# 160 gal South American, stocking suggestions



## maximusfish (Sep 2, 2014)

The hardscape is almost finished on our new 160 gallon, so we are starting to think about what fish to put in. I thought it best to ask here first, since we didn't do so well with our 55 gallon stocking, our first tank.

Lots and lots of debate going on about what fish to keep. We want mainly South American, not super strict biotope but South American theme. We have come to an agreement on a few types.

Denisonni barbs, 6 or 8
bnp, large calico one 
petricolas, 2 from the 55 gallon, and another 6 to get, hopefully Vman will still have some when we are cycled. I know they are not South American, but whatever, they are very cool.
electric blue Dempsey, not sure how many is good
SAEs
sterbei cory, have two old guys, not sure how many more would be good

I would like to move the 5 congos over from the 55 gallon, and maybe the Peruvian angel and get his two former buddies currently at an lfs.

Himself was wanting geos, filimento barbs, firemouths, and a few very exotic (ie expensive) plecos.

Any suggestions would be appreciated!









Also how to get photos the right way up!!!


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## Steve (Mar 27, 2013)

Okay I don't know a ton about SA/CA fish.. but I'm faaaairly certain an electric blue jack dempsey would kill everything else you listed


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## scott tang (Jan 29, 2012)

the sterbi corries will be food for the jds or the fire mouths congos also wont stand a chance but every thing elts looks good


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## Niku (Feb 11, 2014)

lol so much hate on the EBJD's ... not saying its a guarantee or anything but i have three EBJD's in my 55 corner right beside me with bandit corys in the same tank ... no problems to speak of thus far ... with that being said they are only 6" at best and who knows whats going to happen when they get bigger. personally i dont know if i would trust petricoals in that tank. you already have the 55 with a much more petricola friendly community, gotta figure they max out at 3-4" at best. also ... maybe as a side bonus the EBJD's i have are "the alex's" personal stock and i need them gone as i am breaking down that tank as part of my downsize. they are set to be taken into IPU burnaby and put in some display tank of some description. maybe if you sweet talked "The Alex"<--(PS. god do i love this name for him  ) and asked the staff at IPU you could have them hold these beauties in their front tank until you have your 160 Cycled and going. just a thought i had... who knows...


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## C-kidder (Aug 2, 2014)

Don't know where there is so much hate on the EBJD's. They are pretty extremely mild tempered unless they are breeding even then the ones in my tank let plecos crawl all over the piece of wood that the eggs were under and didn't bother them at all. The thing is you can't have hungry fish and you need to grow them from young with the fish on most cases so they are used to them from the beginning. You can take a chance with somebody else's grown fish but its always a big guess when putting them in the tank. 
Your top list is fine as the jacks will own the tank and as long as you don't have a stupid fish(natural selection) there wont be any competition for them in the tank. Your bottom list of adding small tetra's/barbs Although are typically faster then the jacks if you turn off your lights you give the jacks the chance to ambush them.(will get eaten by the electric blues if they get hungry.)Fire mouths are jerks and will push around the jacks 9/10 times and will eat terrorize that entire tank once it get large enough. Geo's can go with anything although once again if hungry you will find that small fish will go inside their mouth. I've had a geophagus surinamensis try and eat a corycat before....
Peruvian angels can be pretty mean as well, my female from the breeding pair is nasty enough to chase my hand out of the water and guard the bottom of the tank from anything that goes in the tank. Poor gravel vacuum takes a beating on water change days.

Personally I think you can do the entire list excluding the firemouths if you wanted to. That is if you kept the larger set's of fish from breeding but I would expect you to loose a smaller fish from time to time. 
Goodluck


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## maximusfish (Sep 2, 2014)

Ok, it's back to the drawing board!! Doesn't sound like we have a workable plan yet.

Anyone have suggestions for a good grouping that won't eat each other?

My son came up with the name for The Alex. He was very patient and encouraging of my son's interest in fish, and Max really appreciated that. He certainly learned a lot from him.


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## scott tang (Jan 29, 2012)

Im not hating on electric blues i love em cept mine with almost any thing have you thought about super red sevs or green terrors


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## Momobobo (Sep 28, 2010)

lol, they would all be fine together. I dunno why everybody thinks EBJDs and Firemouths are aggressive. They really aren't especially compared to truly aggressive cichlids. That being said, breeding firemouths are dangerous. Then again, any breeding cichlid is. Cories will be fine, especially if they are near adult size. Firemouths and EBJDs max size wouldn't attempt to eat large cories, they are too small. Something like a max size Jaguar cichlid would though.

My friend's brother kept a large EBJD with discus, tetras, and sterbai cories and all he did was hide in the plants :lol: EBJDs aren't as aggressive as JDs, kinda weird considering its technically only a phenotypic change (to my knowledge).

Geophagus got my vote, my alpha Altifrons is still the most beautiful fish I've ever had, except maybe my Heckelii.


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## C-kidder (Aug 2, 2014)

I agree with you there momobobo, EBJD's just don't have the same aggression that normal jacks do. Geo's are awesome fish that are great in community's and are neat to watch sift and eat off the bottom of the tank +1 for a nice group of them is my suggestion. Find a type you like as there is plenty of different types that look bright and beautiful.


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## tony1928 (Apr 22, 2010)

Wow, that stand you have there looks so much like the stand I made a few years back and since sold. It's mine if there's a notch cut out in the door opening!


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## C-kidder (Aug 2, 2014)

As far as posting pictures properly. I use photobucket as a free online gallery its free to sign up and you only need a email. You can upload your pictures to a there or similar website then they usually have a copy and paste link that is used for forums which starts with which is easily usable and if your having trouble you can type it out the brackets and paste your link inside if your having issues with their provided tools. 
Type it like this but without the space right after the first bracket and it will work. The example below will actually link you to a picture of my shimp if you type it correct.
[ IMG]http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k36/Kiddler12/IMG_3040_zpseaeb08c0.jpg


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## maximusfish (Sep 2, 2014)

Probably the same one, has a notch, one side is a cupboard and the other side has shelves. Could use a refinish,, new varnish, but I can't lift the tank and was worried about gassing the other two tanks of fish that are in the same room. Do you think the fumes would hurt the fish?


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## charles (Apr 21, 2010)

Max, like I have mentioned before, pick a fish you can't live without, then we can suggest what else to go in it.


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## maximusfish (Sep 2, 2014)

Charles, the problem is that he doesn't know, can't decide. He wants something different than we did in the 55. So far I have gently dissuaded him from a jaguar and oscars. He is currently fixated on rocket gars, but there is no way I am having something that needs to eat live fish. He wants 10" or larger, I think 6" is plenty big enough. I thought red head geos might be a good compromise. I like to have plants, planning java ferns, Anubias, Vals.

The only thing we both really want and agree on is Denisonni barbs.


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## Steve (Mar 27, 2013)

Well.. another way to look at it is: How frequently are you willing to do water changes, how large are you willing to make those water changes, do you need plants in your tank, do you want fish that are interesting in behaviour, or would you prefer more colourful ones, would you like a fish that can eat out of your hands, do you like the idea of eels? There's sooooo much stuff you can do with a 160. I think tank maintenance is going to be really important here because some tanks can require a looooot of time and work so you could always get fish suggestions based around stuff like that.


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