Need Advice On Planing New Aditions

[Mr Spoon]

Hi all. Can some one advise me on what, if any cichlids I can keep in 190 litre juwel trigon, my current fish are :
13 tiger barbs. 4 pokadot loach. 2 bristle nose pleco's. The tank is medium planted with a few rocks and bogwood and sand substrate.
I like firemouth cichlids but my tank is not big enough for them so if anyone can give me ideas on what will work that will be great.

Thanks Andy

 

[minxfishy]

How about rainbow cichlids (Herotilapia multispinosa), or Dwarf flag cichlids (Laetacara curviceps), or Sajica, HRP (Cryptoheros species). I personally see no reason why you couldnt keep A Firemouth or another of the Thorichthys species, Ellioti or Aureus. Then there is the Keyhole Cichlid (Cleithracara Maronii), Bolivian Rams (Mikrogeophagus altispinosus) or Nicaraguan Cichlid (Hypsophrys nicaraguensis).

 

[Mr Spoon]

Thanks Minxfishy. If I had firemouth I would like a small group so that's why I can't have them in this tank. I'm quite interested in keyholes, my ph is 7.8 is that ok? And can I keep a small group of them? How many? Will the tiger barbs pick on them?

 

[minxfishy]

Whilst your ph isnt considered their prefered range, like most fish in stores, they are likely tank bred and therefore used to higher ph, particularly if they come from local stores, whose water is most likely the same as yours anyway. You can always ask the store where you purchase them what their ph is and adjust your acclimatisation period to suit, if its much lower, longer acclimatising, if its the same, normal time to adjust for temperature etc.

In a 190L trigon, you could easily have 4-5 keyholes and the tiger barbs shouldnt bother them at all, because you have a large group of tigers, they concentrate on each other, rather than bother other fish.

 

[Mr Spoon]

Thanks minxfishy, I shall be on the look out for keyhole cichlids.