Peacichlids - it sounds horrendous complicated and a lot of unsuitable fish in your house, as far as upgrading your tanks go read the other part of my reply. I have just had a wall knocked out in my kitchen to fit in my current 6 foot after a house move and that has cost roughly £1500 including a new floor and the plastering etc. And thats just to fit a tank in the house, my tank is at my old flat still and has been for a month - like I say before you plan to commit to a big tank make sure you can actually get it in the house first - ie money problems, house problems, life problems they all happen and we all have them its not an excuse to house fish incorrectly. Simply put if your fish tanks are complicated your doing something wrong and if you have to put fish in a tank that you agree is unsuitable, it is better off with someone else. There are plenty of sites to rehome fish via - ebay, aquabid if your in the US, aquarist classfieds in the UK, the classified section on this forum, tons of other forums that have people all over the world on. Im not meaning to lecture you but you need to make some big decisions and soon.
oh and I wont mention the Arrowanna in the 75g....
Mr Cavs - sorry for the thread hijack lol.
Your response is top on exactly what I wanted to hear
One thing to think of with a tank this size though is what is the concrete like under the tank or are they going to be on wooden beams? Either way I would look at it being suitable for the mass of water about to sit on it.
If its time for the tank now lets go for it! Get it in there and start off the new community
As for what fish, do you have any that you want to move over or want to 100% have in the tank? Do you like biotopes or would you rather mix it up between regions. I know you mentioned the Jack Dempsey? Is this 100% wanted.
This is a great site for fish info IMO - http
/www.seriouslyfish.com/species/rocio-octofasciatum/ and thats their JD page.
If I was looking at a 240 gallon with JDs in I would look at smaller Central American cichlids to mix them with. Things like Salvini and Sajicas would work nice, Firemouth relatives would work like Ellioti or Aureaus. Then for dithers Red Eye Tetras are the most biotope correct and a good size to surivive these fish, Sword tails would work as would a few of the other rarer live bearers if you can get them. Catfish wise, common plecs go quite far north and more that like of fish work rather than the panaque type plecs I beleive they go further south. Hoplos are an other bottom dweller for this tank.
It could be quite nice to limit the species and up the numbers so maybe
2 x Jack Dempsey (pair?)
2 x Sajica (pair?)
4 x Amphilophus Robertsoni (if you can find them, other firemouth types would work - maybe more these fish can be slightly gregarious from what I have read in decent enough numbers)
40? x Red Eye Tetras
20 x Swordtails (let them breed, good food source for other fish, harsh but true)
15 x Hoplo Catfish
3? x "Common" Plecs (we can try and find some nicer types of plec though)
OOOOO I tell you what could work in that size tank! A Pearsai (spelling) !! The gentle giants of the central americans and an absolute beast of a fish, nothing fancy colour wise really but in their mass there is a massive beauty to them - try and find Star4s threads - unfortunately he swallowed a plastic plant and died but he was a stunner called Percy
For decor I would go natural yellow fine sand substrate and large boulders in the tank with a few large branches, I would avoid the really twiggy stuff as it can snap off and cause some of the larger cichlids problems.
Hope thats helped
Wills
