Stocking Question

[Daigle107]

I want to try to breed a couple South American Cichlids, but I want to set up a community tank, so I was thinking if I got a couple... say 3 or 4 smaller cichlids, 1 male and 3 female... would they be ok with a school of 10 neons and a school of 4 ottos and possibly a couple swordtails?

 

[hamfist]

Yes possibly ...... but, your cichlids would need to be too small to eat neons. And the tank would need to be big enough.

What size tank are you thinking about ?

 

[Curiosity101]

What size is the tank you're thinking of? All I'm thinking is that this will limit your ability to physically raise the fry as they will probably need a grow out tank (unless the tank you're referring too is a relatively large and lightly stocked tank).

Also what cichlids were you thinking?

 

[Daigle107]

Sorry, I have a 29 gallon tank, and my thought was to get the smallest cichlids I could get. Something that would grow to be somewhere between 2 and 5 inches.

When it gets to the point of raising fry I was going to get another tank for that. I plan on changing the filter in my tank to an aquaclear 30 and moving my old filter to the fry tank. That will be after I let the new filter build up enough bacteria. Perhaps the fry tank could contain the swordtails so that the bacteria do not die while the tank is waiting for it's new inhabitants.

 

[Curiosity101]

Well you may well be able to put a breeding pair of bolivian rams in there successfully.
I would suggest getting a group and allowing them to grow up and a pair to form. Once you've got a pair re-home the remaining rams and leave the pair too it.

If it were me I'd leave the swordtails out as they're big enough that I could see them taking on the rams and trying to go after eggs/fry. Also to allow space for the fry to grow I'd leave them out. The rest sounds fine though and it's definitely worth a go.

Alternatives to the rams would be something like a harem of apistogramma. 1 male and 2/3 females.

Be ready to set up a temp 'tank' in a plastic storage tub though if for any reason a large volume of fry survive and overload your tank/filter.

When it gets to the point of raising fry I was going to get another tank for that. I plan on changing the filter in my tank to an aquaclear 30 and moving my old filter to the fry tank. That will be after I let the new filter build up enough bacteria. Perhaps the fry tank could contain the swordtails so that the bacteria do not die while the tank is waiting for it's new inhabitants.

I'd have 2 filters running on the main tank were they will be spawning and just move one of these once the fry are free swimming.

If removing the fry and growing them elsewhere is a definite then that opens up the fish possibilities quite a bit tbh...
Dwarf Flag Cichlid - Laetacara curviceps
Sajica/T-Bar Cichlid - Archocentrus sajica
Rainbow Cichlid - Herotilapia multispinosa
Keyhole Cichlid - Cleithracara maronii
Seven-Stripe Cichlid - Archocentrus septemfasciatus
Cutter's Cichlid - Archocentrus sp. 'cutteri'
Rio Miua Apisto - Apistogramma sp. 'Miua'
Honduran Red Point - Cryptoheros sp. 'honduran red point'
Nijsseni's Dwarf Cichlid - Apistogramma nijsseni

^^ That's the list I put together for my fluval roma 125.

 

[Daigle107]

That is incredibly helpful, thank you so much. I really hope that this ends up working out, I need to find a way to start paying for my hobby, and nothing works better than breeding fish, right? Haha. It sounds like you have a great deal of knowledge about New World Cichlids, when it comes closer to the time when I begin breeding, would it be ok to PM you with questions I might have?

 

[Curiosity101]

Lol, my thoughts exactly. It's not exactly a self sustaining hobby! My poor bank balance has taken a right bashing the last few years.

And yeah feel free to PM me, however I would highly recommend you speak to a user called 'Wills'. He's very knowledgable about new worlds as he did so much research into them when thinking of buying some and now obviously has alot of experience from keeping them.