My 75 Gallon Aquarium

[onidrase]

Hi mate I have clown barbs and long fin barbs in my tank very cool fish and make great dithers

Yeah, not my thing I'm a big tetra lover, the only barbs I really like are odessas and tiger barbs (and I only like the tigers because of their tough attitude despite their small size)

 

[onidrase]

Lookin good. I like driftwood that naturally makes caves and tunnels like yours.

yep, I've done my best to get the most tangly looking driftwood possible

 

[onidrase]

anyone got an opinion here? I'm gonna restock the schooling fish, I just kinda feel bad keeping them in an unplanted setup. I'm debating between getting 6-7 silver dollars and keeping my senegal bichir, or rehoming the senegal bichir and getting 15 or more (depending on how many can fit) buenos aires tetras.

I'm also gonna rehome the male convict and move the firemouth back to the 37 gallon, they're both being pesky to my gt and severum, to the point where they're both cowering in separate corners of the tank.

 

[Xraymark]

Silver dollars get my vote.

 

[DevotedToDiscus]

Silver dollars get my vote.

+1. Silvers are going to enjoy the same water parameters as your Severums. Will look like a school of mini piranhas

. Nice work on the tank there mate, loving it

 

[onidrase]

I went with buenos aires tetras, I was heart set on silver dollars, but the place I looked to get them had them in a mixed bag of red hooks, plain, and spotted, and I'm way too picky to have a bundle of different species, even if they do school with each other. They only had like 3 of the red hooks and plain, and 1 spotted, and were not expecting another shipment for a month or so, even then they'd just get another mixed bag.

Not to mention most of them were tattered and seemed to have bacterial infections.

I'm going to rehome the bichir regardless, the cichlids really enjoy picking on him, particularly when he's floating his way down to the bottom of the tank.

I've rearranged the tank a tad and removed the plants, I may also within the next month or two get more malaysian driftwood and bump out the mopani wood just to keep things consistant. Also considering adding some black slate stones somewhere. Does anyone know where to get some black slate stones?

At the moment I've got 10 buenos aires tetras, I'd like to up to 20 eventually, here. At the same time, I'd like to get some ground movement in the tank during a time that isn't feeding time. I was looking into angelicus botia loaches, but I don't know if I have enough room with all the catfish which will eventually be pretty large. Anyone have a say on what to do with the bottom floor?

More pictures on the tank coming soon; gonna get some more finalized stocking first.

 

[onidrase]

The rainbows and tigers have been rehomed, all that's left that needs a new place is the bichir.

I upped the numbers of the buenos aires tetras to 14, and the school already looks gigantic I might leave it as is or bump it to 17 or so as I've heard odd numbers look better for some reason and numbers that can be divided by 5 aren't really odd numbers to me

Still wondering on if my ground floor has any space for some loaches or something

Here's a picture of the tank as it sits now

And here's the whittling hobo and my severum fighting over a algae wafer. The severum is a really greedy eater

I've found the buenos aires to be quite vicious eaters too, whenever I drop flakes in the tank I get splashed by their eager zoomings up to the top of the tank for the food

 

[onidrase]

here's some more severum

and GT

sand is a bit dirty, hard to get a lot of suction to clean it up using a bathroom sink, gonna give it a good run tomorrow with a shorter hose and a bucket rather than the water changer.

 

[elassoma_sailor]

you're aquarium looks great!

 

[onidrase]

I dropped in peas this morning as I do every sunday, and the severum eagerly bit at them and spit them back out over and over again

I wouldn't mind this due to the fact that my other cichlids did it when they were getting used to the peas as well (and the severum has been with me for like 2 weeks, at best, I think) but he not only didn't want to eat them, but he eagerly defended them from the green terror, who will eat them if he gets a hold of them.

Poor guy.

The buenos aires tetras are having a blast with the peas this morning, at least. I think the severum will give up the fight soon, and let Mr. Green Terror have some breakfast.

Of all the fish I could think of that would eagerly pick on my GT, a severum was not one of them, but this guy has attitude

you're aquarium looks great!

Glad you think so I'm still trying to get it figured out, but ultimately I'm probably just gonna take out the mopani wood and replace it with more malaysian driftwood sometime within the next few weeks. They don't seem to compliment each other IMO, and malaysian driftwood definitely has my vote in regards to which looks better.

 

[balajake]

My big red spotted girl is so gentle. She just breezes around the tank without a care in the world, my little ones are more feisty but i put out purely down to their age. your GT looks quite young, how big is it ?

 

[onidrase]

My big red spotted girl is so gentle. She just breezes around the tank without a care in the world, my little ones are more feisty but i put out purely down to their age. your GT looks quite young, how big is it ?

from their head to he tip of their tail, both the severum and GT are about 3 inches long.

 

[balajake]

it will probably calm down soon, your sev is probably a dominant male and is throwing its weight around abit

 

[onidrase]

Had guests over tonight eager to see my cichlids, and the poor guys were terrified of them My GT and severum have really warmed up to my presence, but I guess at the sight of another human they're off to hide under the driftwood

I was really worried at first at their hiding, I thought something in the water could be bugging them, but as soon as the guests left they were right back out and about

Quite interesting behavior, really. I don't have people over often, so I haven't experienced them being really shy like that.

 

[onidrase]

My severum has dug a big hole in each corner of the aquarium for some reason, it's rather strange. He's very very actively digging into corners, though. He doesn't even dig anywhere else. Just the corners.

He's also actively defending his post as king of the aquarium, keeping my GT down and such.

Sometime this week I may add a very big piece of wood (If I can find a very big piece of wood) and take out the mopani woood to add some consistancy to the tank. The mopani wood is really short and flat, I think it just looks out of place.

Pictures on that may come soon.

Just a quick update on how things are going.