New Direction?

[Rob S]

For the last 5 years or more I've only kept large Central Americans in my 300 gallon tank. I was completely burnt out from keeping Africans for the prior 20 years or so. I've totally enjoyed the bigger cichlids and in fact have grown to prefer them to Africans, for a variety of reasons. Mostly personality and in an 8 ft. tank I've been able to comfortably house some bruisers that I'd never be able to pull off in a smaller tank.

With that said, I'm thinking of switching the tank over to a more community tank. Some angelfish, huge schools of tetras, some earth eaters perhaps, basically a more peaceful set up that will allow me to still quench my thirst for acquiring new species.

Any thoughts on a jumbo community tank? Am I crazy to ditch my monster cichlids?

[Ron]

Might be crazy.

I switched over to angelfish and my interest lasted all of 8 months. Boring.

So I switched to a planted setup with small-community fish. Much better, but couldn't see fish from across the room.

So I added some congos .... 6 month later, boring.

Now I added some rainbow fish and it's much better - not bored yet, but they do a lot more than the angelfish ever did now that they've settled in.

I guess my conclusion would be, you might end up switching more than 1 in the near future if you do make a switch.

[Marty]

Get a 1000 neons!

[Rob S]

That's what I'm worried about Ron! I'd have to add in some type of earth eaters or other cichlids too.

Marty--I'll take the 1000 neon plan under advisement. 😄

[GrizzlysDad]

At one time my 190g (72"×24"×26"h) was set up as a S.A. community biotope.
I had a group of 12 adult wild caught silver angels, over 100 cardinals, over 100 rummynose, a couple other shoals of other tetras in the 50 count range (one was blue tetras), several large shoals of different Cories of 15+ fish, and somewhere in the neighborhood of 50 different fancy plecos.
Definitely was not a boring tank.

[walkinghorse]

   My buddy did a 150 with Angels,tetras ,neons and barbs plus many others.  Very relaxing to watch as it was a very busy community.  A lot cheaper to feed.  Go for it

[greg y]

Barbs are sweet.
Do a huge planted asian community.
Black ruby barbs.. etc..

Or do a sandy south America group of geos with lots of plants tied to drift wood with cool tetras and corries.
Kitty terras are on my radar

[Rob S]

Tony--The tank you just described is how I would envision it. Or at least how I hope it would turn out. Thanks for being so descriptive.

Thanks for everyone's input!

[GrizzlysDad]

Tony--The tank you just described is how I would envision it. Or at least how I hope it would turn out. Thanks for being so descriptive.

Thanks for everyone's input!

No problem Rob. It realy was an enjoyable tank to watch for hours.
It was also stocked with driftwod from side to side, front to back, and nearly al the way to the top.

[Regalblue]

SACRILEGE!!

[Ron]

At one time my 190g (72"×24"×26"h) was set up as a S.A. community biotope.
I had a group of 12 adult wild caught silver angels, over 100 cardinals, over 100 rummynose, a couple other shoals of other tetras in the 50 count range (one was blue tetras), several large shoals of different Cories of 15+ fish, and somewhere in the neighborhood of 50 different fancy plecos.
Definitely was not a boring tank.

Sounds amazing and makes me wonder about my planted community tank stocking rates. My tank is only slightly larger than 1/2 the size, but it's got about 1/5 to 1/8 as many fish. What kind of filtration did you run? What kind of water changes? Were these mostly junvenile fish or did they grow to adult size (2"+ tetras, etc)?

[Rob S]

I know Blair--I feel like a traitor even thinking about it

[Regalblue]

I know Blair--I feel like a traitor even thinking about it

You'll be back!