300 litre tank, dwarf cichlids stocking advice

[Oxfordblue]

Hi,

I have just ordered a new 300 litre aquarium and am trying to come up with a suitable stocking plan. I am hoping to keep a keep a few pairs of dwarf cichlids, a couple of shoals of tetras (possibly including Congo tetras), a plec, and maybe some corys. The footprint of the tank is 115cm x 50cm - how many pairs of dwarf cichlids is this suitable for? I was hoping to get 2x apistogramma of some kind, 2x German blue rams and possibly 2x keyhole cichlids. Would this work?
My local tap water is unfortunately quite hard, but in my current 100L set up (which has a lot of bog wood) things are slightly better (and I have a GN Plec which appears to be thriving). My current conditions are:

GH 140
KH 160
pH 6.8

My new tank will have sand substrate, lots of bog wood, some dragon stone and reasonably heavy planting.

Any advice on numbers of dwarf cichlids, which species to go for/avoid, and suitable tankmates would be much appreciated!

Thanks,

Neil

 

[Wills]

Oooo this sounds interesting! Your water sounds like its going to be good for them.

I'd avoid the blue rams as they really need the tank to be based around them rather than added as a mix. Mixing pairs can be tricky because you never know what will happen when they breed and in your water you will get eggs at some point.

I think I would recommend either doing a hareem of Apistos and go for something like Panduro or Nisjeni so you get the colourful females or 2-3 pairs of dwarf pairing fish like Keyholes, Nannacara, Laetacara etc. You could also look at a group of gregarious cichlids like Cupids or Checkerboards.

The schools sound good but would the Congos be a bit too big with dwarfs? They could steal the show a little? I'd be tempted to keep it South American and go for a diverse mix of Characins with things like Splash Tetras, Spotted Headstanders and an interesting mid water tetra, maybe something smaller but in a big group like Green Neons, Platinums or Embers?

Wills

 

[Oxfordblue]

Thanks for the advice- that’s extremely useful. Will probably give the blue rams a miss as I’d read elsewhere that they can be difficult. Would 1 male and 2 female apistogramma, pair of nannacara and pair of keyholes work?

My 7 year old son is desperate for an angelfish too (I’m less keen!). Would a single angelfish be okay with the dwarf cichlids?

 

[P J]

Thanks for the advice- that’s extremely useful. Will probably give the blue rams a miss as I’d read elsewhere that they can be difficult. Would 1 male and 2 female apistogramma, pair of nannacara and pair of keyholes work?

My 7 year old son is desperate for an angelfish too (I’m less keen!). Would a single angelfish be okay with the dwarf cichlids?

Hi, with good filtration and matured for at least three months you’ll be able to add your choice of dwarf cichlids, they will coexist very well with three or four angels that can be introduced when nitrites have been steady at zero for at least two weeks. Provide plenty of live plants, and caves and surface aeration, small power head. I would certainly add a UVC filter to eliminate bacteria in the water column, for healthy dwarf cichlids. Sounds exciting. PJ

 

[Oxfordblue]

Thanks for the suggestions- I am thinking something along these lines. However I’d read somewhere that if kept as a group, you should have 5+ angels to diffuse aggression? How true is this? In an ideal world, I would probably want three or four as you suggest.

Also trying to decide on a suitable dither fish. Am leaning towards rummy nose tetras, but am reading conflicting reports about whether they’d be okay with angels?! If I bought young angels and reasonably mature rummy nose tetras, would they likely avoid predation? Or am I likely to run into problems further down the line? Any better suggestions?

Tank has been set up a couple of weeks now. I moved a small amount of filter media and some rocks from an established 100L tank. Have also got quite a lot of fast growing plants (inc Amazon sword, limnophilia sessiflora) along with various anubias, ferns etc. I added a small shoal of 5 black phantom tetras from my old tank and so far everything seems very happy. Will monitor closely for the next few weeks...

 

[Guyb93]

Sounds good , I wouldn’t go with Congo tetra to be honest , they are big and wouldn’t keep them with angels because of long fins , I’d get some black skirt tetra for some darkness to contrast with the apistos