Stocking For A Rio 180

[joeyh51]

Hello, I'm thinking of starting up a Juwel Rio 180, and want to make it a cichlid tank. What kind of stocking would be suitable for a tank like that?
Filtration is not a problem as I've got an external Eheim that can handle about 400 litres (cant remember the exact model).

I'd love to get a Sev but not sure if the tanks big enough, just trying to get ideas together though, so not set my heart on anything yet.

 

[Wills]

Hi, too small for any type of Severum Im afraid but things like Acaras would do well in there Blue, Yellow or Ports would work nice. If you can find them Krobia would be good. A herd of Cupid Cichlids are always nice

Or if you wanted to go down the Central American route you could look at Firemouths and their relatives like Ellioti or the Convicty types, though I would avoid Convicts if you want a comm tank. Go for things like Sajica, Honduran Red Points and Cutteri.

Apart from if you want to keep the gregarious types of cichlids I would stick to an all male tank with 2 or 3 feature fish and then a few dithers and cats. American Cichlid tanks always work best when you get in dithers and catfish. So make sure you leave space

Which other cichlids and fish do you like?

Wills

 

[joeyh51]

I've kept acaras in the past, and I do love the blue acaras but the two that I had didn't have great colour so I wasn't massively impressed. But I'd definitely consider it again.

Also had an ellioti as well which was stunning so I was thinking of getting another one, or two if they're good in pairs?

I'd like to keep some catfish, the pictus are nice, or some corys. I'm just thinking about how many because of the size of this tank (used to have a vision 260 which was a little easier to stock up).

So if I got one (or two) ellioti(s), some pictus cats (not sure how many), corys (again not sure how many), would I be able to keep any more cichlids in there... maybe some rams? Also love the colours on the nicaragua, would it be possible to keep one of those in there?

 

[Wills]

yeah 260s are more the ideal tank size to start with cichlids but there are possibilities.

For me in a 180 if you like Rams I would be tempted by a group of Bolivians and a pair of small Acara - Aequidens Metae or Krobia sp.Rio Xingu would be great along side them.

I would stay away from Pictus as they are too active for this size tank. And Nicaraguans are too boisterous for this size tank as well. Sorry.

Maybe

2 Krobia sp. Rio Xingu Orange Cheek
4 Bolivian Rams
6 Marbled Hatchet Fish
10 Cardinal Tetras
10 Panda Cories
2 or 3 Whiptail Catfish or small Plec species.

Or if you prefer the more central route - on reflection perhaps Ellioti would be a little too big? I dont know not kept adult Thorithys before Im growing on a Mixteco Gold at the moment so not sure...

Would perhaps mix SA and CA for a singletons with no dwarfs and for that I would possibly do

1 Blue Acara - male
1 Sajica - male
1 Honduran Red Point - male
3 Sword Tails - 1m 2f and build up a colony
6 Flame Tetras
8 Larger Cories - maybe a mix of Bronze and Albino

Wills

 

[joeyh51]

Does anyone have an experience keeping elliotis and what a suitable tank size would be? Thinking about it I would really like one of these and might consider getting a slightly larger tank if need be.

Think I'm going to get corys, how would the sterbai fair in that tank? Also a plec (possibly my fav fish of all) I used to have a rusty in my old 260 litre which stayed reasonably small, or might get something a bit more showy like a blue phantom.

So back to the previous, if I were to get an ellioti (or two again, depending on tank size, might go bigger), say 6-10 corys, small plec (not sure yet), is there anything else I could go for? Acara/rainbow cichlids/rams?

 

[joeyh51]

Just been looking around and I'm actually tempted to go down the Discus route.... good/bad idea?

 

[ZoddyZod]

discus in a 180L.....not a great idea - you ideally want 6 or more of them, and then you are looking at a 4"+ size tank.

 

[joeyh51]

I was thinking of going for a pair, or two pairs. I read somewhere that the general rule of thumb was one discus per 40L, but there are loads of dodgy sources so is that not a good rule to follow?

 

[joeyh51]

Any chance of a discus setup in a 180L tank?

I was hoping for a nice show pair (or 3) with a load of cardinal tetras, pleco, some corys, and maybe a couple of rams?

 

[joeyh51]

Yet another change of plan.... I'm now resurrecting my old vision 260, and not going down the route of discus.

Sooooo, I'm now wondering if this tanks big enough to house a sev, a nicaragua, an ellioti, plec, loads of corys, maybe pictus catfish? and any others that I'm stuck on.

I'll make up my mind one day, but as this tank is upstairs stood around empty, it's pretty easy to get up and running again, hopefully should have it in position, filters going tonight.

 

[balajake]

Yet another change of plan.... I'm now resurrecting my old vision 260, and not going down the route of discus.

Sooooo, I'm now wondering if this tanks big enough to house a sev, a nicaragua, an ellioti, plec, loads of corys, maybe pictus catfish? and any others that I'm stuck on.

I'll make up my mind one day, but as this tank is upstairs stood around empty, it's pretty easy to get up and running again, hopefully should have it in position, filters going tonight.

I think a sev, 2 elliotis and a nic. you will need a bigger strain of cory because severums might see small ones as food ( although im guilty of having 6 peppered cory in with mine without incident yet, they are waiting for my other tank to cycle) not sure about a pictus as ive never had one. if you get a sev then i suggest a rotkiel as they are a little bit smaller than others like greens etc.

daves aquarium (bas) in bolton have some baby rotkeils in stock for about £5 each. its where i got mine from. you won't easily find elliotis though

 

[joeyh51]

I know the last ellioti I had was a complete chance buy, the LFS had taken him in from a customer that morning.

Do you reckon I could get another couple of cichlids in there, smaller ones like rams or something?

 

[balajake]

im not sure, the severum will be a good 10 inches, the nic 9 inches 5 inches each for the ellioti's. then cories,if you over filter then guess a ram or two would be ok. i suggest you get them from babies then it will give you time to upgrade to a 350 ltr + if need be. im upgrading to a 7 foot purely because of my sevs and other cichlids, they are all babies now but they soon get big

 

[joeyh51]

Yeah I want to get them all from a fairly small size with the intention of upgrading when they get bigger. With that in mind would a golden sev be alright? Kind of got my heart set on it now.

The tank is well over filtered, got an eheim pro3 2075, plus a fluval 305. Any other really nice cichlids anyone can think of that would be nice in there? I'm drawing a blank.