HELP?? 200 Gallon Fresh Water Tank

[Jordan Jacob]

Can you guys recommend some fish for my new 200 aquarium in my house? I love watching the fish but don't like looking after them (I am not a hobbyist). I pay professionals to come in and maintain the tank - I obviously feed the fish.

My tank use to be salt water but the fish were dying too often and I was limited in the amount I could have.

My goals are: 1) As many different looking fish as possible (diff species). 2) Many different colors 3) Long life and compatibility obviously.

Please recommend what you think is my best route to accomplishing all 3 goals.

Thanks

 

[Quicklynx]

Various clown and botia loaches for the bottom, as well as pictus cats.

Lots of different colored Angels you can choose from in the middle, along with neons, danios, barbs etc..

Rainbowfish would also be great.

Dwarf cichlids. Personally, I like the Apistogramma Cacatuidoes the most.

Rams would bring out some great color, especially the Germans, but the Germans in particular are finicky.

You can get one pleco and there are some great color options. Blue or Green Phantom, or Gold Nugget.

Couple different colors of Guoramis, Cory catfish, Platys, guppies would also bring some fun colors.

All that I just listed should work together fine in a community tank as long as you don't mix the dwarf cichlid species or have more than one pleco.

 

[Quicklynx]

To add, I would stay away from the sharks as I've had several that turn pretty aggressive over time.

If you want a lot of color with various sources a non hostile community tank is the way to go.

If you're up for same species, you can go African Cichlids and get a ton of color that way.

 

[Hersheyb]

for freshwater, cichlids is prob your best choice, many different colors and you can have a pretty community tank... they are pretty hardy and low maintenance.

 

[reefing is my hobby]

I personally have a 75 gallon heavy planted tank with co2 and fertilizer that I love, I have it stocked with 29 tetras (15 rummy nose and 14 neon tetras) (thinking about adding a dozen silver tip tetras for their well known puppy dog personality of meeting the owner) I also have 6 corie cats for a different swimming motion than the tetras and 3 oto's and 2 hill stream leaches. At any given time I also have 50 to 60 cherry shrimp and the bio load self determins the population of my snail colony. If you wanted more color you could mix in guppies for live breeding but beware of ph this tipe of tank gives you a lot of schooling and look over there type of looks and the freedom of a large stocking list do to the size of the fish.
Now if you like the idea of more color less action and more surreal with plants you can go discuss only.
If you don't want plants and still want color and lots of personality and don't mind doing a little research for compatibility then go with cichlids.
You can also go many different ways than listed but that gives you a few ideas .

 

[Geonet]

. I pay professionals to come in and maintain the tank - I obviously feed the fish.

I read this and started wondering who you are paying.But I do agree with Africans..they are tough and beautiful.

Geonet

 

[Marco S]

I always dreamed of having a large tank full of different Tetras and a few large angels. I'm talking like hundreds of Cardinal Tetras, Blue Neon, Green Neon, Black and yellow and Ruby Nose Tetras all swimming around in large schools. I'd have tons of live plants and wood. I have a smaller version of this in a 45 gallon tank, but only have about 50 Tetras and it's pretty cool, but a 200 gallon with hundreds would be awesome!

You have to have lots of live plants whatever fish you choose. You can get easy plants that don't require Co2 for lower maintenance and still get the benefits of the plants. My 45 gallon is filled with plants and I have not done a water change in over a year and the parameters are all perfect still, (I did start with RO water though).

Whatever you decide, you may want to look into joining other forums specific to freshwater as this one is specifically focused on Saltwater, (Reef is in the name). But as you can tell by the replies, there are people on here that keep both but you will get way more replies on a freshwater forum.

Good luck with whatever you decide on. ;Happy