Electric Blue Ahli

[angelag01]

I am new to fishkeeping but have kept all kinds of animals, exotics, and plants for 25 years. I am doing all the research I can and plan on fishless cycling my tank and also getting some media from the store.

I am really interested in starting a cichlid tank and my favorites are the blue ahli. I have read about them and will still continue to do so. would a 55 gallon, 4ft by 1ft by 1ft be an appropriate tank? It has two filters. I know that they like to have wider tanks than talk. If I definitely want the ahli, how many? And would say a Taiwanese peacock or a blue dolphin be ok? How many of each? Any advice would be great. Thanks!

 

[Hermithall]

Hi, 4x1x1 foot tank only holds 25 gallon (30ish USg) I'm afraid so the tank is way too on the small side - otherwise though I've read peacock cichlids and blue dolphins are good tank mates for blue haps. Maybe it was a typo and your tank is 2 ft high? That would be closer to 55g, which is minimal I'd say for haps, which can reach 7 inches. Only the male haps are electric blue as you probs already know, the females are drab grey - and males shouldn't really be combined unless they have places and space to get away from each other. One male with two or three females is the way to go. A good feature with blue haps is you don't need the huge and often ugly pile of rocks in the centre of your tank. I've never kept dolphins or peacocks, so won't comment further on them.

 

[Blubble37]

 

[angelag01]

Auto correct sucks. Lol. It is a 55 gallon tank. I was at the aquarium store today and they have a display tank full of all different kinds and sizes of cichlids. They all look great and they have had that tank for a long time. They told me the secret is having plenty of places for the fish to hide. Is this true?