# 125 Gallon Stocking Options



## Smiladon (Apr 23, 2010)

Well...I sold my discus and the tank is now empty. The idea is to get some easy to take care of fish because we will have a baby boy this summer (yes, I will be a dad) and I am sure I wont have enough time to spend with my fishes. So my idea is to to restock with somewhat hardy fish who can forgive me if I dont do WCs for 2 weeks.

I already put in Turface for the substrate. Looks like gravel/sand mix. This was in case I decide to go plants in the future.

I am including the following fish 100%
- 5 Tin Foil Barbs
- 1 Black Arowana (small one)

I need to know if the following are some fish that would fit in, keeping in mind that my tank is only 125Gallon.
- Ornate Bitchir
- Black Ghost Knife
- School of Clown Loaches (3.5"-5" in size)
- Motoro Stringray
- Fire eel
- Fei Feng
- Indo Dat (forgot to add)

I am a total newbie when it comes to most of the fish above as I've never kept them, so any advice would be greatly appreciated.


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## beN (Apr 21, 2010)

hey smiladon,

i actually have 3 of the fish that you want together, right now..fire eel,fei feng & my marble motoro. they are doing great so far. My only worry is the footprint of your tank, unless you are planning to upgrade .. 

but as for them getting along, they should do fine. Keep that fei feng fed with lots of veggies to avoid him getting the taste for the back of the ray. 

I havnt tried the bichir thing yet with rays, I am little nervous to try only because the bichir & ray are both bottom dwellers & the bichir might take a chomp out of the rays eyes if hes hungry enough. Its really to each its own & keeping a close eye on whats going in the tank.


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## Smiladon (Apr 23, 2010)

Hi Ben,

Thanks for the very informative response.

I do realize that the other fish in the list might not all work well together. 
I am worried about the tank dimensions too. Its barely a minimum for a full grown black arowana, but I assume it will be atleast a good 3-4 years for it to grow full size (I could be totally wrong here).

I have no plans to upgrade my tank for the next 2 years. If I move to a house, then I will be building a HUGE tank in the house (1000 gallons is the plan), but thats nowhere close to the timeline.

Assuming I am stuck with 125Gallons, what fish can I add and what should I not add?


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## TCR (Jul 13, 2010)

There are 2 kinds of flagtails.. One grows bigger then the other.. The ones charles sells get to be a good size unless you want the giant ones.. I have 3 flagtails, 4 tinfoils (which are for sale as i find them a lil boring), 3 datnoids, 1 asian aro, 2 sting rays, 1 severum (also for sale), 4 armoured catfish, and 1 tiger/zebra? Knifefish.. I dont have any issues with any of the fish


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## charles (Apr 21, 2010)

keep in mind your 18" depth will not be a long term space for stingray. You can keep one for a while assuming you get a smaller one to start with but be prepare to upgrade to at least a 24" if not 36" depth


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## Smiladon (Apr 23, 2010)

TCR said:


> There are 2 kinds of flagtails.. One grows bigger then the other.. The ones charles sells get to be a good size unless you want the giant ones.. I have 3 flagtails, 4 tinfoils (which are for sale as i find them a lil boring), 3 datnoids, 1 asian aro, 2 sting rays, 1 severum (also for sale), 4 armoured catfish, and 1 tiger/zebra? Knifefish.. I dont have any issues with any of the fish


So this mostly solves the issue of compatibility. Any suggestions on what I should stock related to tank size?



charles said:


> keep in mind your 18" depth will not be a long term space for stingray. You can keep one for a while assuming you get a smaller one to start with but be prepare to upgrade to at least a 24" if not 36" depth


How long (in your opinion) can I keep a motoro in a 125 gallon tank? Maybe this would mean that I cant get one for now.


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## tang daddy (Apr 21, 2010)

How about an ebjd?

they're really colourful and tough as nails!!!


