Help! was sold a "Peaceful" Cichlid

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johnnyr

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I recently purchased a cichlid for my new 55 gallon tank, and after talking with one of the employees (very knowlegable) asked him what cichilds could go in a community tank. he pointed out that very few were suited for that, and they were all dwarf cichlids. He showed me a few, one that had a scientific name that started with an A. anyway, I was looking in another tank and my mother (who was also there) pointed out one she likes. The employee said that it was the type of cichlid he was talking about earlier. The tank we were looking at had a large gourami, an australian rainbow, jack damsy, and the cichlid i purchased. When I got home, I noticed he looked very much like a green terror. I'm very worried now for my other fish. Are there any type of cichlids that look a LOT like a green terror, but are peaceful? I wish I could post a pic, but i can't. It has wavy blue irredecent lines hear its mouth and irredecent dots on it's body, blue lips, 1 black spot in the middle on one side, and horizontal black stripes on it's head going down to it's back. it's only about 3". and hasent shown any real aggessive behavior. It's in with one 4" blue gourami, 6 congo tetras, and 4 albino tiger barbs.

Thanks!
 
it does sound like a green terror

he will have plenty of opportunities to show his agressivity while he settles in and grows to 8 inches. I think you should bring him back to the store and slap that employee.

Then only dwarf cichlids I know of are rams and shell dwellers.

Rams would do well in a community tank with your fish.
 
look at the top of its dorsal fin.what colour is the line on the edge?
yellow=blue acara
orange,red=green terror
white=white saum

HTH

DD
 
I will post this more as a general referance but the GTs sold in most pet stores are actuall gold suams. the true green terror is very rarely offered and was only offered here in the US as recently as this past july
 
And I'd suspect the dwarf cichlid that began with an 'A' was some kind of apistogramma - those are great :)

The horizontal lines puzzle me but I'd guess it's a blue acara which wouldn't be too bad :p

Any chance it's a keyhole? Very unlikely from your description but just maybe...
 
Yes, it could be the blue acara...but the top fin is orange...
 
Ya, being orange it is most likely a green terror. Great fish, but aggressive. They also get quite big(8'). I would return it to the store and get a ram or a kribensis cichlid. Those are great options for a peaceful tank and rather pretty.
 
hmm...I just can't see the employee selling me that fish as a community one...he knows what hes talking about...are there any other distinguishing features I can look at? I've seen pictures of blue acaras with orange top fins...
 

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