If you had three 75g to stock what would you do?

[lbo1000]

Basically title. I've been researching like crazy and am overwhelming myself. I already have a large community tank and small multi-only tank, but still open to suggestions that are similar. I will look into all ideas.

[Tlindsey]

On 8/26/2024 at 2:29 AM, lbo1000 said:

Basically title. I've been researching like crazy and am overwhelming myself. I already have a large community tank and small multi-only tank, but still open to suggestions that are similar. I will look into all ideas.

1. Setup for another specie of freshwater pipefish. 2. Native setup Rainbow Darter and some type of minnow probably Dace.

3. Setup for a large male Convict because he's claimed the 55 gallon and pushing others to top or corners of the aquarium. Typical cichlid behavior. @lbo1000

 

[beastie]

Well my first step is converting it to liters :))) Then my second is, we have an amazing local website with fish listed and their minimal volume requirements, that lets you filter by fish requiring up to the liters as their volume. Ofcourse one should take it with a grain of salt, but I find it very useful and I have not found an english version that would offer the same (as I can filter by fish that prefer certain temps, will grow to a certain size, need certain hardness,...)

From there I look at the list and decide, do I want to do a heated/not heated tank. Is my water soft/neutral/hard/rodi. Am I interested in a specific continent or am I more a mix and match

Asia, heated - gouramis, rasbora/danio, kuhli loaches. Or a fish tank designed for other loaches, botia loach, inle loach, brevis,... and a shoal of small rasboras/danios to go with them 
unheated - paradise fish (alone) or as I have white cloud minnows with sewellia or panda garra; group of odessa barbs or a tank just for barbs, could be unheated, could be heated, depends on the barb

SA  - some acara with a group of tetras; some apistogramma with a group of tetras; blackwater biotope for emperor tetras/neons and Chessboard cichlid; a group of corydoras and some tetra; a pair of some smaller geophagus, make a tank just for some pleco with a small tetra,...

NA - unheated tank for a group of rainbow shiners; heterandria formosa, 

Australia - a large group of some pseudomugil in a tank designed for them; a group of rainbowfish in a tank with a strong flow; peacock gudgeons

Africa - a single bichir; fresh water pufferfish; jewelfish or some krib, maybe with an african banded barb or a normans lampey

 

So many choices :) 

[mynameisnobody]

It would be wayyyyy easier to state what fish you like. 75’s are a great size.

[Mississippi fish guy]

1. Oscar tank 

2. fish native to a creek in my state. 

3.  An upgrade for my red wolf fish.

[NOLANANO]

On 8/26/2024 at 1:29 AM, lbo1000 said:

Basically title. I've been researching like crazy and am overwhelming myself. I already have a large community tank and small multi-only tank, but still open to suggestions that are similar. I will look into all ideas.

If all 3 were blanks slates I would do an African community, a South American community, and an Asian community.

since you say you have multis and a community already, I would do peacocks and haps in the last one.

[Tony s]

I’ve been thinking about this for a while. My possibilities of tanks include 1) a bigger fish tank. I have tons of small fish. It’s time for some fish with personality. Possibly an Oscar, definitely a severum or 2, uaru, chocolates. Obviously not all of them in a 75g, but along that line. 2) an oranda tank. I honestly have never kept goldfish before. It’s worth a try, I think. Sort of on the theme of fish with personality.  3). An mbuna tank. Every kind of color I can find. 4) a Lake Tanganyika tank. Multis on the bottom, Julidochromis in the rocks. Leleupi for color in the middle. Yellow or black compressiceps for the center piece. 5)something simple. Electric blue acara with festivum. Or all eba’s and just let them colonize it.

[Tanked]

On 8/26/2024 at 2:29 AM, lbo1000 said:

Basically title. I've been researching like crazy and am overwhelming myself. I already have a large community tank and small multi-only tank, but still open to suggestions that are similar. I will look into all ideas.

