help with main fish ideas

I am going to set up a planted freshwater tank; I am particular about biotopes as I like themes including the water, plants, hardscape and the fish.

The tank is a 150gal 60x24x24 and I can do with or without sump (I am leaning towards sump/wet-dry for top off and equipment and oxegenation).

I am very open but some of my thoughts are:

-probably not a blackwater tank as they are dim and my wife will probably not like that ;)

-open to any area of the world as long as livestock is not too expensive or difficult to get

-probably not a fast moving water biotope

-have considered angelfish (probably should be blackwater), discus, African bushfish, gouramis.

are there other interesting fish that could be an interesting 'main' fish? other ideas?

Thx all!

When i set up my saltwater tank , i make sure my wife agree with it first before i set up.
I do everthing my wife said. I am a pw guy all the way.

I am not sure all of us here knows much about freshwater?

Been a long time, but I think planted tanks are some of the most beautiful and peaceful setups you can do. Lots of cool livestock choices that mesh well depending on theme. Yolo Loaches and Cory Cats were some of my favorites, energetic and interesting.

thx for the replies, I will see if I can find another place for recommendations.

I personally love a few types of biotopes (though I'm not too familiar with the types of plants you should keep): African and South American still waters, Australian Rainbow, and Southeast Asia river


In order of preference:

African - Congo Tetra (mid level), Butterflyfish (top level), Elephant nose (show fish), Upside down catfish (bottom), and Synodontis catfish (bottom)
pros: butterflyfish/upside down cats/elephant nose.. just a bunch of exotic and interesting characters to look at, and even the congo tetras, I considered some of the most beautiful species of tetras (conversation piece for sure).

South American - Hatchet fish (top), Angelfish or Discus (show fish), Community tetras and cichlids (e.g. Festivum), Plecos and Corydoras (bottom)
pros: Disucs and Angels are I believe the best fish for a living room aquarium, because of the way they cruise around the tank, and Discus are by far the most beautiful FW fish out there (but this setup is not as unique as African fish; pretty much everyone I know in FW has kept an angel)

Australian - Rainbows (too many to list.. All look stunning with a variety of colors), Gudgeons/gobies (bottom)
pros: full of colors, I have not kept this tank before, but have seen it done, and the result is stunning, active and colorful

SEA - Silver sharks, Denison Barb, Redtail Black Shark, Siamese Algae Eater, Loaches (I love yoyo and zebra)
pros: very active and alive never boring to look at, also because loaches and SAE are the best fish for snail and algae control, this tank does maintenance on itself.




I have tried setups similar to all of these, and have worked out great as planted tanks (minimum maintenance, just feeding and top off water)
though I'm not super strict on keeping biotopes, e.g. I added a yoyo loach in my South American tank to take out those pesky snails
and I haven't had a tank big enough to keep some of these species, i.e. Royal Pleco, Elephant Nose, Silver Shark, so I don't know much about them from personal experiences, but yours is 150 long so you can basically have whatever you like.. lucky ~


Lastly, you sound very informed already, but this site has all the information you need for each biotope:
http://fish.mongabay.com/biotope.htm

I happen to specialize in planted tanks if you need help.

Can order up some goodies from my Singapore distributor
My favorite plant from them
"rotala magenta" colors are crazy bright this year!

Rainbows - Red (irian jaya) are great...when they mature. for the better part of a year, you have a fish that looks like sardine with red tint. Go turquoise and/or bosmanii. These are readily available at most LFS. You can also find some rarer ones. As a whole, excellent for planted tank - pretty mellow, they like to flash (nose and spine change colors) when excited about their lady friends, get good size but not too big, and cost isn't crazy. Will breed under right conditions.

Congo tetras - always a favorite, especially under the right lighting. I have some with an old 120w SW panel, and under the actinics they look astounding (and outstanding). Also good citizens, then only get a bit frisky with their own type. I have heard that they are more colorful with a female around (who isn't as pretty), but I have never witnessed that. When you buy them small, you can't always tell male vs. female. If you watch aquatic warehouse, they will get some decent sized ones from time to time that you can tell gender.

Dennison's barb aka roseline barb aka roseline shark. Get a bit bigger than those above (6" maybe), but the body is more torpedo. Really great colors. School pretty well. Good citizen. Much more success as of late with captive breeding which is helping price.

Harlequin rasbora - smaller, school nicely, cool looking fish. Pretty inexpesive.

neon or cardinal tetra - can be a bit delicate, but planted tanks tend to be pretty darn stable. A school of 15 or so takes up little room (or biological filter) and can really 'pop' with a tank.

Corys - my favorite clean up crew. Stay small. Super active. Non-aggressive. Albinos look great, and they school (and will breed).

Shrimp - as long as you don't have anything aggressive or big, there are some really amazing shrimp out there that thrive in FW planted tanks. Even inexpensive bamboo shrimp are super cool looking (they like to sit in front of returns and power heads with their filter arms out, catching dinner.

Plants - oh, so so many. Decide if you are going with CO2 supplement or not. If not, google aquatic plants / bicarbonates. The bicarbonate plants are the ones that will grow well without CO2 as a general rule. There is a really cool book on planted tanks that is pretty cheap - Ecology of The Planted Tank by Diana Walstad. A good read. Even if you don't set up your tank like she suggests, you will get a ton of info on plants that will really help you maximize growth and success. As a general rule, I tend to focus on plant height and coloration when selecting - green gets boring after a while. Brown, red and even purple can really break things up and make them pop. Don't believe that you have to set up with high end expensive soil. I have had great success using bulk pond soil, and just set up a tank using walmart kitty litter (as to the last, don't do it blindly...it is a specific type of clay litter that you are looking for).

Lights - pretty darn important. As with CO2, figure out if you want to keep plants that require a lot of light. If so, you need the right spectrum and enough power. I start mine off at 7 hours per day and adjust from there. For an inexpensive system, I use 5-6k kelvin T8 bulbs. T5s are a good upgrade. LEDs work well. My 120w LED panel I referenced above is surprising me at what it grows in my 120g tank (18" to the bottom).

Last, get some friends that have planted tanks and start swapping cuttings. Cheapest way to get a tank started. It is easy to spend a lot of dough on plants in big tank.

Great info guys! Tagging along on this thread as I'm starting a planted tank.