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## TCR (Jul 13, 2010)

datnoids should be fine.. same with flagtails (on sale from canadian aquatics so you cant lose out there), tin foils,

i would be weary on the rays if you want lower maintance but they may be ok it really up to you

ebjd... i dunno i heard they can be really aggresive but really the options are endless


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## christhefish (Nov 8, 2010)

i would worry about the black ghost knife fish with the bichir 
my bichir bit a knifes little tail off before eating the whole fish and they were close to the same size


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## snow (Apr 21, 2010)

I would do a school of clown loaches. They are an awsome type of fish. I never really cared for them unitl I brought in some big ones. They are so active and I love how they all huddle together at night. Truly a wonderful type of fish.


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## Smiladon (Apr 23, 2010)

Based on the recommendations so far I've updated the list. Let me know what you think.

I am including the following fish 100%
- 5 Tin Foil Barbs
- 1 Black Arowana (small one)
- School of Clown Loaches (3.5"-5" in size)

Maybe List:
- Fire eel
- Fei Feng
- Indo Datnoid

Maybe Not List:
- Ornate Bitchir
- Motoro Stringray
- Black Ghost Knife


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## Smiladon (Apr 23, 2010)

I added Indo Dats to my 100% list. I will be buying 2 from Snow.

My current list of fish:
- 5 Tin Foil Barbs (getting from another member)
- 1 Black Arowana (from Charles)
- School of Clown Loaches (already have them in 75Gallon tank)
- 2 Indo Datnoid (from Snow)

Is that too much? 
Can I add a Fei Feng in there?


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## TCR (Jul 13, 2010)

why not.. one will keep your tank a lil clean and they dont get enourmously huge (12" i think)


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## BubbaGump_59 (Jul 23, 2010)

I would definitely get a fire eel i have two and they are by far my favorite fish! they have great personalty and they are very sociable with people once there comfortable in there environment. Not to mention they look amazing when they colour up!


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## Smiladon (Apr 23, 2010)

OK.

In that case I will add a Fei Feng and Fire Eel to my list. This means adding another canister filter to this tank in the future, but thats perfectly fine.

Updated List:

My current list of fish:
- 5 Tin Foil Barbs (getting from another member)
- 1 Black Arowana (from Charles)
- School of Clown Loaches (already have them in 75Gallon tank)
- 2 Indo Datnoid (from Snow)
- Fei Feng (from Charles??)
- Fire Eel (no idea)


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## charles (Apr 21, 2010)

one thing to remember, fish like fire eel and CL = ick magnet. Especially CL, they can be a pest for food. They will clean up everything before other fish can get some, especially a bunch of them.

You can keep a small ray for a year or 2 depends on the growth rate. I would skip the tin foil and go with geo.. They are good sand swifter.

I always like doing fish with the same biotope. So why not pick the fish you like, and get the fish around them from the same condition and area... Almost like building part of the river in your tank in a much much smaller scale.


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## Smiladon (Apr 23, 2010)

I know geos are cool fish, but I am specifically looking to add "stupid" fish in the tank, and I like tin foil barbs better than silver dollars.

I've kept tin foils in very high pH (8-9) in a Malawi Biotype tank before and they were doing very well.
As far as the loaches go, I might just leave them in my 75 Gallon tank. The only problem is that my 75Gallon tank is way overstocked right now because I added a lot of cardinals and rummy nose tetras from my 125Gallon tank into this tank. Lets see how it goes


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## charles (Apr 21, 2010)

what do you mean by "stupid" fish? You mean like fool proof fish? Then Geo. falls into that class.


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## Phillyb (Jan 18, 2011)

yeah also curious on the "stupid fish"


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## Smiladon (Apr 23, 2010)

stupid fish = not too smart

Geos and other cichlids are much smarter than a regular average fish.


