Big Sized Cichlids And Tank Mates

[MermaidMel]

Mel - IIRC you aren't too far from Wildwoods right? When I went in last month they had both Cupid Cichlids and Ellioti, and according to Tropical Fish Finder they've got 2 Cupids in at the moment. I wasn't sure about them as I've read they can be fairly aggressive, but if they've got enough room to establish their own territory apparently they can be alright. Another option is a Rainbow cichlid - I added one 2-3 months ago to my setup and he's a coloured up beautifully - the photo's on the internet don't do that fish justice. A relatively peaceful SA cichlid, probably the safer of the above options.

Given your tank size though I'd be fairly careful, and wouldn't add any more than one more cichlid.

Yes mate, thanks that is good to know. I would be tempted to add another Eheim up the other end in order to be able to stock a bit more. Been keeping fish for 11 years now, I do tend to overstock but it's never a problem and I know what I'm doing with regards to that, it's just with the more aggressive set up it's not as simple as just overstocking like you can with 200 harlequins lol. All I was really concerned about tbh was making sure the plecos survive the bigger fish additions.

Funnily enough I was planning on buying a shoal of tiger barbs or pentazona barbs or are they the same thing?

My keyholes do really well, they've all been together a while now and the acara is younger than they are, they are a good deal older. I was gonna buy a few more to build up the shoal.

Pentazona's and Tigers are different fish - Pentazona's are smaller and more peaceful (a very underrated fish IMO.) Tigers can be more aggressive (though less so if kept in bigger numbers) and seem more active than Pentazona's.

Would you go for tigers or pentazona's or mix them up? Still not 100% decided but do need dithers definitely. had neglected that area of the tank, it looks kind of boring in there without the busyness of a shoal of dithers

 

[tenohfive]

Personally I'd go for Rainbows, but given the choice of Tigers of Pentazona's in a robust cichlid setup I'd go for Tigers. And definately worth upping the filtration. None of the cichlids should touch the plecs but with the wrong mix/too many they'll rip each other apart. Some of that can be managed by rescaping etc so they all have to establish territories from scratch, but ultimately you might add a cichlid and have to later rehome it.

 

[MermaidMel]

Personally I'd go for Rainbows, but given the choice of Tigers of Pentazona's in a robust cichlid setup I'd go for Tigers. And definately worth upping the filtration. None of the cichlids should touch the plecs but with the wrong mix/too many they'll rip each other apart. Some of that can be managed by rescaping etc so they all have to establish territories from scratch, but ultimately you might add a cichlid and have to later rehome it.

Yeah totally agree with you there, fish keeping is a punt at the best of times, I've had to remove feisty rainbow sharks in the past!

Right now, I have all my fish in a 20 litre holding tank for the day right next to me (being watched like a hawk) whilst my floor is being changed in the living room and none of them are at all bothered by each other even in that tiny space, they are all coloured up lovely, in fact the jack dempsey only coloured back up once she was back with her mates... bless them!

Yeah I think I will add another external to the other side, it can't hurt. Having said that I think the one I have is for 600 litre tanks and mine is a 270 litre tank, so still ok for the minute

 

[england]

I personally think that is a good stock of cichlids, otherwise you may start having issues, that will lead to you wanting to quit again,

Odessa and t barbs are nice for dithers.

 

[tenohfive]

Yeah I think I will add another external to the other side, it can't hurt. Having said that I think the one I have is for 600 litre tanks and mine is a 270 litre tank, so still ok for the minute

Depends whether or not you believe the marketing hype - it's perfect world pump output is 1000 lph and the minimum recommended output I tend to run with is around 6x tank turnover, so (without taking into account it won't actually be outputting 1000 lph) some extra filtration would probably be a good thing. I'm about to get the filtration for my 98 USG tank setup - that'll be running a 2222, an XP2 and a 305 which should just hit the 6x mark.

And Nelly has a point, if the hassle that goes with trying to keep additional cichlid's happy is going to bother you it might be worth staying as you are.

 

[MermaidMel]

Yeah I think I will add another external to the other side, it can't hurt. Having said that I think the one I have is for 600 litre tanks and mine is a 270 litre tank, so still ok for the minute

Depends whether or not you believe the marketing hype - it's perfect world pump output is 1000 lph and the minimum recommended output I tend to run with is around 6x tank turnover, so (without taking into account it won't actually be outputting 1000 lph) some extra filtration would probably be a good thing. I'm about to get the filtration for my 98 USG tank setup - that'll be running a 2222, an XP2 and a 305 which should just hit the 6x mark.

And Nelly has a point, if the hassle that goes with trying to keep additional cichlid's happy is going to bother you it might be worth staying as you are.

Very true and if I am adding tiger barbs, I don't want my keyholes to be upset either

 

[ChilliPepper]

I'd up the filtration a bit. I have a 2217 on my 50g, which does the job well. However I don't have big cichlids in there. I just have a Keyhole, a juvi Geo of some description, a Ram and an Apisto, so no great waste producers.

I am very surprised your Gold hasn't grown much in 2 years. I bought my old Green as a 1" fish and she was about 5" and very chunky when I sold her about a year later. My Red Spot is now massive compared to when I bought him. I don't think yours is stunted as you have him in a 4ft, but maybe as others have said, he's just a runt. Cute one though

I seriously doubt any of fish would even try and eat any of your plecs. Most fish don't even look at them.

I agree with Verminator that Keyholes are a shy fish, so would caution putting them with the other fish, but who knows it could work. I know my Keyhole loved my Green when she went in there temporarily as she was naughty lol. He showed off something chronic, beautiful colours. The Acara would be the one to watch.

 

[hamfist]

I personally think that is a good stock of cichlids, otherwise you may start having issues, that will lead to you wanting to quit again,

Yes, there's a lot to be said for leaving things well alone. When adding more cichlids to an established cichlid community it is so easy to permanently ruin the peace. Sometimes, even if you remove the fish that started the trouble, the others have now been wound up and may continue the bickering.