Keeping the peace... stock ideas

Been very happy with my reduced number of fish in my 210g. Very peaceful tank, but also a bit boring. I could use some stock ideas....

Pork Chop the Pearsi is a keeper and always out and about. The other fish in the tank are a bit of a dilemma to me. While it is cool to watch the school of seven red hook silver dollars I have been thinking to reduce their number or replace them with a something else. I want to maybe have five and then add a few other fish. I dont know for sure. They are skittish at times and really make you feel nervous watching them. I also have a rhino pleco who is cool but a hider but comes out for feeding and a hopplo cat who is very active but gets picked on by the pleco so no peace for the bottom. Thinking of replacing the pleco and hopplo cat with two bichir I already have (del & weeksii)

Some ideas for fish include:
Super Red Sevrum
Chocolate Cichlid
Firemouth or Thorichthys pasiones
Fire eel
Roseline sharks
Australian Rainbows
large live-bearers (Mollies?)

So what peaceful tank inhabitants would you guys recommend? (Color would be nice too)

I have 7 Australian rainbows and they are great fish! super fun to watch and very friendly when you walk past the glass! and when they get big they have beautiful colors. Roseline sharks are also fun when you have a big tank.

I have some regular rainbows in my bowfront that are really cool active fish. They were Petsmart ones for under $2 each. The ones that I am considering for my 210 would be the fancy like Boesemani or Red Irian.

I have both and they are beautiful. Another cool colored one are the blue rainbows. I have just about every color of rainbow fish and its amazing watching them all swim in a school of different colors!

I actually got the idea of the rainbows from Hank's old display tank at Aquarium Co-Op. I loved the large puffer mixed in with all the little schoolers.

Hey Killybeys, How is the Jurupari in your tank? I might consider something like that to go in my tank also.

Ya hanks old tank was awesome! And hes awesome! hes really friendly and is good at cleaning the bottom! He eats a lot though haha

Flagtail Prochilodus
Giant Danios are fun also
Goodeid Live bearers would be neat also.

I had a flagtail before. Cool fish but chased the silver dollars around, so I got rid of him due to aggression. It did get along with the cichlids...

Regani! I love mine and very peaceful for the vieja types

And they have great color

Regani are cool. Ive never tried keeping one of those but they are beautiful. I have had interesting cichlids over the years but some are aggressive in strange ways. In my last couple of mixes I had fish that became scale eaters. They would nip at the silver dollars to scape scales to eat. One of them went as far as nipping at the pearsei who was like three times its size. I dont know why they have exhibited this behavior but more than one fish has displayed it. Afraid the Regani would do something similar...

I feel like the regani and pearsi are similar in personality.... With the pearsi being a little but stronger from my brief experience with one pearsi ..... I could see them fighting a lil bit to establish pecking order if you got one the same size, but I think if you picked up a 4" one, it would be really mellow.,.. But rainbow fish are cool too

Ive heard the regani are milder but never had any experience with them. I appreciate the idea, I will keep my eyes open for one and then watch it for a bit and see its behavior.

I was 'watching' my tank over the weekend and realized what really bothers me are the silver dollars. I think I just have too many in my tank. With seven large red hooks it is just a bit overwhelming. They school together and just have too much of a presence. I think I will take two out this week and see how it looks. Five big red hooks in the 210g should still have a nice effect.

went to Sumner this weekend and saw some nice little chocolate cichlids.... still might consider one of these in the tank. Any one raise these? Whats the personality like?

Mine regani is near 12" and he runs the tank ( because all the other fish are half his size). Or maybe I should say he runs the tank when my female red isletas is on the other side of my tank..... She is right at the 9" mark with my best guesstimate.... And he definitely runs from her when she is in his area. I'll try to shoot some videos tonight and upload them here so you can see the regani behavior.

Here is my short phone video of my regani,  don't mind the over crowding, I'll be thinning the family again soon, but here you can see the mellowness of mine

Looks to be a mellow fish. I have to say that is a lot of activity in that tank. I like the interaction but at the same time all the bickering among the cichlids would drive me nuts. I think I might like just one BIG wet pet or just ditch the skittish silver dollars and get an assortment of other 'large' community fish instead....

I took a look at some other fish that I had not considered in a while and the snook came back up. This has been on my radar for a long time. Maybe its time to get 'snooki'

I also have considered heterospilus... they too have a rep for being pretty easy going.

I don't mind the bickering as long as it doesn't turn into an actual lip lock or biting each other on the sides.....


Back to your fish, I saw a large red snook at the lfs last time I was in there..... Wasn't in the best shape, but still a cool fish.

