Stocking Question

[ehh]

working with a 55 gallon.

right now i have about 10 cichlids in there with a few bottom feeders... they are all still small. largest one is about 4 inches.

now for my question...

permanently, i would like to keep the red empress, yellow lab, and borleyi. i know only housing three cichlids can lead to problems. i assume one will try to claim the tank and just beat the crud out of the others... but what if i also stock the tank with dithers? like rainbows?

i ask so i can rehome all the other cichlids now and just throw the rainbows in.

thanks!!

 

[xXKratosXx]

What about upping the numbers that you have? I currently have 10 Saulosi and 10 Yellow labs with no problems at all. They even breed. Right now, with your current stock, rainbows are likely to be killed. With Africans, its usually best to stick to stocking african cichlids together (bottom feeders such as plecs being the exception) rather than trying to throw other dither fish in.

 

[ehh]

well, borleyi and red empress get kinda big. so further stocking the tank will lead to more rehoming later. and like i said i know i cant keep just the three in the tank without one completly over dominating the others.

 

[xXKratosXx]

If you are concerned about one getting too big, then you need to be concerned about said bigger fish eating the others.

 

[ehh]

let me restate with a hypothetical situation..

so i saw a 5-6inch yellow lab, an 8 inch borleyi, and an 8inch red empress... but all i have is a 55 gallon tank. i would like to take all three.... is this possible?

 

[xXKratosXx]

No, because the larger fish will gang up on the weaker ones. Africans need to be in groups or they will kill each other more than likely. The more fish in the tank, the more spread out agression will be.