Excited to see the flagtail in the tank, with bichirs would it be possible to do freshwater rays? Also have you looked into datnoids or possibly a type of mormyrid
Stocking Ideas for my monster tank
- Thread starter Aidan.Kilgore02
- Start date
Bichirs and rays can work, I've seen it plenty of times, it's just rays are so expensive and I believe you need a special license for them. I think datnoids are intriguing and a unique body shape, but not something I necessarily want to take up a spot in the tank tbh. I'm a cichlid and bichir guy and I think a scaped 425 or 500 gallon with at least 1 arowana, large bichir, and several colorful, large cichlids would look super amazing. I am seriously considering getting a clown knife for it as well. Plus anything thats not a bichir (since in my experience even aggressive cichlids completely tolerate and ignore larger bichirs, making them and ideal tank mate) in the tank needs to have the stones to hold its own with a jaguar cichlid and larger cichlids if need be.
When the flagtail gets large and the bichirs bold enough to be out roaming through the tank, there may be instances where the flag tail might suck off the slime coat off the bichir.
As for the aro. Australians are best kept solo without tankmates.
As far as blacks go it's like getting another silver arowana. I'd not do two aros, it's either 1 or 3 . Never two.
But of you get 3 aro, I'd suggest you stock the tank lightly.
Maybe 3 aro, 2-3 large bichir and maybe 5-6 dithers like silver dollars or maybe look into bala sharks istead of flagtails ( they get large so do only mabe 3-4) .
10 foot tank definitely would be ideal overall. I'll probably just stick to my silver then as I have a pretty solid idea of how I want the tank to look, which is a large variety of colors and bodyshapes. I'll keep an eye out on the flagtail, but in all fairness I've heard pretty frequently larger plecos and bichirs shouldn't mix due to slime-coat sucking and I've made that work simply by giving plenty of ample hiding spaces for both species and making sure the plecos have plenty of algae and veggies in their diet. Silver dollars are extremely overrated and played out imo, but if I decided to do some form of dither fish in there, Bala sharks are an interesting option I hadn't thought of. Your thoughts on adding a clown knife in there as well (with the 1 arowana, bichirs, and large cichlids, possible flagtail stocking)? I had one for awhile in a 250 that I grew out for a friend and it never was aggressive with anything, but it wasn't with cichlids quite as aggressive as jags or large viejas to be fair.
Clown knives are nocturnal so if it has a large enough hiding space it shall be fine. Some specimens tend to be overly aggressive but its a hit or miss with large monsters. I'd maybe get a Royal knife than a clown knife, imo royals stay a bit smaller than a clown knife, but do stay careful. I've had a friend's 30 inch silver aro get super aggressive towards a 18-20" clown knife in a 800 gal.
Clown knife may or may not work. Depends on what the other fish think of him. A fire eel may work. Could look into archerfish, lungfish, PBass, bala shark, globe puffer ( if you’re lucky)
Gotchya, think I'll just avoid the clown knife then, maybe look into the royal knife or just forget a knifefish altogether. If no knifefish, maybe a pike cichlid? Only one i would trust with the bichirs is the zebrina since the reds and spotted pikes are mean as can be, but if I could find and afford a zebrina pike, that'd be my dream pike anyway.
Fire eels are cool, certainly wouldn't mind having one as it'd be a great change of bodyshape in the tank. Not a fan of lungfish and don't want to get the Pbass due to their eventual enormous girth (main reason why even if I went the 500 gallon route, I'd be hesitant to get a giant gourami despite how bad I want one). Puffers and bichirs is a big no-no to me, i know puffers eat crustaceans but I know a guy who in one tank alone lost 5 bichirs to a Mbu puffer biting their heads off, and he gave it plenty of crustaceans.
