in this thread I wanted him to just go with a sump but that doesn't seem to be the route he's following. He just wants tons of Eheim (Eheim pro 3, thus far there are four that are installed) external and internal filters, there's also a pond canister filter involved. Just to reassure you, he's not gonna go out and buy these fish tomorrow everything's still being set up and adjusted and we have to research these guys a bit more. We're asking around now just to get a good idea and also to estimate costs. (The bocourti is going to be tough to get our hands on.)

And yes, large regular water changes. That part is what makes me happy that I'm merely helping with this tank and not actually owning it...I would go bankrupt and die on the streets from the water bill alone LOL

 

[cheesy feet]

I know lots of places which sell bocourti, although all my bookmarks are on another computer, so I will have to dig them up.Also I'm sure the raphaels would have enough room at the bottom, as they wedge themselves under anything.Although you would have to buy adults which are extremely rare as they take 5 years to get even around 6".
Hmm loads of externals are going to be hard work cleaning, but I suppose if his minds set on it.
My stocking is heavy, and so as I said lots of large water changes would be needed.
I forgot about the tinfoils.How about 5 tinfoils, 3 bocourti, and 5 sevs.
As you have no rays I'm sure you could spare some room for territories, in which case they should hopefully be fine.
The fish I would get first would be sevs, bocourti, and tinfoils, being the smaller ones.If they breed I know my sevs defended anything in a 2ft-2 1/2ft area, but unsure on the bocourti, so hopefully there would be enough space for other fish to get away.

 

[MyraAlam]

I know lots of places which sell bocourti, although all my bookmarks are on another computer, so I will have to dig them up.Also I'm sure the raphaels would have enough room at the bottom, as they wedge themselves under anything.Although you would have to buy adults which are extremely rare as they take 5 years to get even around 6".
Hmm loads of externals are going to be hard work cleaning, but I suppose if his minds set on it.
My stocking is heavy, and so as I said lots of large water changes would be needed.
I forgot about the tinfoils.How about 5 tinfoils, 3 bocourti, and 5 sevs.
As you have no rays I'm sure you could spare some room for territories, in which case they should hopefully be fine.
The fish I would get first would be sevs, bocourti, and tinfoils, being the smaller ones.If they breed I know my sevs defended anything in a 2ft-2 1/2ft area, but unsure on the bocourti, so hopefully there would be enough space for other fish to get away.

Ah, but you're in England! And I'm all the way on the other side of the Atlantic...where oh where do we find bocourti here none of the LFS' carry them, I think I'll just pester one of them until they agree to order it for me. Is it alright if we were to switch around the sev and bocourti numbers? We're kind of partial to bocourti (which is just typical...it's always the fish you can't seem to find that captures your heart...) And hurray! Finally a clue as to the order- that's where we're lost the most. The giant gourami would be put in at the very end. Is it important which order the ox, aro, and flagtail are introduced? (All sometime around in the middle, I'm guessing.)

I have a thing for striped raphs (probably because I can't keep them myself) but you're right, getting adults would be really hard. That's too bad because I really wanted something else down there with the ox, something small so that it could be kept in groups. Personally my friend doesn't care so long as the ox is there (he's fallen in love with that fish ). Does anyone know of a suitable replacement for a striped raph?

 

[MyraAlam]

big eels like Mastacembelus erythrotaenia (fire), favus or armatus are great in a large community tank. there completely harmless to anything that can't fit in there mouth and are real characters. also theyre stunning when there big.

and then theres polypterus like endlicheri endlicheri, endlicheri congicus,weeksii, ornatapinnis, bichir bichir and bichir lapradei which all grow above 20" some with a max of 39" amazing fish sometimes a bit nippy (only to small fish or long fins).love hanging out in groups and you can mix and match the speices, some of these have great markings but all have personality

Just saw this post so had to comment- I was looking for a replacement for the group of striped raphs but I've been considering your eel idea. If we did, it would either be tiretrack or fire, those being our two favorites. However, we don't want sand in the tank, we prefer gravel. Would this be a problem? I know they like burrowing so just wondering. In either case, I think there's room for only one- and would it be fine with the ox?

Although I guess the bigger question is fire or tiretrack? I've heard so many stories of how notoriously picky fire eels are when it comes to feeding time. But I've also heard that they're out and about much more and of course are beautiful. Tiretracks on the other hand haven't scored too many points in the looks department but apparently they're much less fussy and grow quite fast (and have better personalities? but I think that depends more on the fish itself...) but they seem to stay hidden most of the time. So...who to pick...

 

[MyraAlam]

Others have been kind enough to bring to my attention that an eel would most likely become lunch courtesy of another fish (most likely the aro) seeing as how they're such slow growers. Even if added at the very end, an aro would quickly outgrow any eel, so that's off the list.


Okay, any fast-growing bottom dwellers out there who could do well with the ox?