Firemouth Cichlid Tankmates?

[Plecc]

Hi,

What are good tankmates to keep with firemouth cichlids?

 

[thereverendturtle]

Any larger tetras, barbs, rainbow fish, some other cichlids, swordtails and platies. Really depends on the size of the tank and your water parameters.

Oh, and most catfish and loaches. Not to mention the slew of oddballs....

 

[nuzik]

Any larger tetras, barbs, rainbow fish, some other cichlids, swordtails and platies. Really depends on the size of the tank and your water parameters.

Oh, and most catfish and loaches. Not to mention the slew of oddballs....

sounds like a load then!

 

[Plecc]

Thx for the feedback!

The tank is a 140L running a big 1200L/h external.
It has a sand substrate, lots of slate and mopani root and some java fern at the moment.
Yesterday Ph was 7.5ish at 25 degrees. (Litmus test! so not very accurate)

I have never kept barbs, but have always been quite tempted.
Some have very cool colourations, will barbs school together in a large group?
I'm not really interested in live bearers, swordtails or rainbow fish.
And I have a good selection of tetra, pleco's and loache's.
So more cichlid's has to be the way forward.
For the bottom of the tank i would like some sort of synodontis catfish or a big pack of Corydoras.

Which of the smaller cichlid's would make suitable tankmates?

 

[Crossfire]

Thx for the feedback!

The tank is a 140L running a big 1200L/h external.
It has a sand substrate, lots of slate and mopani root and some java fern at the moment.
Yesterday Ph was 7.5ish at 25 degrees. (Litmus test! so not very accurate)

I have never kept barbs, but have always been quite tempted.
Some have very cool colourations, will barbs school together in a large group?
I'm not really interested in live bearers, swordtails or rainbow fish.
And I have a good selection of tetra, pleco's and loache's.
So more cichlid's has to be the way forward.
For the bottom of the tank i would like some sort of synodontis catfish or a big pack of Corydoras.

Which of the smaller cichlid's would make suitable tankmates?

Wouldn't advise keeping big cichlids with little cichlids, as they will most likely fight.
However, I do have a nice stocking suggestion

1x Firemouth Cichlid
14x Gold Barbs
4x Upside Down Catfish
1x Rio Negro Plec

 

[thereverendturtle]

If it was my setup, I'd do this, with the idea that you are interested in barbs....

1x firemouth
1x blue acara or port acara

These would be the big fish in the tank. Then one group of the following...

12x tiger barbs, your choice of color, mix/match
6x rosy barb
8x Odessa barb
6x spanner barbs
6x aurilius barb

Then avoid the cories, as they might get picked on.

5x Synodontis nigriventris, upside-down cats or
5x yo-yo loaches and
2x bushynose plecos.

 

[Wills]

Hate to do this but... these are both pretty big barbs and I think too big and active for this size tank.

6x spanner barbs
6x aurilius barb

But other than that your stock list sounds awesome (as ever )

Wills

 

[thereverendturtle]

Hate to do this but... these are both pretty big barbs and I think too big and active for this size tank.

6x spanner barbs
6x aurilius barb

But other than that your stock list sounds awesome (as ever )

Wills

Yeah, I wasn't certain the dimensions of the tank, so just threw those in as a possible option.

 

[Tizer]

My female Firemouth dwarfs my two males, not sure i'd be overly happy about keeping them in a small tank like 140 litres...however, i do recommend you don't add any neon tetras or fish of similar size as they will be considered dinner when the Firemouths are big enough to snack on them. Tiger barbs is a nice suggestions, but they will limit you even more than the Firemouths for further stocking. Corys however, will be fine with FMs, they are too spikey for the majority of fish to become food.

 

[Plecc]

Thx again all,

I think I'm starting to get my head round this now!

Just found out my tank is a 150L. (3ft long, 1.5ft tall and 1.25ft width)
External is a Aquamanta EFX 300 rated for a 300L tank.
So i must be able to get away with lightly overstocking

At current I have 3 juvenile firemouths which I think is two males and a female, the dominant male and the female appear to be pairing up.
If they turn out to be a breading pair, the other male is likely to get rehomed.
Think this is for the best, I don't really want any love triangles going on!

I would love to replace him with a blue Acara but am I not pushing my luck in this sized tank?

As for the bottom I really like the look of Synodontis multipunctatus but I'm not sure how many would be suitable.
Or I may just add my flash pleco.

And for higher up in the tank, I'm very tempted to go for just green tiger barbs, but again not too sure how many.

 

[thereverendturtle]

The Synodontis multipunctatus should be kept in groups of 5+ and at a max size of almost 9" they would be to large. The dwarf cuckoo syno would be a better choice. Still needs to be in groups, but would stay a much more manageable size.

8-12 green tiger barbs would be a good grouping.

 

[Tizer]

The trouble with Synos is that you have to give them lots of tubing for them to hide in, they rarely venture out when the lights are on and unless you keep them in a big group, as already mentioned, you will have fish that you will never see. Personally, i wouldn't stock them in a small(ish) tank like yours. A dozen or so Tiger barbs is a good number though and on their own they will liven up the tank lots! But do your research with them, there really isn't much for small tanks that they wont stress out and eventually kill.

 

[Plecc]

I have heard similar tings about barbs, that's the main reason I haven't kept them so far.
All my other tanks are community tanks.

With the firemouths I think this tank would be classed as a semi aggressive tank, is that correct?
Would the barbs ever be cheeky enough to harass the firemouths or any bottom dwellers?

Lol, I should have done a bit more research on the Synodontis multipunctatus, rookie mistake!

Its the shame about the dwarf cuckoo syno's, I'm really looking for entertaining active bottom feeder.
I know that pretty much describes loaches but do any smaller cat's exhibit this behavior?

 

[minnnt]

My Ellioti left my Cories alone, but hated my L001 and would often appear with massive chunks of his dorsal fin missing. It didn't bother him as he was a chunky robust plec, but wasn't very nice to see.

Tiger Barbs will be a safe bet and won't bother the FM's much is at all.

 

[Plecc]

Great!

So, can I get away with?

6 Tiger Barbs
6 Green Tiger Barbs
2 Firemouth Cichlids
3 Bottom feeders (3"ish)

How are the two groups Tiger Barbs likely to react to each other?

That's surprising that the pleco got attacked! I was sure plecos would be fine.