150-gallon tank

[Jessie J.]

Maybe this year or sometime next year (probably next year) I am going to finish and try to publish some books I am currently writing about Mystery snails, aquarium fish, hermit crabs, etc. And with the money, if I have enough and space permits, I am going to get a 150-gallon (or a 200+ gallon if I can get a concrete floor for my fish room). Here's the stocking list, I'm still researching exact needs but here goes:

• Breeding pair of Convict cichlids (from another tank)
• Red & white parrot cichlids and about seven jellybean parrot cichlids
• Red terror cichlid breeding pair
• Electric blue acara cichlid breeding pair (just an idea)
• 5 Bristlenose plecos of assorted sexes (Calico, Green phantom, albino longfin, super red, starry)

So will these fish get along together (mostly worried about the plecs) and will the breeding pairs cause trouble even with ample hiding spaces? Also will the conditions be right for all these fish? I'm probably the one who should be looking this up, so, lazy me. Can you recommend any other cichlids or large fish that would breed easily and will get along and share the tank nicely? Thanks!

 

[Colin_T]

If you want to breed cichlids you are better off keeping 1 species (1 pr) per tank. If you have several prs of different cichlids in a community tank, there will be fights when they breed. Having a male only tank or female only tank will help with less aggression due to no pairs.

The red terrors (Cichlasoma festae) will probably kick the crap out of everything when they start breeding. My boss had a pr of C. festae in an 8ft tank with parrots, Texas, Jack Dempsey and something else. They were fine until they decided to breed. They went nuts and took over the entire tank. We had to remove everything except the pr and they went us too when we tried to clean the tank.

As for conditions, you will have to provide us with the water parameters before we can answer that

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There are quite a few different types of Australian and New Guinea Rainbowfish that grow to 4-5 inches and are peaceful and easy to breed. I wouldn't keep them with the C. festae but they would be fine with the plecos convicts and Blue Acaras.

There's more info on rainbowfish at the following link.
http://rainbowfish.angfaqld.org.au/Melano.htm