Upcoming new tank

[mnccnm]

I am picking up a 165 gallon glass tank in a couple of days. I am thinking of putting the following fish in it.

1 Rainbow Shark.
1 Silver Dollar.
1 Tin Foil Barb
1 Blood Parrot.
1 Bala Shark.
1 Pleco.
and maybe 1 Pictus Catfish.

Too much?
Bad combo?

What are your thoughts?

 

[Wills]

Sounds a good sized tank but I’d skip the balas and tinfoils they need to be in groups and even in a big tank like that take up a lot of room. Have you looked at Denisson Barbs? Similar to those but smaller and more colourful especially the albino. If you get silver dollars again get a group and look for the more interesting species like spotted or blackberry. You’ll need a group of your pictus too id try and get 5-8 of all the schooling fish

Wills

 

[mnccnm]

Good input. I just searched the Denisson Barb and I do like it. Never seen one at my local shops, but will inquire about it.

 

[Colin_T]

What are the tank dimensions (length x width x height)?

What is the GH (general hardness), KH (carbonate hardness) and pH of your water supply?
This information can usually be obtained from your water supply company's website or by telephoning them. If they can't help you, take a glass full of tap water to the local pet shop and get them to test it for you. Write the results down (in numbers) when they do the tests. And ask them what the results are in (eg: ppm, dGH, or something else).

Depending on what the GH of your water is, will determine what fish you should keep.
Angelfish, most tetras, barbs, Bettas, gouramis, rasbora, Corydoras and small species of suckermouth catfish all occur in soft water (GH below 150ppm) and a pH below 7.0.

Livebearers (guppies, platies, swordtails, mollies), rainbowfish and goldfish occur in medium hard water with a GH around 200-250ppm and a pH above 7.0.

If you have very hard water (GH above 300ppm) then look at African Rift Lake cichlids, or use distilled or reverse osmosis water to reduce the GH and keep fishes from softer water.

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I am picking up a 165 gallon glass tank in a couple of days. I am thinking of putting the following fish in it.

1 Rainbow Shark.
1 Silver Dollar. Grow to about 4 inches long and need to be in groups of at least 6
1 Tin Foil Barb. Grow to a foot long and need to be in groups of at least 6
1 Blood Parrot.
1 Bala Shark. Grow to 10-12 inches long and need to be in groups of at least 6
1 Pleco.
and maybe 1 Pictus Catfish. Grow to 8 inches and need to be in groups of at least 6

 

[Wills]

Good input. I just searched the Denisson Barb and I do like it. Never seen one at my local shops, but will inquire about it.

Have a look around good aquatics shops are notoriously bad at publicising themselves and are often on an obscure industrial estate happy with the trade from word of mouth.

Colins put in some excellent points about water hardness - I've gone off the assumtion you have neutral water but if you can let us know either way it would help tailor the fish choices

In terms of the fish you have put on your orignal list they do seem that they are all quite common species, and species that can entail issues too so just wondering if you have considered alternatives to all of them? eg instead of the RBTS you could look at a group of Skunk Loaches though this might be an either or situation with the Pictus. The Parrot is actually a hybrid fish, which can be fine but there are other cichlids you could consider, top of my list would be something like a Severum, the red spot golds are really nice and just as colourful as Parrots but IMO a better looking fish and you could also look at Electric Blue Acaras which in combination with the Severums would look stunning the tank is probably big enough for a few of each species.

In 165 gallons maybe a stock list of something like

2 Red Spot Severums
2 Electric Blue Acaras
10 Dension Barbs (if you wanted to keep this tank Amazonian you could look at Red Stripe Hemiodus or Annostomus Ternetzi if you can find them)
8 Spotted Silver Dollars
6 Pictus Catfish
1 Pleco (a common would be good but you could look at a fancy species like a Sunny or a Royal?)

Plants will be near impossible with Severums and Dollars so go for a sand substrate with loads of big chunky drift wood.

Wills

 

[mnccnm]

Have a look around good aquatics shops are notoriously bad at publicising themselves and are often on an obscure industrial estate happy with the trade from word of mouth.

Colins put in some excellent points about water hardness - I've gone off the assumtion you have neutral water but if you can let us know either way it would help tailor the fish choices

In terms of the fish you have put on your orignal list they do seem that they are all quite common species, and species that can entail issues too so just wondering if you have considered alternatives to all of them? eg instead of the RBTS you could look at a group of Skunk Loaches though this might be an either or situation with the Pictus. The Parrot is actually a hybrid fish, which can be fine but there are other cichlids you could consider, top of my list would be something like a Severum, the red spot golds are really nice and just as colourful as Parrots but IMO a better looking fish and you could also look at Electric Blue Acaras which in combination with the Severums would look stunning the tank is probably big enough for a few of each species.

In 165 gallons maybe a stock list of something like

2 Red Spot Severums
2 Electric Blue Acaras
10 Dension Barbs (if you wanted to keep this tank Amazonian you could look at Red Stripe Hemiodus or Annostomus Ternetzi if you can find them)
8 Spotted Silver Dollars
6 Pictus Catfish
1 Pleco (a common would be good but you could look at a fancy species like a Sunny or a Royal?)

Plants will be near impossible with Severums and Dollars so go for a sand substrate with loads of big chunky drift wood.

Wills

I like this list a lot. I will look into this more. I don't plan on live plants, the only place I've had any success with them is in my community tank and guppy tank.