600-700 Litre Stocking?

[DerpPH]

Or how about a cichlid tank with LOTS of Malawi cichlids?

 

[jwalser18]

I've seen lots of people recommending big fish but have you considered having lots of smaller ones? Imagine the shoal sizes you could have in that tank of smaller sized fish, e.g. Neons, Cardinals, Rummynose, et al. Would look quite impressive.

 
 

Or how about a cichlid tank with LOTS of Malawi cichlids?

 
I love both of these ideas! could you imagine 150 neons?

 

[DerpPH]

Or how about lots of mbunas and peacocks/aulonocaras! The possibilities are endless! Scaping it would take some time though!

 

[yargnits]

theres lots of people saying you cant have big fish but unless you are going to have the amazon running through your living room your not going to satisfy them. 
 
i think a single stingray in that size tank would be fine especially considering i know people who have bred them in tanks of the same size ( that means they had more than one and they were happy enough to breed ) 
 
if you are really serous about room then i doubtt most peoples fish  would be in ideal conditions as they should all have a living room sized space at the very least for your fish to swim around in and thats just for teratroial fish . if your not happy keeping fish in smaller than natural spaces then you should join the rspca and give up fishkeeping because it will never work for you.
 
one pbas in a 6foot tank ok ? very active fast moving fish = no . slow moving stingray that takes up a fraction of the room yet covers a large area slowly is a no ?  seems odd to me the pbass imo needs more space than the stingray .
 
neons would look fantastic in a tank if you were going for a community but if your going preds then i woudl chouse something that isnt going to break its back if it runs into the side of the tank ( to keep the "theres not enough space " people happy " )
 
in summary . i think a 6' tank is adequate for a ray and is what most people consider adequate size for an adult stingray as well as knowing several people who have bread stingrays ( meaning they have kept more than one ray ) in a 6' tank with great success .
 
im sure a neon travels more than 12" in the wild so im sure the space crusaders will have problems with keeping a couple in a 12 " tank . you will never please everyoen i guess.
 
put in what you think will be happy having read several different sources .
 
good luck with your tank your lucky to have a supplier of great fish close by

 

[DerpPH]

Why neons? They die almost all the time and they get NTD? Cardinals would be more stunning! You can keep them in a community setup with aquascaped plants...

 

[eaglesaquarium]

Neons get a bad rap and aren't the only fish to get NTD, they just have the misfortune of having it named after them. I've had my neons for two years. Not a single issue. Still quite active, healthy and doing very well. They don't fair well in new set-ups nor in poorly maintained set-ups, but they shouldn't get blacklisted.

 

[yargnits]

having kept rays for many years i would love to see a massive group of neons . but i would always want the rays   
 
the few neons i have in a comunity tank upstairs are doing well and have done for about a year . 
 
i need to read up on neon tetra deseae but im of the mind that there isnt much a weekly water change cant fix 
 
i will post a pic of the three neons when i get water in my tank  

 

[DerpPH]

In my opinion cardinals are also stunning. Seeing a group of 10 of them was really astonishing. So what about rummies or black neons? Or how about a big community tank will mixed tetra species. Shoals of different color

 

[eaglesaquarium]

Cardinals are also stunning, as are just about any shoaling specie in a large number.  

 

[MBOU]

I think neons and cardinals are overrated! They are nice to have in a tank for a splash of colour but no matter how long I sit and stare at them, I cant force any personality into them! And they only loosely shoal at best which is frustrating, they don't much swim together once settled.
 
Mind you, kept in a tank with a schooling species of tetra, they look great Would love to have a shoal of 60-70 Copper Harlequins, Harlequins, Gold Tetras or Silvertip Tetras and then a shoal of 30 Cardinals to add a splash of colour. And for the top of the tank I would want a shoal of 15 or so Silver Hatchets (healthier, stronger and slightly larger than marbled) and a nice big shoal of Skunk Corydoras (C. arcuatus I think?!) of maybe 20-30 cories.  
 
That would look epic, covers top (hatchets), upper middle (schooling tetra), lower middle (cardinals) and bottom (corydoras) and of course, can have a few pairs of this and that knocking about, dwarf cichlids and the like. I might have been tempted to have a group of 6-8 Yellow Honey Gouramis for the colour. All the above species can be swapped about but you get idea).
 
Actually, I quite like the idea of heavily planted low maintenance (low light, low ferts, low maintenance) tank with a shoal of microrasbora! About 300 of them! Lol would look epic! Not to mention cost a fortune lol but I am sure shops would do deals. I had a guy buy 50 cardinals off me the other day and I know the last time I saw him he bought 100 cardinals. He has a tank of a similar size and in the photos, it is stunning!

 

[eaglesaquarium]

They have their own personality.  

 They just aren't pushy about it.  
 
Actually, in terms of MY enjoyment - the harlys are better than the neons, but when it comes to complements, they are given to the neons.   I just thank them.  I bought the neons because I knew my wife was a sucker for their colors.  She's not a fish person, which is good, because if she were, my whole house would be full of tanks in every room!
 
 
 
A stocking like MBOU described is my dream tank, although, I'd exchange the honey gouramis for a few apistogrammas and trade the skunk corys for pandas!

 

[MBOU]

Nahhhhh Skunk Corys are more interesting to look at and less prone to dying
 
I did mention a few odd pairs of things too like dwarf cichlids tbh in that size tank, I'd probably quite like a pair of Taeniacara candidi and a pair of Apistogramma macmasteri (super reds).
 
Niiiice
 
Though... was walking dog in the woods earlier and saw a few fallen trees and thought how epic they would look in a big tank!

 

[eaglesaquarium]

My pandas are very prolific - not that sensitive for me...  Besides the fact that the animals they are named after aren't even worth debating.  Panda>skunk.  

 

[DrRob]

Really? You'd choose a creature that can't even manage to work out how to mate and has evolved itself into a near impossible niche over a successful and potent creature that brought us Pepe Le Peu?
 
Anyway. Neons and cardinals do shoal.
 
http/www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3VNwfNtNA0
 
Pesonally, I'd start with the water. What have you got? Everything you've been mentioning is from the Amazonian area, so I'm guessing soft, but it's an assumption. If it's so then I'd go with something like the smaller eartheaters. Lovely fish but has a bit of size that'll pop in a tank that size without creating a species only situation.
 
You could, of course, go for a shoal of firemouths or similar as well.

 

[eaglesaquarium]

My sense of smell is strong, and skunk doesn't make me happy.  Pandas are cute and have that helpless thing going for them...  skunks remind me of large rodents and stink...