945 Litre New World Cichlid Tank...

[fall-apart-dave]

Please forgive me if this is posted in teh wrong forum, but:

Having listened to advice on here, and from friends of mine who keep aquariums, I have decided to go for the following:

Heavily plated in a sand substrate
A few large rocks stacked towards one (the darker) end of the tank
Various pieces of bogwood in the tank
Good airation for the plants

Into this environment I would like to add a variety of invertibrate life, namely shrimp. Considered crabs or crayfish, but I think on reflection, that may be a bad idea given my choice of fish

Now, the tank will have a pair of angels moving in along with about six clown loaches, because fish outgrowing my old tank was the whole point of the new tank and the larger tankmates are being re-homed.

New world Cichlids, with a few plecs and a couple of catfish. But, which ones? I am relatively inexperienced with aquariums having only kept my 80 litre tank which I've had now for about two years with good success.

I am leaning towards having a small number of larger species, but want to steer clear of the more destructive ones! I quite like the look of Golden Severums, Green Terrors, Blue Acara, Bolivian Ram, Texas, Firemouths and German Rams. Now, I know this is a long list of Cichlids, but I really have no idea which combination would live together well in a tank of this size, and whether to keep them together as a breeding pairs, or alone. I also wouldn't know which Plecs and Cats to house with this type of tank.

I really need advice on what to use - lots of species, one or two species? Lots of fish or only a few? Any help would be greatly appreciated because, as it stands, I'm the typical beginner who just likes teh look of them and has no actual idea, other than what I have read on the fish, which would be suitable.

Long winded, confusing and probably very few people will answer, but there it is!

Thanks in advance!

Dave

 

[Davo86]

I am leaning towards having a small number of larger species, but want to steer clear of the more destructive ones! I quite like the look of Golden Severums, Green Terrors, Blue Acara, Bolivian Ram, Texas, Firemouths and German Rams. Now, I know this is a long list of Cichlids, but I really have no idea which combination would live together well in a tank of this size, and whether to keep them together as a breeding pairs, or alone. I also wouldn't know which Plecs and Cats to house with this type of tank.

ok as you have angels already you can't really add anything too aggressive, so i would say that rules out the Green Terror and Texas Cichlid,
I have kept a blue acara with 3 angels, 2 bolivian rams and 2 kribs before and not had any problems,

IMO it would be best to pick from these:, Gold Severum (youngest), Firemouths (youngest), Blue acara(youngest), Keyholes, Blue Rams, Bolivian Rams, Apistos, (kribs would be fine but are african)

with some of these fish you can sometimes get aggression but in a dense large tank like yours i think you will be ok.

as for bottom swimmers you could look at smaller plecs - bristlenose, bulldog etc. raphael cats, Flying Fox,

The only other problem you may face is that if you get a pair of any species you may have to remove them or risk them injuring over fish

 

[fall-apart-dave]

Right, so breeding pairs out of the question then! I already have Kribs in my other tank, so don't want more. Angels have to move, tey are too big so they have to live with the angels whatever I choose.

Why smaller plecs? I was hoping for a couple of larger ones. I have a bulldog in my other tank (did have two but one snuffed it - never did work out why!).

Thats a shame, the texas and Green Terror were two of my favourites! Would it not help if I bought them young and small, giving the angels chance to grow more before they get big enough to bully them?

 

[Davo86]

It may work but I'd say that is highly unlikely with these two species due to aggresion when mature.

they would not also be a big threat to the angels but also to pretty much all of the cichlids i suggested.

The reason for saying smaller plecs is because you referred to the tank being heavily planted, a large common or sailfin pleco could easily consume much of the plants, (may want further advice on this as i may be totally wrong here)

with the fish suggested i would say larger armoured and bamboo shrimp should be ok too.

 

[fall-apart-dave]

Ah yes, plants getting eaten... Something I had to deal with in the other tank. To be honest, the way I dealt with it before was to just keep replacing the plants until I found stuff they didn't like, and kept an eye on the water and what else they were eating while they were doing it so they didn't overfeed themselves. It worked because now I have a few nicely placed plants that don't get eaten!

 

[jakeroberts]

i am just curois what are the deimensions for this tank

 

[fall-apart-dave]

The dimensions are a little over 96" x 30" x 20" (rounding down to the nearest inch). The exact measurements off the top of my head are something like 96.7" x 30.5" x 20.7" or there abouts.

Why do you ask?

 

[Luketendo]

The dimensions are a little over 96" x 30" x 20" (rounding down to the nearest inch). The exact measurements off the top of my head are something like 96.7" x 30.5" x 20.7" or there abouts.

Why do you ask?

Quite a lot of fish like dimensions past a certain limit. For example, Mbuna like 4 Foot+ length, Angelfish like 18 inches+ tall.

 

[fall-apart-dave]

Ah right! Well, at 96 inches long and 30 inches tall, I don't think I'll be having problems with the fish I am looking at!

 

[jakeroberts]

The dimensions are a little over 96" x 30" x 20" (rounding down to the nearest inch). The exact measurements off the top of my head are something like 96.7" x 30.5" x 20.7" or there abouts.

Why do you ask?

Quite a lot of fish like dimensions past a certain limit. For example, Mbuna like 4 Foot+ length, Angelfish like 18 inches+ tall.

that is exactly why i asked

 

[fall-apart-dave]

Well, will have to start choosing soon!