Firemouths Are Mean?

[collared_drifter]

ok i have a question about my 2 firemouths.... they are about 4 inches both and nice and fat.. and they are housed with 12 other cichlids... i dont exactly know thier names but 4 of them are black with blue jewel looking things all over them, and 4 are grey (juvinile) with tiger stripes.. some theses guys are only about 1-2 inches.. now i always hear that firemouths are really aggresive.. but they dont try to attack anyone else in the tank.. they are very very peaceful to eachother.. and they dont steal food... do you think they will eventually attack somone? theyve been in there for about 6 months.. somone tell me so i can know early...

 

[pica_nuttalli]

real quick, what size tank?

 

[Ben]

They are only aggresive when put with community fish and become territorial when breeding.
When put with fish that get to the same size and larger they do fine.

Btw,
what size tank do you have?

DD

 

[collared_drifter]

55

 

[collared_drifter]

bumpy...
EDIT..
could i ad some yellow labs to this setup? are all cichlids compatibel with eachother? (besides the huge ones like oscars ect..)

 

[Clairel]

I thought Firemouth's were peaceful??

C x

 

[kat and james]

we had two firemouths, and they became very aggressive towards each other. it turns out that they were tyring to breed !! anyways we took them back (and traded them for our third silver shark), i reckon if we had two females and a male they would have been fine..!

 

[freddyk]

Firemouths are like most cichlids - they're mean when they're not kept properly.

they are housed with 12 other cichlids... i dont exactly know thier names but 4 of them are black with blue jewel looking things all over them, and 4 are grey (juvinile) with tiger stripes.. some theses guys are only about 1-2 inches.. now i always hear that firemouths are really aggresive.. but they dont try to attack anyone else in the tank.. they are very very peaceful to eachother.. and they dont steal food... hehe.gif do you think they will eventually attack somone? theyve been in there for about 6 months..

It seems to me you haven't looked very much into keeping cichlids. When piling random cichlids without knowing what they are, let alone anything about them, the tank tends to eventually become a pool of horrors as the fish mature. What works now because your fish are all young is going to backfire eventually.

are all cichlids compatibel with each other

It's safer to say that most cichlids are not compatible with each other. Some will tolerate others better, but that's as good as it gets.

i reckon if we had two females and a male they would have been fine..!

They probably wouldn't have been. Had research been done and the proper steps taken to get a compatible pair, then it would have been fine. Since they are monomous fish, trio's don't work.

 

[juanveldez]

maybe its just me but me and freddy must be the only people that notice the fact that he has 14 cichlids in a 55, doesn't even know what 12 of them are, and wants to add some yellow labs?


so here are my suggestions.

1 figure out what exactly are the species that you have in your tank first.

2. once you have that figured out I am guessing that you are going to have to get rid of a few of your cichlids.

3 it is also not wise to mix africans with new worlds, ( though some cichlid keepers including myself use yellow labs as dithers) they need different water parameters to thrive.


weither or not you follow the advice is totally up to you. but it is the best advice and place to start.