ive had a hard think. this is what im looking to have.
1x Oscar
1 - 2x severum
1 - 2x blue acara
1x convict *Female*
1x JD
1 - 2x Firemouths
1x Fire Eel
1 - 2x plecos
Maybe:
1x Parrot
3x bristle nose
2x rainbow cichlid
what you all think?
This is sounding reasonable, except for the fire eel. I know they are so appealing but have you seriously researched them. If kept and fed well they ALL grow absolutely enormous. Not just a true 36"+ long but really chunky and stocky for an eel too ... a huge bioload. Substrate MUST be either sand or a small SMOOTH gravel to avoid skin problems. You will also struggle to get any food to them with all those greedy, hungry cichlids unless you handfeed it, or at least can get food to it on long tweezers (which itself will not be easy as the cichlids will definately try to steal it on the way down once they've worked out what is happening). SPiny eels are relatively delicate feeders, and their eyesight is not great so they can take a while to find food ..... unless you hand feed, which can be the problem with housing them with highly competitive cichlids. Thankfully most fire eels do learn to hand feed in the end, as they are very intelligent and interactive.
So, if you are dead set on a fire eel, and your tank is fine for one, then I would lower the density of your other stock, as the eel itself will become a huge bioload once adult. Also fewer and ideally slower, less competitive, species of cichlid would be more appropriate. I think an oscar should still be fine. They are greedy but not the quickest things in the world. PLecos ... fine. Maybe one sev, one JD, one BA & one FM. PLus some dithers (rainbows or Silver dollars maybe).
If the fire eel could be lost from the stocklist, then your suggestions are looking much more do-able although two sevs, two FMs and two BA's are a potential problem if they breed ... they will probably either fight or breed.
if you went for one of each species then you could have ...
1 x oscar
1 sev
1 female con
1 x BA
1 x FM
2 plecos (one is better though ... much less bioload, and less potential fighting)
1 x parrot
1 x JD
1 x rainbow cichlid.
COuld also fit in some more fish. How about 1 x H.bocourti or 1 x H.pearsei (both cheaply available at oddball express. Instead, could also consider synspilum, chocolate, sajica, angelfish.
If you were still keen on a spiny eel but were not prepared for the compromises need to have a fire eel, you could consider a tanginyikan spiny eel (M.elipsifer). They are one of the very, very few "mid-sized" spiny eels (get to about 18"). They also have the great benefit of mostly enjoying dried foods with gusto (very much unlike other spinys). However, they are still very, very intelligent and interactive and will hand feed if you so wish. The negetives being that they are expensive and need hard, alkaline water (anything much above about pH 7.4-7.6 should be OK).
