Obligatory first post here! Alittle back ground, I've been in the aqaurium hobby for some time now and have several established, flourishing tanks, one in particular that is a planted community tank with my center piece being some full grown Electric Blue Acaras that I've grown out since they were roughly an inch long. With that being said thats my only experience I have with south American cichlids aside from some angels I've had in the past in a different tank. Next month I'm moving into a bigger house, and with that will finally have the room to get my dream tank set up. This will be a big 200 gallon that I have the intentions of doing a full planted aqua scape, with plenty of rock and drift wood. I'm not looking to create an exact Amazonian biotope, but I do want to keep it somewhat close to whatd you find in nature, so any advice on how to go about doing the aquascape would be great! As for stocking, there's two things I want to incorporate, 1 being a grouping of angels, probably 6 to 8, and a decent size school of some kind of tetras or some other smaller schooling fish. So my main question is, what would be some colorful south american fish I could add to my stocking list that would be conducive to a community that wouldn't be predatory fish or super aggressive?
200 gallon stocking ideas
- Thread starter TankerEasy
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I like to use manzanita wood to mimic roots in the water, theyre significantly cheaper to get if you buy from a wedding decoration site than an aquarium site. For the 200 do you mean a taller 6x2 or a 7x2? Unfortunately most south american fish will be considered somewhat predatory when housed with a small school of tetras. You could possibly make the school of tetras silver dollars instead? That would open up a lot of smaller medium cichlids for your tank. Otherwise perhaps some apistograms? Apistogramma Vieja II are gorgeous
Some kind of earth eater species like geophagus or Satanoperca would work, maybe a severum or 2. Large school of corys for cleanup crew, hatchet fish on top.
I like the Manzanita root wood suggested by
Blakewater
I suggest Columbian Blue Tetra or any high bodied Tetra specie.
Blakewater
I suggest Columbian Blue Tetra or any high bodied Tetra specie.
I like the Manzanita root wood suggested by
Welcome aboard
Another tip I like to pair with the manzanita is amazon sells some fake vine-like plant bundles you can tie to the manzanita or suction cup it to the top of your tank. It works well to cover the top of the wood and keeps the natural look rather than just a cut off top. It also gives the fish a shady area to hide. Heres a link to some of them, theyre real cheap. And heres an aquascaping I did using that combo.
Welcome to MFK!
I have a 220 that I have some Geophagus Winemilleri along with some Green severum some Redline gold severum a few Electric blue Acara and some clown loaches.
It works out well all the fish get along with out any problem.
I don’t have it planted just some hard scape wood and rocks.
I have a 220 that I have some Geophagus Winemilleri along with some Green severum some Redline gold severum a few Electric blue Acara and some clown loaches.
It works out well all the fish get along with out any problem.
I don’t have it planted just some hard scape wood and rocks.
This is roughly 160 gallons by the way. Not that it really matters.