Changing The Tank

[sherlock]

I am looking to start over in my 180 gallon. Currently I have the bigger, more aggressive cichlids, ie, red terror, texas etc. I would like to start a more mellow less messy tank such as an angel/geophagus combination. I am looking for some ideas on some possible combinations that would work in keeping with the SA theme.

[jvision]

I love wild-type angels, and had a shole of 6 in a 135 for quite some time along with some Geophagus sp. "Red Top Tapajos" for a while and G. iporangensis for a while. For dithers I had 4 pairs of Congo tetras and 4 pairs of bleeding heart tetras, and 10 Orange Lazer Corydoras.... oh, and a pair of WC Bristlenose plecos.

I know the Congos aren't SA, but they're a nice big tetra and look good in a big tank. I tried about 80 cardinals for a while, and it didn't take long for the school to get down to the 20s before I pulled them all out.

[sherlock]

That is more or less the direction I was thinking as well. I was thinking of 6 angels, 4-6 g. altifrons, and a group of congos. I am sure that I may be able to fit more in there, but I am not quite sure what yet. There is currently 3 s. multipunctatus which would be staying. Would throwing some rams in work or would the bottom be to full with the geo's?

[Evolution]

6 pink tailed or yellow finned chalceus would be sweet for surface fish.

[jvision]

That is more or less the direction I was thinking as well. I was thinking of 6 angels, 4-6 g. altifrons, and a group of congos. I am sure that I may be able to fit more in there, but I am not quite sure what yet. There is currently 3 s. multipunctatus which would be staying. Would throwing some rams in work or would the bottom be to full with the geo's?

The nice thing w. the 6'x2' footprint is that there should be a lot of space for smaller fish. I think a couple pairs of rams or apistos would be fine - the nice thing about Apistos is that they're cave spawners, so they can keep their spawns out of the way from other possible spawners (angels and geos are substrate spawners).

[sherlock]

Would there not be a conflict with rams/apistos with the geo's, seeing how they are all lower tank fish? So far I have;

5 -Geo orange heads

6 -congo tetras

6 -roseline sharks

6 -philipine blue angels (coming from fairdeal)

3 -syno multi's

Still looking for more ideas or should I leave this alone now?

[jvision]

If you have enough decor to break up line of site, I don't see a problem. I'd go with Apistos, since they're cave spawners and won't get too territorial with the Geos for the 'good' spawning sites.