Need Ideas For My New 150 Gallon!

[heymickey94]

Hi guys, I recently bought a 150 gallon tank, I have 2 aquaclear 110s and a cascade 1200 canister, plenty of filtration. Now I need some stocking advice, I don't want to do anything to small (tetras, danios, etc.) because those would be boring in such a big tank. I don't want to do anything to big either (10 inches+) because then I can't have nearly as many fish. This tank is going in the new living room that was built on my house where a lot of people will see it so I want all nice colorful pretty fish that are around 3-4 inches to 8 inches. I don't want to do an african cichlid tank either. Also I haven't though about how I was going to decorate it either, I was thinking either white sand or white gravel and then having a black background. I like the look of sand a little better though, so I was probably going to go with white sand. I was going to add some plastic plants, red slate rocks and driftwood for decorations. Please let me know what you think will look nice. Thanks

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

How about getting some swordtails? They grow to about 3-4inches long and come in a variety of colours. The only drawback though is that females do produce a lot of fry and you cannot have more than one male in a mixed gender group unless you have an exceptional ammount of females (i.e. like 15 females+ per male or something like that). They are generally very peaceful and very friendly fish though that are quite hardy .

 

[chishnfips]

a shoal of torpedo barbs would look lush, they are really nice fish and a pleco or two maybe? I think the barbs get to about 6-8 inches

 

[heymickey94]

Thanks for the suggestions and quick repiles, I was thinking of doing something a little less common, like colored blood parrots or discus or some cichlids and fish like that.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Thanks for the suggestions and quick repiles, I was thinking of doing something a little less common, like colored blood parrots or discus or some cichlids and fish like that.

I don't know much about parrots, but you need to be pretty dedicated to keep discus because they are not the easiest of fish to keep and are very sensitive to water quality conditions and stuff- i think its recommended that you keep them in groups of 5+, they aren't recommended for new tank set ups though because they are so sensitive to water quality conditions, it would be best not to add them to the tank until it is at least 4-5months mature or more (preferably 6months+).
What are the exact measurements of this tank ?

 

[Davo86]

i agree "torpedo barbs would look lush" but the price for a shoal of them is gonna be costly.

I think Cyprinids would be a great addition to this tank due to their hardiness and very active nature
possible additions could be:

Giant Danios (4") for the top
Tiger/Green Tiger/Albino barbs (3"), Rosy Barbs (5"), Gold Barb (4") filament barb(4") RTB shark (5") Torpedo barbs (6") for the middle
clown loach (12") any of the smaller botias- Lohachata, Strita, Dario etc (upto 6") flying fox (5") SAE (14") for the bottom.

Edit: You could easily mix many of the less aggresive cichlids in with this set-up, including Firemouths(6") Blue Acara(8") etc

 

[heymickey94]

Thanks for the replies, I wont get any discus, I didn't realize they were that hard to keep. I haven't seen any torpedo barbs for sale, but I can look into having my lfs order them for me. I think a shoal of giant danios for the top is a really good idea, how many do you think I should get, they are cheap to and that is always good. I didn't realize that tiger barbs and rosy barbs got that big, I only see them for sale at like 2 inches maximum. How quick do they grow, because I would be interested in getting a shoal of regular colored tiger barbs and rosy barbs. I have seen rosy neon barbs and rosy red glass barbs for sale, what are these? I really like gold barbs, I think a shoal will be real nice. I don't really like the look of filament barbs. I like RTB sharks, but I could only keep one in this tank because they are aggresive with other fish of their same species, right? How about a rainbow shark? I will defianetly add a small schoal of clown loaches, they are one of my favorite fish. I like flying fox's also. I will add a firemouth also, they are real colorful. How many fish should be in each shoal?
The exact measurements of the tank are 6 ' wide X 18" deep X 28 3/4" high. Thanks for all of the suggestions


Also what about rainbow fish?

 

[Mikaila31]

I suggest a large group of Boeseami rainbows, though it would probably be a bit expensive. The cheapest ones around here are $12, but they are beautiful hardy fish.

 

[heymickey94]

Yeah, I think bosemani rainbows would be great. How many would you say? Price isn't really an issue at all because I am buying a lot of fish online for all of my tanks and buying online is much cheaper, $2.50 for a 2" bosemani rainbow. Thanks for the suggestion.

 

[heymickey94]

Would I be able to put some angels in with some of the fish that I was going to put in? If so how many would you say would be good? And for the shoals of barbs,rainbows and danios what do you think a good number of fish in each shoal would be? Thanks

 

[Davo86]

6 does seem to be the magic number with most shoaling fish species, definitely in the case of Tiger barbs and similar,
as for the RTB or Rainbow shark, yes i would go for 1 of either (as apposed to 1 of each)
I'm guessing the rosy neon barbs and rosy glass barbs are just simply colour variations?
as for angels i would say they are risky being kept with barbs, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. (also seeing as the other fish listed here are all fast swimmers i wouldn't advise it)

so i would say 6 of any mid or upper level shoaling fish species
minimum of 4 clown loach
minimum of 2 Flying Fox or SAE's
1 Shark
1 or 2 per species of cichlid (wouldn't advise pairs)

Edit: Rainbows should be fine provided none of the other fish (most probably one of the cichlids) are particular aggresive. they will probably do best with a minimum of 3 (1M,2F) although they may well eventual shoal with the giant danios.

 

[heymickey94]

Thanks for the reply, I have been on thinkfish.com and I have somewhat an idea for stocking:
Top
-6 giant danios(5 inches)
-4 croaking gouramis(3 inches)
-2 moonlight gouramis (5 1/2 inches)
-2 snakeskin gouramis (8 inches)
-2 pearl gouramis (5 inches)
Total-74 inches

Middle
-3 Boesman's rainbows (4 inches)
-6 Rosy Barbs (5 inches)
-6 Gold Barbs (3 inches)
-1 Red tail black shark (5 inches)
-2 firemouths(6 inches)
Total-77 inches

Bottom
Undecided( No clown loaches they get to big)

So, so far I will have 151 inches of fish when everything is fully grown. Do you think this is overstocked or will I be able to get away with it because of the filtration? Thanks for all of the help.

 

[Squid]

I suggest a large group of Boeseami rainbows, though it would probably be a bit expensive. The cheapest ones around here are $12, but they are beautiful hardy fish.

That would be my suggestion too.. great fish, and fill the top half of the tank too, makeing the tank look all over nice and active.

Squid

 

[heymickey94]

I'm pretty sure I will add Bosemani rainbows, I love the yellow and blue color that they have.

 

[Davo86]

Not too sure how well your gouramis would fair in that set-up, as said above everything else is pretty fast moving, Giant Danios can be very boistrous at times, and you have seemed to chosen the more peaceful types in the pearls and moonlights (don't know much about the other two)