A small group of medium sized schooling fish.  I keep Red Tailed Tinfoil Barbs. Barbonymus Altus in my 75.   

Even from a distance, a true schooling group of larger fish can be quite interesting to watch.

[EricksonAquatics]

9,000 chili rasboras!

In all honesty - I’d do a huge community tank. Like said above, an actual big group of smaller fish would be incredible. Something like rummy noses that school tightly. And then like 30 Cory’s on the bottom! Some of the beefier schooling fish like Bosemani rainbows etc would be awesome.

Id also love to keep an Oscar or other monster fish with lots of personality.

Edited August 27 by EricksonAquatics

[Airborne 82nd]

 

Take the two ends off of one tank one end off the other two and turn them into a 225gal. Put in two Oscar.😉

[Tony s]

On 8/26/2024 at 6:37 PM, Airborne 82nd said:

Take the two ends off of one tank one end off the other two and turn them into a 225gal. Put in two Oscar.😉

I like that plan. Seems to me every time I upgrade tanks now, it's never big enough. 🤣 I'm going to have to cut a hole in my basement wall and put a wide set of stairs down there. Could do the garage, but it gets in the negatives in the winter outside

[Beach Cruiser]

Assuming sufficient resources/time:

1) a minimalist show/breeding tank for a pair of centerpiece fish. For me, this would be an excuse to finally try my hand at discus. Or maybe the crazy colorful Flowerhorns. 

2) a lush fully planted set up with two kinds of tight schooling small units & several unique lower level fish.

3) a high tech Amano style shrimp rig, heavy on the moss/carpet/hardscape look. 

Edited August 26 by Beach Cruiser

[Tazalanche]

A nanofish and neocaridina shrimp heavily planted tank.

Plants should include at least Amazon swords, anubias and a moss of your choice for the carpet so the egg scatterers will breed.

Pick a single color of shrimp and get 1-2 dozen, then add 2 dozen pygmy cories of your favorite type for low/mid and 2 dozen briggitae rasboras for near the surface.

Then add 2 dozen celestial pearl danios or emerald dwarf rasboras. The goal is multiple large schools of varying color, with nothing longer than 2".

 

Give it a few months to see who breeds well & who needs to have more bought. Schools of 50+ of each look awesome moving around the tank. I've been doing similar with a 55 for about 2 years and love it!

[lbo1000]

On 8/26/2024 at 3:10 AM, mynameisnobody said:

It would be wayyyyy easier to state what fish you like. 75’s are a great size.

I very open to everything. The only thing I know for certain is I'm going to do at least one cichlid community. I'm leaning toward tangs

[saminator0107]

On 8/27/2024 at 12:26 AM, lbo1000 said:

I very open to everything. The only thing I know for certain is I'm going to do at least one cichlid community. I'm leaning toward tangs

I currently have my 75 set up as a native fish tank, with some different species of sunfish. They are a LOT like keeping cichlids behavior wise. Just dont get too many because they are very territorial. They also have some AWESOME looking colors depending on which species you get. I have 4 Warmouth sunfish in mine, which almost look like mini largemouth bass, and have the biggest mouths out of all the freshwater sunfish. They are dirty fish, similar to goldfish, so have a good filtration system. 

 

Also the hardest part is getting ahold of whatever species of sunfish you want, that is if it isnt native to you. I can put you in contact with a guy i know that breeds warmouth. I ended up catching mine in a local lake, but its up to you. 

 

Another hard thing, especially if wild caught, is getting them to eat. Mine started eating after about 3 days of adjusting to the "aquarium life".

