75 gallon tetra tank!

[Mydonkeyfish]

I am buying a 75 gallon tank later today and i alteady have floating plants, filter, some substrate and the stand! I plan tobstock it with 25 rummy nose tetras and 25 neons. What are your thoughts and would there be room for a centerpiece fish?

[Tanked]

A 75 gallon is a great size.  Spread your fish purchases out over a several weeks, giving the aquarium time to adjust to the increasing bioload.  You did not mention a heater.  I think there will be more than enough room for a centerpiece fish. 

[Guppysnail]

I would do a bottom feeder centerpiece fish or two. Helps with missed food and with those choices the water column is going to be a busy place. Perhaps instead of A centerpiece go for a mid size pleco and a group of corydora. (Me <—-catfish addict)😁

[Atitagain]

I agree with @Guppysnail a bristlenose and a shoal of corys. But I would bump the rummys up to 50. And as @Tankedsaid only a few (10-15ish) fish at a time with 5-7day intervals. Not sure if this is in “guidelines” of what your supposed to do but it’s what I’d shoot for.

75G are such great tanks and rummys are without question simply the best. 😁

[anewbie]

I would replace the neon tetra with cardinal tetra; for cory i would go with sterbai, orange laser or green laser; i would skip the pleco or if you are going to get a pleco I would get something more interesting than bn such as one of (not one of each) L204, L397, gold nugget, blue phantom. If you must get a bn at least get something interesting like starlight, super red or lemon blue eye (skip green dragon);

 

Centerpiece is always a touchy thing - an angel fish or 2 angel fish seem natural but they might eat the tetra depending  on fish and adult size; some people like electric blue acara; a school of keyhole cichlid (4 to 6) if you have dense area of plants; 2 to 4 flag cichlid; well we could continue but there are hundreds of options...

[lefty o]

plenty of size for what you want, and for a centerpiece, it really depends on the individual fish. size, and temperment. i do agree with the other, something swimming on the bottom would look nice and help balance out the tank.

[JettsPapa]

Here's my suggestion:

• 7 pearl gouramis, ideally with no more than two males
• 40 of your favorite tetra (one species)
• 10-12 (depending on size) of your favorite Corydoras species

[Gannon]

Like everyone else has been saying try to balance out the tank with fish at the top and bottom too

[anewbie]

On 1/20/2022 at 11:11 AM, JettsPapa said:

Here's my suggestion:

• 7 pearl gouramis, ideally with no more than two males
• 40 of your favorite tetra (one species)
• 10-12 (depending on size) of your favorite Corydoras species

But do you want to mix asian fish with sa fishes? Perhaps replace the tetra with rasbora and who know what asia has as an equiv to cory.

[JettsPapa]

On 1/20/2022 at 11:40 AM, anewbie said:

But do you want to mix asian fish with sa fishes? Perhaps replace the tetra with rasbora and who know what asia has as an equiv to cory.

Yes.

[Torrey]

Before I make recommendations...

What are your naturally occurring water parameters?

Do you want to create a biotope tank?

Do you have a preference on colors? 

What color is your substrate?

[Mydonkeyfish]

i plan to put fluval stratum (black) down as the first layer and then inert whiteish sand. i want to get rummy nose tetras and/or neons/cardinal tetras.

i dont really want to make a biotope.

i plan to use mostly green plants like valesnaria and pearl weed but might get some red plants like scarlet temple to go with my red root floaters.

My water is pretty hard and has about an 8.0 ph but the fluval stratum knocked down the ph in my 5 gallon to 6.7.

On 1/20/2022 at 8:05 PM, Torrey said:

Before I make recommendations...

What are your naturally occurring water parameters?

Do you want to create a biotope tank?

Do you have a preference on colors? 

What color is your substrate?

 

[Torrey]

On 1/20/2022 at 6:45 PM, Mydonkeyfish said:

i plan to put fluval stratum (black) down as the first layer and then inert whiteish sand. i want to get rummy nose tetras and/or neons/cardinal tetras.

i dont really want to make a biotope.

i plan to use mostly green plants like valesnaria and pearl weed but might get some red plants like scarlet temple to go with my red root floaters.

My water is pretty hard and has about an 8.0 ph but the fluval stratum knocked down the ph in my 5 gallon to 6.7.

 

You have the room for to really get some gorgeous schooling happening.

I would add 10 at a time, alternating between your cardinal tetras and your rummynose, until each school is  30 to 45 fish (more fish results in tighter schooling, and neither one of these is a huge bioload).

I would add a good clean up crew (a school of pygmy cories and shrimp, as long as you have good hiding spaces) once I had the tetras and rummynose halfway stocked.

As the plants grow and your water stays stable, I would add a third schooling fish for an attractive center piece.

Once the tank is well seasoned with a good biofilm, I would look at adding about a dozen otos, provided the tank is heavily planted. 

If you want to minimize tank maintenance, I would also get a variety of nerites. I am discovering that different nerites coexist because each type appears to have a niche 'feeding market'. Larger tanks will stay cleaner if you have different types of nerites, and a couple of different clean up crews.

By having 3 distinct different schooling groups in a 75 g, especially a well planted 75, your eyes will focus on and follow the different fish as they play 'follow the leader' throughout the tank.

Having 2 different schools of cleaning fish increases their visibility. 

Selecting bright, colorful fish will help them pop against your dark substrate. Plants will encourage more activity by periodically breaking up line of site for the fish, which also reduces bullying.

Good luck!

(Honey and pearl gouramis are also potential centerpiece fish. Since you got the deeper 75g, you could also look at angelfish, especially if you are able to get smaller, young angels *after* you have 30+ each of the rummies and the cardinals. A pair of kribs could even be nice centerpieces)