I'm now thinking that a red tailed cat and a pork chop would look nice. Lol

DMD123,

210 gallon tank is a bunch of tank space to fill up with medium to small schooling fish. But having 2-3 different shoals would be interesting. I just did this in my 140. Although in my 140 all my fish are on a dwarf scale to me it's the same idea as yours. I have a couple center fish, like you have. Then I have 7 feet of tank space. On a whim, and a few weeks of thinking I picked out 3 species of shoaling fish. So now I have a total of 4 schools of fish. They all kind of stick to their own species, mix up a bit, then head their own way. I would have to agree it does keep the tank more interesting with my prize fish just drifting around seeing what's going on.

I see Roseline Barbs on your list. I've seen these as full grown adult fish. If you had a school of 6-8 in your 210 they would look spectacular. There are larger type tetras in the 3-4" range, (I don't know how your cichlid would do with them) but it might be cool to research if interested. Rainbow fish is a good default for larger wondering fish but Minnow fish like the Denision Barb are more interesting if you ask me. They do more darting around. My personal favorite Rainbow fish is the Madagascar Rainbow fish. This fish is more "minnow" type and darts around and packed full of colors like gold in body with greens , blues and reds in the tail. Both these fish reach about 6-7 inches. Adult Congo tetra get about 3.5 inches and are absolutely gorgeous and have these teeth that remind me of mini piranha . All 3 of these fish I have owned with larger cichlids such as Festae and JD. As long as the cichlid will be okay with them they will be okay with the cichlid.

On a larger note. Adult Bala Sharks look pretty darn cool.

Idk, just throwing ideas out there...


lloyd378, WOW - nice tank!!

lloyd378 wrote:I'm now thinking that a red tailed cat and a pork chop would look nice.  Lol

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

fishNAbowl, thanks for the info. Been thinking of small schooling fish but they cost more than big fish!

Well game plan kind of in place...
I will move two of the red hooks temporarily into my 72g bowfront and see how the other five do in the 210g. I have made arrangements to obtain a Red Bay Snook for the 210g. I had been thinking of one for a long time but am finally going to take the plunge. It will get large but should fit my overall peaceful theme quite well. The other fish Im looking to add is Paraneetroplus heterospilus, will grow three out and try to get one male out of the trio. These are said to be pretty peaceful too. Now the problem of where to put fish in the meantime with small growouts trying to share a tank with a little bit bigger fish. Dont want expensive meals for anyone!

Update: Red Bay Snook in the house! Officially in his home in the 210g.

I also got some tiny heterospilus which are in the 72g bow. They were so small I had to put all the larger fish into the 210g so that these guys would not get eaten. I now have to figure out who goes and who stays. I hate this part.   

Nice DMD123   - SnoOk!! Big mouth predator right there...

Yeah big mouth but too aggresive

What do you mean " some have to go"? 3 fish and some red hooks won't be overcrowding in that 210 with all that filtration...... And how small are the heterospila? I have two 2@ fish in with my 12" regani, and my 9" red isletas and a few others

All the fish from the 72g bow are in the 210 except the rainbows. I put the bichir in the 210g so that the het's would not get eaten. The weeksii can get BIG at up to 20", the del up to a foot. The rhino pleco may go at them to try to suck slime coat so I need to watch out for that type of aggression. The Red Isleatas is in the 210 and it is a little pill. He is small but pushes his weight around. Does not even fear the mighty porkchop even though he is dwarfed by him. It just seems too busy.

DMD123 wrote:Yeah big mouth but too aggresive

I raised one with Peacock Bass. It did turn out to be an as* and eventually re-homed it.

I hope mine gets along with porkchop. It is so little and cute with it giant mouth that looks too big for its body.

fishNAbowl wrote:

DMD123 wrote:Yeah big mouth but too aggresive

I raised one with Peacock Bass. It did turn out to be an as* and eventually re-homed it.

I had meant to say NOT too aggressive but had done it on my phone so I missed it. What was the issue with the snook in your bass set up?

lloyd378 wrote:What do you mean " some have to go"?  3 fish and some red hooks won't be overcrowding in that 210 with all that filtration......  And how small are the heterospila? I have two 2@ fish in with my 12" regani, and my 9" red isletas and a few others

The het's were bought as 1-1.25 inch so in reality like 3/4". I put them in the 72 with only the Australian rainbows (3") and even the rainbows tried to eat them. It was over pretty quickly as I fed the fish some frozen bloodworms. The het's are schooling around together this morning but still very leery. I would be afraid to put these het's in with the new snook, his mouth is HUGE and Im sure he would eat them and he is only like 5"!

Mr isletas is funny, took right to the big tank like it was always his. Lots of attitude and starting to flex his muscle with the silver dollars and with the new snook. I cant see him in this tank for long, he would rule with an iron fist and I would have no peace. Cant decide to get rid of him or grow out the hets and move him back to the 72.... I could see him as an awesome solo wet pet.

Also I think I am going to thin down the bichirs. I think the albino sen just does not fit in anywhere. Even though it has an awesome personality.

I have a hoppo catfish too that just does not 'fit' my set ups.

I just dont want to sell off anything that I will regret. I still have to keep something in the upstairs bowfront when its all said and done.