Feeder fish work well, as that is a natural forage. Rosy reds or comet goldfish work well. Night crawlers are also good, but you might have to cut them up if the fish cant eat one whole. I ended up getting warmouth due to the fact they have bigger mouths so the option for food was a bit more broad. Bluegill have smaller mouths so options are a little more limited, might have to cut the worms up for bluegill. Also another option is frozen crawfish. Thats what i use. They sell it at my local walmart in the frozen seafood section. Its 7 bucks for a "frozen slab" of it. I have a mini fridge in the "fish room" that i keep it in. If you need to defrost it faster you can keep it in a plastic container and nuke it in the microwave for about a minute. It lasts a good while, but i usually get 4 or 5 packs of it to stock up for a while. My warmouth go INSANE for the frozen crawfish, its like crack for them. Only bad thing is that it can dirty the water up a bit, so water changes are essential, but they are dirty fish so you should be keeping on top of it regardless. I have two HOB filters each rated for 90 gallon tanks, which is overkill but it works very well. 

 

Also a lot of people dont mention this about sunfish, but they have very cool personalities! Mine beg for food, i say they are "freshwater dogs" because thats exactly what they act like. After they get used to you, they WILL beg you for food. I can always tell when mine are hungry. They are always happy to see me as well. I actually have them next to a tv in the room. If you sit in the room and watch tv, they also watch tv with you!! Its like they understand whats going on. They are also very smart fish, and are VERY aware of their surroundings. They notice me when i just pass by the room while walking in the hall.

EDIT: Forgot to mention. If you go the sunfish route, make sure have caution when adding any live plants if the fish are at adult size. They will sometimes eat plants as a snack. You CAN add live plants, but make sure the plant is big enough to where if they do take a bite or two the plant can still be fine. If you decide to put some plants, id only put in a few and see if they fish mess with them. If the fish havent messed with them after about a month or so, then you should be okay. I had plants in my 75, until i didnt. The plant got pretty big and one day the fish decided it was in their way so they tore it up and ate 80% of it. I ended up giving up on plants and just added plenty of hardscape. Frogbit worked well for me, but they still do snack on it. It replicates so fast that they dont really make a dent in it though. These fish are ambush predators, they will appreciate some hidey holes. 

 

 

 

 

Edited August 27 by saminator0107

[Guppysnail]

A 75 for me would definitely need a Synodintis eupterus, and either some hoplo and or pictus cats. 
 

I have a 40 g catfish tank and it has always been my favorite out of all my tanks. So much personality and activity it’s delightful 

[TAB]

What's your water like?

 

I would probably  go 6 wild discus if you had softer water fron the tap.

 ggeophaguswould also be cool.

[gardenman]

I've always been intrigued by sailfin mollies. I've wanted to recreate a giant strain of them. A LFS had a giant retired breeder pair of them back in the seventies (maybe eighties?) The pair pretty much filled the tank they were in. They were around eight to ten inches long.  Just gorgeous fish. The male didn't know he was a retired breeder and was flashing and displaying for the female and was as pretty a fish as I've ever seen. With his fins fully displayed, he was pretty much a square fish. Sailfin mollies have gotten smaller through the years. Breeders don't tend to focus on size as fish are sold young. The right selective breeding could create a giant strain once again. The genetic material is there. They've been big before they can be big again. Keep breeding big fish to big fish and you'd be able to recreate a larger strain pretty quickly. They're pretty even small, but if you ever see a large male with a huge dorsal fin courting a female, it would knock your socks off.  The ones I saw were the typical black mollie with a red edging on the fins, but the sailfin mollies come in a variety of patterns and colors these days.  They can be very impressive when fully grown.

[Solstice_Lacer]

I'd like to have a big group of diptail pencil fish midwater, and a big group of kuhli loaches below. Maybe a pair or small group of honey gourami as centerpieces.

[lbo1000]

On 8/27/2024 at 6:47 AM, TAB said:

What's your water like?

 

I would probably  go 6 wild discus if you had softer water fron the tap.

 ggeophaguswould also be cool.

My water is liquid rock so probably not... but very pretty fish

[madmark285]

 

On 8/29/2024 at 12:27 AM, lbo1000 said:

My water is liquid rock so probably not...

A would do a Mbuna tank. Find a source of cheap rocks and filled the entire bottom of the tanks with rocks.