Suggest Me Some Tankmates!

[JustuhFish]

I just set up a new tank with 4 cichlids! Im wanting to add some catfish and 1-2 shrimp. So suggest what to add that will go with my cichlids!

 

[eaglesaquarium]

You are going to need to share some more information:
 
What size tank?
What cichlids?  Cichlids is a very varied group of fish... from apistogrammas up through Oscars.  And there are some important differences between South American cichlids compared to African cichlids.

 

[JustuhFish]

Its a 30 gallon tank. Petco only said African cichlids and there really small babys and petco also said they only get 2-6 inches.

 

[sawickib]

Umm sounds like your gonna need to upgrade when their larger. What colors are they? Synodontis are usually the best choice with cichlids, but your tank is to small for them.

 

[DerpPH]

Depends also on your African species, there are literally 1000+ species of cichlid in the worlds. more than half of that is African. and no you cant keep them with shrimp, even the amanos

THen you got to know from which lake they are from, the lakes each have a varying pH scale but I think you have malawis because they are more common, next is youre gonna need to do a rockwork and make sure the filtration is ok. you are gonna have to overstock your tank to keep aggression at hand

 

[JustuhFish]

Ok thanks the only cichlids ive had are oscars and blood parrots. I have a filter for 30 gallon tanks and does 150 gallons an hour. Im dropping the shrimp also.
The ones i bought from petco said they where just baby african cichlids they are 1/2 to 3 inches long. One is a zebra look to it, the other is completly orange, light blue with black vertical stripes, and the last is yellowish and has horizontal black stripes

 

[attibones]

The last one is possibly a bumblebee. If you could get some pictures, I'm sure others would be able to properly identify them for you. Very few cichlids are suitable for a thirty gallon tank. They'll usually outgrow these pretty quickly. It's usually no good to trust the people at your LFS, especially chains. There are times when you run across people with genuine fish knowledge, but not usually. Best to ask people who actually keep fish properly than people intending to make a sale. Your filter should run 10x your volume per hour for a standard tank. With cichlids, this should be doubled.

 

[Ninjouzata]

Not much I can add that hasn't already been said. Getting some pics will really help in IDing them. You can upload them by going to 'More Reply Options' and attaching files at the bottom.
If this doesn't work for you, you can upload them to a photo sharing website such as photobucket and link it here.

 

[DerpPH]

I think the last one is an auratus, a very aggressive cichlid and it will demolish anything when given the chance