225 gal. stocking options

Mar 7, 2005
50
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57
Westchester Il.
#1
I'm starting up a 225gal. tank, I want to do a larger fish community tank but have no experience with larger peaceful fish. Its going to be at least a month before I even put 1 fish in it, any suggestions?
thanks,
the Crud.
 

Jun 18, 2010
135
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16
Lima OH. USA
#4
Ooohhh man I can't wait to see some pictures I would but an eel in there they are cool little fish and are pretty peaceful, but as for more I would definately put a nice angel in there, maybe a few, and well some experts can chile in on what else to put in there
 

misterking

Superstar Fish
Aug 12, 2008
1,124
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0
Manchester, UK
www.facebook.com
#6
Pacu aren't suitable for home aquaria, they're just too big. We're talking 2/3 feet or even bigger.

I also disagree on discus being overly fussy. Nowadays, with the mass breeding that occurs, commercial discus tend to lose the fussiness of their wild counterparts.

Your possibilities here are almost endless.. personally, I'd go with a big group of Discus, a few different types of medium to large plecos, perhaps flag cichlids aswell. I wouldn't get anything smaller than say congo tetras and these would form my shoaling fish. Brochis would be my bottom feeders alongside loaches such as clowns that would be able to grow to their full size in that tank. Fire eels or something similar would look great here. I'm not sure I'd go with anything overly huge in there, I'd rather see the fish get to their full size and enjoy the space.

The problem is a lot of the larger fish commonly available are a bit aggressive including the majority of south/central american cichlids. Severums would work quite well having said that.
 

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lauraf

Superstar Fish
Jan 1, 2010
2,181
0
0
Vancouver, British Columbia
#7
Pacu aren't suitable for home aquaria, they're just too big. We're talking 2/3 feet or even bigger.

I also disagree on discus being overly fussy. Nowadays, with the mass breeding that occurs, commercial discus tend to lose the fussiness of their wild counterparts.

Your possibilities here are almost endless.. personally, I'd go with a big group of Discus, a few different types of medium to large plecos, perhaps flag cichlids aswell. I wouldn't get anything smaller than say congo tetras and these would form my shoaling fish. Brochis would be my bottom feeders alongside loaches such as clowns that would be able to grow to their full size in that tank. Fire eels or something similar would look great here. I'm not sure I'd go with anything overly huge in there, I'd rather see the fish get to their full size and enjoy the space.

The problem is a lot of the larger fish commonly available are a bit aggressive including the majority of south/central american cichlids.
Really? I mean, I have not kept them, I just know from my friends and people at my lfs who keep discus that they require absolutely pristine water conditions, meaning very frequent water changes - like three times a week. Not so much that they are fussy eaters per se.

Anyway, several discus or angels, clown loaches, schools of rainbow fish or congos as suggested, plecos, my goodness, I'm salivating . . . . .
 

Mar 7, 2005
50
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57
Westchester Il.
#8
I'm leaning toward the clown loaches, angels,a decent sized pleco, and maybe tinfoil barbs?
The tank has two sizable chunks of driftwood in it now and I plan on having one of the larger species of anubis for plants, I'm hoping for a low maint. calm community tank, I'll post pics when the water clarity gets better. I've been putting buckets of old gravel in the tank without rinsing, ugh, lesson learned,from now on gravel gets rinsed before going in. Thank you for all the suggestions so far,keep em coming.
The Crud.
 

