75g stocking advice please!?!?

[jessemoreira06]

hey everyone, I am brand new to this forum. I'm used to having fancy goldfish so I do no the basics of fish keeping such as nitrogen cycle, feeding, cleaning ect.. but I decided to get my hands on a 75g and wanted to go with some cichlid this time, it's already cycled ect.. and I already have some fish but wanted to add more and this is where I'm confused and don't know what to do with my stocking.
so far my stocking is

1 severum 3"
6 yoyo loaches

side note I will be adding 8 Congo tetras this weekend.

I don't know what else to add , here is some cichlid ive seen and like ( Keyhole , Sajica/Tbar, Acara, Oscar, Jack Dempsey, Green terror, kribensis, rams)

Now since I'm fairly new to this I don't want male and female combination because I don't think I'm ready to deal with the whole babies situation and as well heard basically all cichlids get aggressive during this time. So it would have to be a single fish or 2 female or 2 males.

little about my severum he is still small roughly 3" only had him for 1 month but he seems to be EXTREMELY passive and not aggressive at all!! little back story I tried adding a parrot fish to the aquarium which was slightly smaller and my parrot fish was bullying my severum to the point where he dug a whole and hid underneath a drift wood and didn't come out for 3 hours in tell I removed the parrot fish from the aquarium he then finally came out.

hopefully someone could help me out with my stocking

thanks

 

[jessemoreira06]

I don't know if I'm aloud to bump on this forum , but can anyone help me out?

 

[Byron]

The Severum (species Heros efasciatus) is mild mannered and peaceful for a cichlid. And it can be shy, in the presence of more aggressive fish like other cichlids--your experience with the parrot was exactly what one would expect. Severum get large, 30cm (12 inches) and your 75g is the minimum space for one Severum. You can add other peaceful non-cichlid species.

Congo Tetra should be fine. By the time the severum is mature, the Congo will not be seen as likely food. But there are reports of a solitary severum becoming rather nasty as it ages, so nothing is guaranteed. I would not suggest smaller-sized species. A few more of the Congo might be nice, maybe 11-12 total. Aim for 6-7 males, rest females.

The loaches should be no problem. Make sure they have several chunks of bogwood, this is essential for the botine loaches. Malaysian Driftwood is ideal for this, as it comes in largish chunks with tunnels and crevices. I have a group of the closely-related Botia kubotai in my 90g, and they each have their "home" but they also love playing tag through the tunnels.

Byron.