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Your Help Stocking a 150 Gallon Freshwater Tank, Please

GPounda

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GPounda

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We are  looking to stock a 150 gallon planted Freshwater aquarium.  The goal is to follow Cory's recommendation of a filter-less tank; it will be heavily planted, with a deep substrate, and a combination of sponge filters and powerheads.

We're having a hard time finding the right fish.

Wish List:

*              To have a primary group of colourful fish in the 5-6" range

*              Able to handle the current of the powerheads

*              Preferably won't destroy the tank

*              To have 1-2 schools on 50+ barbs, or similar

*              To have Shrimp,  Snails, Cory's, and Loaches

Am I nuts, or do you think you may be able to assist us?

Many thanks,

John

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Tony s Grand Master

Tony s

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On 8/1/2024 at 2:23 PM, JettsPapa said:

one of the larger rainbowfish

Excellent choice. And you really don't have to limit to boesemani. I believe rainbows will mostly school together. My Praecox and boesemanis did. And there's all colors. Emeralds, turquois, yellows, reds. You could quite literally make a rainbow of rainbows.

Congo tetras are nice. Diamond tetras are shiny. 

for a centerpiece I'd look at electric blue acara. 

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GPounda

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so a question about Rainbows; say I did a school of 20, could they be of three of four subspecies to maximize the colours?

Could I do the same with Gourami's?

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Tony s Grand Master

Tony s

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On 8/1/2024 at 2:48 PM, GPounda said:

Could I do the same with Gourami's?

rainbows, absolutely. Gourami's no. some of them are too aggressive. But you'd want to stick to a single species in one tank. Pearl gouramis would be a good fit for that tank. A bit smaller would be honey gourami. I believe most can be kept in groups. But you'd want to do a bit of homework on multiple males in one tank and male to female ratios

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mynameisnobody Veteran

mynameisnobody

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@GPounda 20 is a great size school of rainbows. You can mix it up if you like, however the effect you get if you stick with 1 species is spectacular. The uniformity of it all makes it complete, imo. Also if you ever decide to dip your toes into breeding, you won’t hybridization to worry about. This is highly frowned upon.

Boesmani are a great choice. For something stunning but a bit different for roughly same price tag you can check out Melanotaenia Trifasciata ‘Goyder River’, Chilatherina Alleni ‘Wapoga’, or Glossopelis Wanamensis. The Wanam’s are incredible, when fully matured the males sport long, ragged fins, it’s quite the eyeful. 

If you approach rainbows with patience, you will be rewarded with daily spectacles and breeding rituals. I always feel gratitude when observing them. 

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Pepere Grand Master

Pepere

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On 8/1/2024 at 2:14 PM, GPounda said:

The goal is to follow Cory's recommendation of a filter-less tank; it will be heavily planted, with a deep substrate, and a combination of sponge filters and powerheads.

Thats not really filterless though….

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Tony s Grand Master

Tony s

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On 8/1/2024 at 4:38 PM, Lennie said:

I would personally go for a lake malawi /african cichlid tank like the one below if I had that size

Honestly, I would too at this point.  Have thought about Tanganyikan actually. In a smaller tank. Large schools of little fish are great, but time for something else now. @Gannon's tanks with the eba's and archer fish is amazing. Or a good school of severums and geophagus

@GPounda with the Tanganyika, you can have plants. To a good extent. The drawback there is a lot of the fish are not as colorful. But great personalities 

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mynameisnobody Veteran

mynameisnobody

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That seems adequate as long as the canister is large enough. 
Also shrimp will be a no no. They’ll get decimated once they hit the water with the fish I listed above. 
Traditionally Denison barbs are perfect tank mates for rainbows. My favorite would be Odessa Barbs and rainbows. Corydoras are also perfect. I prefer aspidoras. 

Edited by mynameisnobody
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Tony s Grand Master

Tony s

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On 8/1/2024 at 4:50 PM, GPounda said:

HELP - Right now I'm going down a rabbit hole looking at all the different types/colours of Barbs!!!

I know, right? The possibilities are endless! Have fun!

@johnnyxxl I am contemplating them. I have a 45g unused. purchased on a whim because it was on sale 50% off with stand. Absolutely no idea what I want in it. Was looking at barbs and the Tanganyika tank, and ... of all things... Orandas. Haven't done any of those before. Wish I'd of got the 125g though. That would have been the geophagus and severums, and firemouths and... 

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Tony s Grand Master

Tony s

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On 8/1/2024 at 6:33 PM, T. Payne said:

Keep in my that none of these suggestions will be shrimp safe.

@GPounda Yeah, for shrimp you really do need large swarms of little fish. But it's still cool to imagine. Still, something to be said for large numbers. Jason Adams tells how he once had a very large group of silver tipped tetras. 50-100. and they swam around in a kind of silver tornado. and hasn't seen that behavior since. And large groups of corys behave completely different than the 6 everybody says you need. My skunk corys were shy at six. Then I doubled their number, and they were all over the tank

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Tony s Grand Master

Tony s

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@GPounda found this a minute ago. At the start Bob has a multicolored rainbow tank. The torpedo shaped fish with the large black stripe and red and yellow patches is the denison barb. This is really stunning

 

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GPounda Contributor

GPounda

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I'm starting to believe I will be doing a 75 gallon Nano tank as well. 

It is becoming VERY expensive chatting you all of you!!! 😄

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GPounda Contributor

GPounda

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So here is a follow up to the initial posting, let's see how this looks:

  • 1 pair of False Green Terror (12")
  • 1 30+ school of Rainbows (5")
    • 10x Banded
    • 10x Boseman
    • 10x Lake Kutubu
  • 1 50+ school of Barbs (2.5 - 3")
    • Black Ruby
    • Clown
    • Gold
    • Rhombo
    • Odessa
  • 10x Cory's
  • 10x Loaches
  • 1x Rainbow Shark

Thoughts?

 

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