ValRasbora

Superstar Fish
May 2, 2009
1,202
0
0
Atlantic Canada
#9
if this was me, I'd get a couple (like six) black angels, a biig school of odessa or denison barbs, a couple plecos (probably albino longfin b/n, royal pleco, galaxy pleco), a few clown loaches, a kissing gourami, a banjo catfish, a school of bala sharks,... oh the list goes on! I'd also like a black ghost knife fish but I believe that they can kill other fish with their electric shocks even though it's not usually used as a weapon, it's still risky. Another thing I would loove to have is an African butterfly fish! They're incredible but not really peaceful... Anyways good luck your possibilities are absolutely endless! Lucky thing :)

& don't forget aqadvisor.com
 

misterking

Superstar Fish
Aug 12, 2008
1,124
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0
Manchester, UK
www.facebook.com
#10
Really? I mean, I have not kept them, I just know from my friends and people at my lfs who keep discus that they require absolutely pristine water conditions, meaning very frequent water changes - like three times a week. Not so much that they are fussy eaters per se.
I kept my discus healthy on 1 small water change a week and they grew into bigggg fish. The water was roughly pH 7. Pristine water conditions are needed by wild fish but I've found many of the commercially bred ones to be really quite hardy.
 

Aug 13, 2010
870
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Sicklerville, NJ
#11
I keep Discus and they are not difficult to keep other then they can be picky with what they eat. I change 50% of the water every week like any other tank! If you don't wantto go with Discus, Angles are almost as nice to look at. You could do 6-8 Angels easy. Will the tank be a planted tank?
 

Mar 7, 2005
50
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57
Westchester Il.
#12
Discus really dont turn me on that much, I'm thinking black angels, and yes it will be planted, but slow growing low light plants. I've already done a high light, fast growing planted tank with all the trimmings (automatic co2, uv sterilizer, etc.) and do not want to micromanage again, it was very pretty, and rewarding in its own right, but it got to be too much of a hassle.
 

blue_ram

Large Fish
Jun 21, 2008
516
0
0
Florida
#13
I'm leaning toward the clown loaches, angels,a decent sized pleco, and maybe tinfoil barbs?
The tank has two sizable chunks of driftwood in it now and I plan on having one of the larger species of anubis for plants, I'm hoping for a low maint. calm community tank, I'll post pics when the water clarity gets better. I've been putting buckets of old gravel in the tank without rinsing, ugh, lesson learned,from now on gravel gets rinsed before going in. Thank you for all the suggestions so far,keep em coming.
The Crud.
An assortment rainbow fish Rainbowfish

Would be nice and relaxing.
 

Mar 7, 2005
50
0
0
57
Westchester Il.
#15
Sorry to have took so long, I finally started to stock my 225, currently I have 3 clown loaches, 6 tinfoil barbs, and 4 marbled angelfish (soon to be 6), and 1 hifin pleco.All of the fish are currently about 2 inches long. As for plants I have 2 Anubis hastfolias, 2 Anubis nana, 2 crypts nd some java fern, i'll post pics when I get home from work today. Any ideas on one or two larger peacefull fish?
 

aakaakaak

Superstar Fish
Sep 9, 2010
1,324
0
0
Chesapeake, Virginia
#17
You could pull off a group of pearl or snakeskin gourami if you're into them.

Add another clown loach or two maybe.

225 is more than big enough for a few pictus cats.

or....

10,000,000 neons!...okay, so maybe not the neons.
 

nanu156

Large Fish
Mar 8, 2010
745
0
0
Detroit, Mi
#20
OH OH OH I want to play.....

Ok so that sail fin is a common, and he is going to grow into a royal pain in the patukas..... I would return him if you could.

Then well... let me ask you this with out prying it seems like with a tank this size you have some money to throw at this project. Would I be correct in this assumption?

So if you do and have access to good looking fish, you should in metro chicago (or if you want to drive to detroit I will hook you up with the greatest fish resource ever!!!!!!! breeder importer can get you anything, has maybe a million or so fish in her home probably 100+ species of pleco alone)

I would get the following plecos

-green phantom
-blue phantom
-gold nugget
-lyer tail/galaxy

All at the same time. Then a big school of corys some more angels, and whatever else strikes your fancy. the best thing about a big tank is that you can add to it over time and not run out of room. you could do a cool school of guppies, that kind of space would allow for fry and should keep the angels off their tails.

Pacu/silver dollar/tinfoil barbs etc probably all bad plans....

upload photos of what you have im excited!!!!!!!!!!!!