145 Gallon stocking

[fishandcards]

I am in the process of setting up my 145 gallon tank again (72 X 18 foot print) and trying to figure out what to stock it with.  Here are some options I am considering:

1.  I really like fire mouths - not sure what else is a good tank mate and not sure how many to put in this size tank.  Most of my experience with SA/CA is usually based around an Oscar (not really interested in Oscars this time - love them but take up too much room).
2.  A large breeding group of a single peacock (I really like sulfur heads and realize they are pretty docile) + a group of yellow labs or Acei + some synodonis (perticola or Lucipinnis probably) or pictus cats.  I know there are a lot of options and am open to suggestions.
3.  Several (thinking 6 to 10) calvus/comps, a pair of julies, and a group of pictus cats (know this is a risky proposition but I really like the pictus cats)
4.  Monster Tank:  black ghost knife and a couple of buddies (not sure what else would be good).

Any and all suggestions are welcome

[Ron]

I think you should rule choice #4 out based on your comments in choice #1 regarding how you love oscars, but they take up too much room. Sounds to me like you want more, smaller fish and some action. If you get a knife, it'll probably sit around a lot and you'll be limited on how many buddies you can add with him. I love seeing a tank with tank busters (provided they're in a proper size tank), but have found owning such a tank to be boring after a few months.

Choice #2 sounds good, though I think you could go with both acei and labs if you wanted.

I think I'd personally pick a syno over pictus for an african tank. Africans and pictus just look out of place to me, because I know better. Most people probably wouldn't notice. If you went with a SA/CA setup, I'd then pick pictus over the synos for the same reason. Not sure what SA/CA selections would be intriguing. ( They all look brown to me. )

I'd pick one of the african setups, leaning towards the malawian group over the tangs.

[African cichlid Keeper]

For # 1 you could do with the firemouth a severum, jack Dempsey, blue acara, green terror, clown loachs, giant Danios, blood parrot, texas cichlid.

[linuxrulesusa]

For #1, I'd go for a pair of firemouths, pair or small group of rainbow cichlids, a group of green swordtails for the top water (possibly), and possibly a third pair/group of some kind...maybe cutteri?  These would all be CA cichlids/similar source.  If you put in enough rock/wood structure to allow breeding spots these should be fine.  I kept two pair of thorichthys aureums (similar to firemouths) in a 55g and they bred regularly (just one of the two pairs, though).

For #2, I don't have suggestions but Ron's was good.

For #3, if you go Tangyanikan, you could go for a pair of leleupi or the calvus/compressiceps in one rock pile on one end, some larger julies (not transcriptus gombe or dickfeldi but probably marlieri or regani) in another rock pile on the other end, some shelldwellers in the middle (leave an open space).  Possibly even some paracyprochromis nigripinnis if you stack the rocks high enough...cyprichromis in that tank with the other groups might be pushing it, but it might be an alternative depending on the height of your tank.

For #4, I had great success with an African brown knife plus bichir(s), but those are both African riverine species.  Black ghost knife would work well with anything that won't be too nippy (a single large cichlid is probably a bad idea, but a group of several would be OK so that they focus on each other vs. the knife), and that won't intrude too much on the knife's space.  Maybe a group of angelfish, and go for 2-3 pairs?  The knife would eat any fry you get but they would be compatible in terms of biotope.