Stocking advice

[jazzman]

I am currently in the process of stocking my 75G. I want to have a community tank with several fish and live plants. I have a marineland 400 HOB power filter and have had the tank set up for a year. It previously housed 3 african cichilds which I do not have anymore.

These are the fish I have currently
6x Tiger Barbs
1x Rainbow Shark
1x Common Pleco

What would you add.

My thoughts that are subject to change
4x Tiger Barbs
6x Cherry Barbs
7x Zebra Danios

Any thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated

[NickFish]

Welcome to AC!
What are you going to do with the cichlids you don't want? Bring them back to the store for is always a good idea.

You could probably add those fish. The pleco will get too big for the tank eventually. The tiger barbs may show some aggresssion. I would also add maybe 10 black skirts or 10 rasboras or 10 neons or really just any school of tetras. A pair of honey or dwarf or opaline gouramis would be good too.

[Tolley]

He said he had got rid of them Nick.

How about overall ;
10x Tiger Barbs
1x Rainbow Shark
1x Common Pleco
6x Cherry Barbs
10x Zebra Danios
2x Gourami

Be quite a nice tank.

[jazzman]

I have already taken the cichilds back to the store. I did this before I added my live plants and community fish. The pleco is the only fish I kept from my orginal group. I have tried neon tetras but they have not done well. I put in one group of 4 and then another group of 7 and only have 2 left.

[jazzman]

Tolley,

What kind of Gourami's would you add?

[NickFish]

He said he had got rid of them Nick.

Sorry about that I thought he was just planning on it.

What kind of Gourami's would you add?

A pair of honey or dwarf or opaline gouramis would be good too.

Dwarf gouramis are very colorful but also very prone to disease and can be fin-nippers.
Opaline Gouramis are slightly more hardy and slightly more peaceful although they get about 1" bigger than the dwarfs.
Honey Gouramis are very peaceful and pretty hardy and don't usually get bigger than 4". They are the least colorful of the 3 though.

[Tolley]

Its up to you really, depends what you like.
Heres some that could go;

Honey Gourami ( Orangey Colour )
Dwarf Gourami ( Good range of colours )
Sparkling Gourami ( Otherwise known as pygmy )
Three Spot Gourami ( big larger )

Stay away from Giant Gouramis and Kissing Gouramis

[jazzman]

I like the stocking of

10x Tiger Barbs
1x Rainbow shark
1x Common Pleco
6x Cherry Barbs
10x Zebra Danios
2X Gourami's

Should I add the final 4 Tiger barbs first or can I start adding the the other fish. I thought my next purchase would be 4 more tiger Barbs and 5 Zebra Danios. I am only going to add a few fish every week until fully stocked.

[NickFish]

If you do get 2 gouramis make sure they aren't both male. They will likely be some aggression there. I would get the barbs then go back later and get the danios instead of getting both at the same time.
If you get the rainbow shark make sure you have plenty of hiding places in your tank.

[jazzman]

I already have the Rainbow shark and 6 Tiger Barbs. I do have plenty of hiding places for the shark it is doing really well and has started to come out more since I added more plants.