Can You Breed Firemouths In Community Tanks?

[Blue Ramirezi]

everything is perfect for them but they have quite a load of tank mates, tank mates include: 1x boesemani rainbow 1x dwarf neon rainbow 1x red rainbow 4x firemouths (incl. pair) 1x chinese algae eater 2x figure eight puffers 1x yoyo loach 2x vieja melanurus 5x red eye congo tetras 1x triangle cihlid and 3x silver dollars

 

[lloyd]

Yes you can but you have a few stocking issues to worry about if you ask me. The fact that your fish arent breeding might be testimant to that. How bigs your tank

 

[Blue Ramirezi]

120cm x 50cm x 50 cm and they are breeding, its just I don't know if the eggs will be ok, the female is pregnant and they rub fins all day, but I'm scared the eggs will get eaten

 

[lloyd]

The main "eater would be the chinese algae eater especially at night as the parents wont be able to defend them. Also the yoyo loaches may be a problem at night but not 100%sure if there nocturnal.......i think they are...........have you ever considered cutting down on some of your fish it is very overstocked

 

[Blue Ramirezi]

yeah ino i have thought about it, my solution was getting a new tank but my mom was like NOOO NOOO NOOO AND NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! and i wuz like jeez, but i will find a plan

 

[onidrase]

1x boesemani rainbow 1x dwarf neon rainbow 1x red rainbow 4x firemouths (incl. pair) 1x chinese algae eater 2x figure eight puffers 1x yoyo loach 2x vieja melanurus 5x red eye congo tetras 1x triangle cihlid and 3x silver dollars

Boesmani rainbows, neon rainbows, an red rainbows are all schooling fish, and just like tetras, need to bekt kept with 6 of their own kind.

yoyo loaches are also schoolers.

The chinese algae eater was a horrible idea. They'll be sure to suck on any fish they can get a hold of and leave horrible scars and even open wounds when they mature.

The viejas are going to get too large for your tank.

The breeding pair of firemouths may beat the living crap out of the other firemouths eventually.

Don't know much about triangle cichlids. But they get big just like the viejas. And all cichlids like their space.

Figure eight puffers are brackish water, and won't last all too long when kept permanently in fresh water.

 

[Blue Ramirezi]

....So I'm skrewed?

 

[Blue Ramirezi]

Oh by the way, I'm not sure if you will believe me on this one, but the dwarf neon schools with the red eye congo tetras.

 

[onidrase]

Oh by the way, I'm not sure if you will believe me on this one, but the dwarf neon schools with the red eye congo tetras.

schooling fish will school with siilar sized fish under desperation. when my red eye tetra's buddied died, he schooled with the black skirt tetras for a while, though it was animated and not very natural, to say the least. He didn't start acting normal again till I got him 5 more buddies.

 

[Blue Ramirezi]

The boesemani rsainbow also occasionally schools with them, like he is now, except its really wierd cause he's double their size

 

[onidrase]

....So I'm skrewed?

honestly, you'd be best taking every single fish back except for the breeding pair of firemouths and the red eye congo tetras, and starting over with a bit more research in mind. It seems to me like you made a lot of impulse buys and ended up with a tank full of miss matched fishes. Though they may be getting along now, they won't as adults.

For example, I would love to have an oscar. I could put a baby oscar in my tank. And it would get along well with my baby green terror and baby severum. However, that would make 3 fish that get about a foot long, in a tank with not nearly enough territory for them all to claim. They'd also have big bioloads, and I'd have to be doing huge, frequent water changes to keep the nitrates down and to keep them from getting bacterial infections.

In your case, you've got the viejas which I believe get nearly a foot and a half long each, the triangle which I believe gets about a foot, 4 firemouths which all get 6 inches, and countless schooling fish, as well as two messy brackish water puffers which may grow to be nippy toward your other fish. The viejas and triangle would make more than enough poo on their own to cause a breeding ground for columnaris or flukes. So even if all the cichlids did get along, they'd be very prone to getting parasites or lethal bacterial diseases.

 

[Blue Ramirezi]

I see, could I get more tanks? And spread those out?

 

[onidrase]

I see, could I get more tanks? And spread those out?

you could get a 30 gallon or so for the firemouths, but the triangle and viejas will all need 1 huge tank or 3 seperate 75+ tanks to themselves (probably even bigger for the viejas) so I don't think it'd work like that.

 

[Blue Ramirezi]

No no no , the viejas are gohats that

 

[onidrase]

No no no , the viejas are gohats that

huh?