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## Smiladon (Apr 23, 2010)

Update:

So far I got the following:
- 5 Tin Foil Barbs
- 2 Tire Track Eels (cant find any fire eels...still looking for one)
- 2 Silver Arowana (black didn't come in, so got silvers for now)

Unfortunately, I can't find any big Fei Fengs to add to my 125 Gallon tank. Charles has some smaller ones (3" or less), but I probably cant keep them in with the other fish as they will out-compete for food. My arowanas are having a hard time getting food because of the barbs. Any ideas on this would be great. 

Fish to Get:
- Fei Feng 
- Fire Eel


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## hgi (Jun 13, 2010)

Piranha's!

Or a big shrimp tank


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## tony1928 (Apr 22, 2010)

Fei fengs are voracious eaters....the only fish that could compete with those guys were my red hook silver dollars. Between those two, there wasn't much left for anyone else! 

I don't know any tricks to getting your aros food. Once bigger, they probably are fine.


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## Smiladon (Apr 23, 2010)

Thats good information Tony 

Do you think 3" or less Fei Fengs will be ok with 5 x 6"-7" Tin Foil barbs?
I wouldn't want to keep them in a separate tank until they grow bigger.


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## tony1928 (Apr 22, 2010)

I think they should be fine if you are asking if they would be able to coexist relatively peacefully. Those fish are all pretty tough and can fend for themselves. The fei fengs never really bothered anyone but each other as they got older.


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## King-eL (Apr 21, 2010)

Smiladon said:


> Update:
> 
> So far I got the following:
> - 5 Tin Foil Barbs
> ...


2 silver arowana in a 125g with a 18" width, not a good idea. I won't recommend any arowanas in a 18" width tank. Silver arowana will get up to more than 2 feet in less than 2 years. They are the fastest and the biggest arowana. Black arowana will get up to 20-25" in 2 years. Unless you plan on selling them before they hit that size. You will need a 30"+ width for any arowana species.


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## beN (Apr 21, 2010)

Hey Smiladon,

how big is your tiretrack???

beN


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## Smiladon (Apr 23, 2010)

King-eL said:


> 2 silver arowana in a 125g with a 18" width, not a good idea. I won't recommend any arowanas in a 18" width tank. Silver arowana will get up to more than 2 feet in less than 2 years. They are the fastest and the biggest arowana. Black arowana will get up to 20-25" in 2 years. Unless you plan on selling them before they hit that size. You will need a 30"+ width for any arowana species.


I have a plan to buy a house by the end of next year and at that time, my plan is to build a 1000Gallon Tank. I talked about it before the server crashed (if you dont remember). If my plan doesnt work out, then I will probably sell the arowanas or give them away. 



beN said:


> Hey Smiladon,
> 
> how big is your tiretrack???
> 
> beN


The tire tracks are small. They are around 6.5" long. I got them from Fantasy Aquatics. $10 each since they are on sale.


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## beN (Apr 21, 2010)

darn only if they were bigger, 

i was pondering a trade for my fire eel..

unless you have a juicy filter??


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## Smiladon (Apr 23, 2010)

beN said:


> darn only if they were bigger,
> 
> i was pondering a trade for my fire eel..
> 
> unless you have a juicy filter??


Whats a Juicy Filter? You mean the ones used to squeeze out orange juice? 

The cheapest or crappiest one I have is an FX5. 

I dont mind buying the eel off you (for the right price)


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## beN (Apr 21, 2010)

how old is that fx5..??
i need a quick solution for my tank..


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## Smiladon (Apr 23, 2010)

PM on the way


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## Smiladon (Apr 23, 2010)

bumping this thread up 

The barbs seem to be very voracious, so I had to move the tire track eels to a different tank. Due to this, fire eels might have to wait.

Since I cant get eels, I am planning on adding a Fei Feng and a few more tin foil barbs. What do you guys think?


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## Mferko (Jun 8, 2010)

tropheus


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## Smiladon (Apr 23, 2010)

which tropheus? lol


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