In My Search To Add Someone Interesting To My Tank

[Cheese Specialist]

Hey,

I have a fairly large community tank and am looking at adding some interesting fish to it. I have posted in oddballs but I also find cichlids great. I have kept angels, discus, kribs and benitochromis nigrodorsalis at some time or another and all but the discus in a community tank. I am just wondering if there are any other cichlids that would be suited to my set up and the fish there already.

I am in this section as I am under the impression that there are more less aggressive NW cichlids than other but I am open to suggestions.

At this point I am just getting a feel of what I can do and there are so many types of cichlid that I thought it would be good to ask.

My tank details are in my sig.

D

 

[invader]

You could try out different types of Geophagus species. They come in all sizes and are extremely colorful. Here are some for you to look at:

Geophagus steindachneri (Red Hump Geophagus)

Geophagus brasiliensis (Mother of Pearl Cichlid)

Satanoperca jurupari (Satan's Perch)

I own 2 Juruparis and 2 Brasiliensis at the moment, and they are wonderful to watch. The Jurupari are always sifting through the substrate. They are better kept in groups, so if you like one over the other, you should get a couple of them. They are pretty peaceful, but in my experience, when Brasiliensis are trying to mate, they are beyond agressive. They killed 2 of my fish (one was a belly crawler pike!), and now the male is on his own in a different tank.

Sorry if I seem like I am pushing this on you... I love Geophagus.

 

[Dwarfs]

I'll point you towards dwarf cichlids

They may not be the hardiest fish, but they are great. There are so many that I can't really give you any specific ideas, but apistos, nannacara, and dwarf acaras (2 species of the Laetecara genus) are all great

 

[love_fish]

Yea, maybe a bolivian/blue ram pair?

 

[aardvarkfromspace]

keyhole cichlids!!!!

 

[Cheese Specialist]

To be honest at this stage I don't think I need to worry too much about hardy fish. My tank is always healthy as far as I know and always understocked and over filtrated (I am lazy!).

I have to think about something that I can get hold of and colour would be nice. I looked at oddballs but I think the majority are tankbusting, tankmate eaters and I will steer clear (although I like goby/gudgeon ).

Rams are gorgeous fish. How are they with each other? I had 2 females and 2 male kribs in the tank once and it was a nightmare with the females fighting. How are rams (and others you mentioned) like that?

 

[invader]

If you have 2 males, they will definitely fight, so it's better to have 2 females for every male. (Distraction?) As far as I know, Geophagus are non-agressive, unless you get a pair. If you really want a passive one, the Jurupari is the best. (or possibly red humps, but I don't own those, so you'd have to ask someone else)

 

[lucky62]

To be honest at this stage I don't think I need to worry too much about hardy fish. My tank is always healthy as far as I know and always understocked and over filtrated (I am lazy!).

I have to think about something that I can get hold of and colour would be nice. I looked at oddballs but I think the majority are tankbusting, tankmate eaters and I will steer clear (although I like goby/gudgeon ).

Rams are gorgeous fish. How are they with each other? I had 2 females and 2 male kribs in the tank once and it was a nightmare with the females fighting. How are rams (and others you mentioned) like that?

IMO rams are like pansies compared to kribs , and make good community fish , some can be very weak due to captive breeding .
I keep peacock gudgeons with badis badis , Cockatoo , agassizi apistos , and checker board cichlids .
nannacara are in another tank , cuz they bred , in another tank I have some Borelli apistos .All great fish .

Honey , croaking and sparling gouramis are good choices almost forgot , this is the cichlid forum

Killies can beautiful fish too , I put some small "Gardeneri [?}" in with neons , had to take them out after one removed an eyeball from a neon [ 3 weeks now , the neon seems fine ]


look into pelvicachromis taeniatus [ west African ] . These are said to be less aggressive than P. Pulcher [ common Krib . Never kept them , maybe someone here or on the African Cichlid forum has . [ if breeding isn't what you want get either 2 males or 2 females , or just one fish .]

 

[yvez9]

i keep 2 male bolivian rams in a 50 gallon community
they do "fight" but for about 2 seconds then the weaker one runs away.

blue/gold rams are quite sensitive and can introduce all sorts of diseases because of weak immune systems. I tried keeping them but they didn't last very long. I kept them for about a month and they were sick all the time. strated with ich, and then something else and they eventually died.

keyhole cichlids are quite cool and not too agressive either. they also grow larger then rams

 

[Cheese Specialist]

Thanks for all your replies. I got a couple of tiny altum angels today as I couldn't resist so I think it's looking at a straight community now.

I am hoping my juvinille scissor tail rasbora will grow to their adult fatter state before the angels start seeing them as food. At the moment the angels are literally 10p piece size and are the same length as the rasbora. lol

Awwwww