Centerpiece Fish Advice??

[ChrisInDC]

Hey guys,
I continue to love the forum and i'm hoping to get some help or inspiration here. My tank finally completed cycling on monday so we got some fish yesterday. I'm running a fluval fx4 with extra biomedia and 40 gallon sponge filter with a little biomedia as well. My stocking choices thus far include: 8 Cardinal Tetras, 10 GloLite Tetras, 8 Otocinclus, and 1 Bulldog Pleco. 2 assassin snails as well but i imagine that's negligible and i got them to try to cut down on my massive bladder snail population. I'm going to let these guys settle in for the next week or so while i try to figure out what i'm going to complete this tank with. pH is 6.6ish and the GH at 30 mg/l. Any ideas as to what would be compatible and work well with what i'm currently have in the tank?

 

[Rocky998]

Hey guys,
I continue to love the forum and i'm hoping to get some help or inspiration here. My tank finally completed cycling on monday so we got some fish yesterday. I'm running a fluval fx4 with extra biomedia and 40 gallon sponge filter with a little biomedia as well. My stocking choices thus far include: 8 Cardinal Tetras, 10 GloLite Tetras, 8 Otocinclus, and 1 Bulldog Pleco. 2 assassin snails as well but i imagine that's negligible and i got them to try to cut down on my massive bladder snail population. I'm going to let these guys settle in for the next week or so while i try to figure out what i'm going to complete this tank with. pH is 6.6ish and the GH at 30 mg/l. Any ideas as to what would be compatible and work well with what i'm currently have in the tank?

Love the look of your tank!
The stock looks good and if I'm correct on saying that's a 40g then I wouldn't look for a "centerpiece".... And that's because of the fish you want. What I would do if you want a bigger centerpiece is scratch the pleco and one of the types of schooling fish. Then increase both schools to around 10-12.
Then you could look at species like peaceful ram cichlids or other fish you may like. But I do think you should increase the school sizes and to do that you would have to rid of a few of you choices in my opinion.

But I love your tank set up! It's very nice!

 

[Lajos_Detari]

What are the dimensions of your tank?
Is it a 36"x 18" (90x45cm) tank?

Since you have soft water and low pH, you can consider some fish like Apistogrammas or Killifish.

 

[ChrisInDC]

Love the look of your tank!
The stock looks good and if I'm correct on saying that's a 40g then I wouldn't look for a "centerpiece".... And that's because of the fish you want. What I would do if you want a bigger centerpiece is scratch the pleco and one of the types of schooling fish. Then increase both schools to around 10-12.
Then you could look at species like peaceful ram cichlids or other fish you may like. But I do think you should increase the school sizes and to do that you would have to rid of a few of you choices in my opinion.

But I love your tank set up! It's very nice!

Thank you so much, this is actually a 75 gallon

 

[ChrisInDC]

What are the dimensions of your tank?
Is it a 36"x 18" (90x45cm) tank?

Since you have soft water and low pH, you can consider some fish like Apistogrammas or Killifish.

this is a 75 gallon, which i believe is 48"x24"

 

[Rocky998]

Thank you so much, this is actually a 75 gallon

Ahhh ok! So that gives you the opportunity to keep them all and increase the school sizes I believe!

 

[Lajos_Detari]

this is a 75 gallon, which i believe is 48"x24"

Apistogrammas, Killifish, Bolivian Rams are suitable.
You cannot have centerpiece that are too big as they will eat your small Cardinal Tetras.
Probably you can have 2-3 Apistogrammas. They are bottom level fish but choose the right species combinations.

 

[Byron]

A species of one of the peaceful larger shoaling fish, for example Bleeding Heart Tetra, Congo Tetra, Diamond Tetra, or similar. A group of 12-15 would make a true centrepiece, as opposed to solitary large fish which tend to be more problematic overall. The dwarf cichlids are fine, but will not seem "centrepiece" like a shoal of one of the tetras.

 

[Lajos_Detari]

A species of one of the peaceful larger shoaling fish, for example Bleeding Heart Tetra, Congo Tetra, Diamond Tetra, or similar. A group of 12-15 would make a true centrepiece, as opposed to solitary large fish which tend to be more problematic overall. The dwarf cichlids are fine, but will not seem "centrepiece" like a shoal of one of the tetras.

I fully agree.
A group of fish is more interesting than a centerpiece or a few centrepieces which will be fighting/quarelling with each other all the times.

Cichlids are territorial and they will keep fighting for space and food.