Thinking Of Switching To A Cichlid Tank.

[fishdawg]

i am thinking of swithing my 30g to a cichild tank. my fish are in my sig. i was going to keep the pleco and some of my corys and the angel. what fish would go good with them.
ph: 8.0
amonia: 0.0
tank has gravel and lots of grass plants.

 

[Tommy Gunnz]

Fishdawg,

Generally, it is not a good idea to put cichlids in a planted tank (real plants, of course) since most dig in the substrate when breeding or otherwise munch on plants. If your plants are fake, then no worries there.

My experience has been that bottom dwellers, other than pleco's, are quick to get picked on by cichlids and my CAE even got schooled by some cichlid fry once and so I moved him. I might be worried about the corys a bit, but of course it depends on what cichlids you are going to get. Most smaller cichids do spend quite a bit of their time near the bottom of the tank, so your corys would most likely be noticed. Still, I have kept clown loaches and even some aggressive cichlids together with little problems.

The angel is a cichlid, technically, however they would be very open to nipping by some smaller, faster cichlids and so I might reconsider keeping them all together. The best thing to do, when keeping fish other than a cichlid or certain cichlids (like angels) is to keep the least aggressive fish as being very fast and very active so that they can escape quickly. I keep a school of 8 tiger barbs with my cichlids and everything is nice and quiet, usually.

There are some good cichlids to get for your situation though. I think Rams would be a good choice (depending on their Ph and water type requirements which I am not completely sure of). You could google to see more info on them and also try searching for "butterfly cichlids" which I believe is the other name used for Rams.

So, in short, you would be looking for some very non-aggressive cichlids that stay relatively small due to your tank size. The good thing is though, if you find a good fish to stock with, many times it is benificial to overstock with cichlids and simply do larger or more frequent water changes as well as maybe increasing your filtration system.

 

[DarkEntity]

Having said the above, you can do planted with Cichlids (Kribs/Convicts/Firemouths), just make sure that there is plenty of vegetable matter for them, that should stop them eating your plants. I usually put lettuce/cucumber etc in the tank and it seems to quell their plant devastation

 

[jgray152]

Ya I have 2 plants in my cichlid tank.

Here is a pic of my tank. I have moved everything around since this pic and added more rocks and fish

If you have small plants, such as ones you just bought, THey wont be good because they would have no root system to hold them in. I have black sand in my tank and I find it great to watch my Electric yellow re-dig is home under a rock when it starts to fill back in.

My Pleco seem to do very well in my cichlid tank. He will usually scare off all other fish if they start or try to pick on him.

Experience always varys so I would only try to keep cichlids with cichlids and no other fish.

The fish you have in your tank would not be healthy with cichlids in there too, although I have had my large Turquoise Jewel in with community fish for many years in my 30 gallon before switching to the 55 and never had a problem with aggrasion. I would buy another tank though, maybe a nice 55 or 75 and start fresh or find homes for your other fish.