125 Gallon Aquarium Setup

What are your guys' suggestions on stocking a 125 gallon tank? I originally planned on a school of piranha along with 2 oscars and a pleco. I love large catfish but I dont want them over 10-15". I really think an oscar will be uncomfortable and get too big for my 125. I don't want any small fish or african cichlids. I was thinking maybe 8" bala sharks for dither fish. I would like to hear what you fish people would do for a "show fish" and what kind of dithers would you stock. I'm keeping my oscar for sure but everything else can go into another tank. I have videos and pictures on my profile.

0 members like this

▶ Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Antimony on January 7, 2014 at 2:33am

It's unfortunate that you haven't gotten a reply yet, but better late than never. I have a 125 gallon like you, although my fish selection is a bit different in the 125.Since this was posted a couple weeks back I'm guessing you have added some fish in already, but I'll address your question.

First off I wouldn't recommend you to plant the tank if you are planning too since majority of the fish you mention are aggersive and produce a huge amount of waste, cleaning can be annoying with the plants. Not to mention they would tear things up. Piranhas are seriously aggressive fish (I'm sure you know) and I would definetly keep them by themselves in a 125. They will grow to fill the tank (need more space in the future depending on how big you get them) and are beautiful on their own. You can add other fish like oscars and predatory fish I'm just giving you my opinion.

Oscars do well in 55 gallon+ so you should be fine as long as you don't seriously stock the tank. They will do well in a 125.

I agree with the idea of no small cichlids, unless you are planning to scratch out the piranha and catfish. Oscars do well with their own family of cichlids and do fantastic if raised from a young age. I had jaguar cichlids and oscars along with other cichlids for a long time and they did fine. The oscars and jag naturally grew larger than the other fish but since they were raised from young they didn't attack them.

As for catfish most of the aggressive ones that do well with piranhas such as Red tail catfish, shovelnose, tigers shovel nose, etc etc will grow over 15". Off the top of my head I can't think of any that really work out well with oscars and pirhanas that stop at 15".

Bala sharks work nice when placed in schools and you seem to know what your doing there.

Piranha's are great show fish, any guest will be entertained by the idea of a high level fish such as a piranhas. Feeding can be either really cool or sad depending on how you see it. Oscars look great and so do the Balas. I would personally just choose these setups

1.) 6-9 Red belly pirahnas, RTC (will have to move once it grows)

2.) 1+ Tiger oscars, Bala sharks, and larger cichlids.

Hope that helps