Larger Cichlids

[CAC]

Hi, im going to get south american cichlids for my 32UK G tank, and im not sure weather to get smaller community style fish, or weather to get some larger (6" or less) fish to go into the tank...
In terms of larger south americans, i was thinking about some of these species:
Convicts
Juwels
Firemouths
Anything else?

Would i be able to keep a breeding pair, or a couple of those species, or an individual, with some other tankmates?
just wanting to find out so i can make my decision on what fish to get...

All help much appreciated.

Mikey

 

[vancouver]

lol.. I've seen like 5 different topics on what you plan on keeping in this tank..

You could keep a breeding pair of convicts, or jewels, or firemouths in that tank.

 

[CAC]

lol.. I've seen like 5 different topics on what you plan on keeping in this tank..

You could keep a breeding pair of convicts, or jewels, or firemouths in that tank.

I know lol.
im so undecided on what to get....
im defineately going to get south americans though..
went to my LFS today... saw some cool fish:
Juraparis (i know i cant have them)
t-bars (i know i cant have them)
cich salvini (i dont know..cant fisnd out about them?)
green terrors (i know i cant have them)
L66, cant seem to get a clear desc of them on planetcatfish...

So its quite annoying, that most of them are just too big for my tank.
So van you think i could have a breeding pair of convicts, or jewels, or firemouths... without tanksmates presumeably...or not?
Mikey

 

[jayjay]

You could have t-bars.

If you get a breeding pair don't get any other tank mates for any of the options you've said in your size tank.

 

[saboy]

Why you say you cant get tbars ?



They should be fine in a 30 as a pair for life I think

 

[CAC]

Cool, so i could have:
A pair of convicts
or a pair of t-bars
or a pair of firemouths
or a pair of juwles

could i not have a like a female juwel, a male firemouth, and a t-bar or something similar?
or a pair with something, like a plec, or some corys,
or a shoal of say,bleeding heart or congo tetras?

Mikey

 

[vancouver]

I wouldn't stick more then 2 fish in there.. that's why I'd go with a breeding pair..

Salvini are pretty cool.. you should be ok with a pair in there.
Jewels are kind of boring.. not very personable in my experiences with them..
Convicts are really cool, I've had convicts forever..
I don't really like firemouths.. they're alright, but not my favorite.

If I were you, I'd go with salvini or convicts.

 

[CAC]

Ok, sounds cool, but i might go with the smaller (and very cool) geophagus steindachneri which is a smallish(5") fish, that isnt aggressive, and could live with smaller things, like rummynoses, or other larger tetras...
I was thinking:
trio of geophagus (1m/2f)
pair of german blue rams
6 rummynoses
BN plec?

Not sure about the plec, may be getting crowded after that...

Mikey

 

[KathyM]

That's overcrowded with the Geos alone

Maybe a pair of rams, a small (6ish) group of small tetras and a couple of otos.

 

[kubora666]

dude theyre boring, after working in an lfs i can tel you, u dont want ramms and all those cruddy tetra's. you could easily have a nice pair of cichlids and have a go at raising there fry and giving them a very well set up biome tank. if you have just a pair of smallish cichlids you could go for some more expensif ones. google search some cichlid index's find some that match your preferences and then google them some more. prepare their home, and oder them at your lfs if thjey dont already have them. thats what i would do
kubora666

 

[KathyM]

It might be "boring" to you, but if you want bigger cichlids, get a bigger tank, easy as that

 

[Griz]

dude theyre boring, after working in an lfs i can tel you, u dont want ramms and all those cruddy tetra's. you could easily have a nice pair of cichlids and have a go at raising there fry and giving them a very well set up biome tank. if you have just a pair of smallish cichlids you could go for some more expensif ones. google search some cichlid index's find some that match your preferences and then google them some more. prepare their home, and oder them at your lfs if thjey dont already have them. thats what i would do
kubora666

Well... ramms actually ARE cichlids and are far from boring IMO. They can be kept as a pair and you can raise fry. You could add some cruddy tetras and have a very nice biome tank.

EDIT:

 

[CAC]

That's overcrowded with the Geos alone

Maybe a pair of rams, a small (6ish) group of small tetras and a couple of otos.

Sorry, but i dont understand how its overcrowded with the Goes alone...
they ar peeaceful fish, and can live with smaller things like tetras etc.
If i get a trio(that will be 1 5" male and 2 4" females) so that will be 13" of fish.
the rams will be about 3.5" each, so thats 7".
6 rummys, will be 2" each, so 12"...
thats 32" worth of fish....nothing in there is huge, nor overly aggressive....so it wont cause too much waste...

Mikey

 

[vancouver]

The inches of fish rule only really applies to small tetras and guppies.

You cant keep a 12'' oscar in a 10g tank because the tank is 24'' long.

 

[CAC]

Erm, ok...
well it was my birthday yesterday, YAY!, and i have quite alot of cash now... so if there are any fish that may be slightly rarer/more expensive or harder to get hold of, then i could have a try cos i have enough money...

I was thinking, if the eartheaters (Geos) arent a possabliity, then maybe something else, like firemouths, or convicts or something...do you think i could have a firemouth, a convict and some other fish in there...like some corys or anything.?

Mikey