Topic: chichlid tank...

[Gaz_Daniel]

hi all, im after a bit of advice...

Ive got a 4 foot tank which used to be a community tank, it now houses - 2 x peppered cory catfish, 2 x plecostamus, 3 x clown loach, 2 x keyhole cichlids, 1 x east euro ram.

I am thinking about getting a blue acara.

However i also have a 6" lemon fin barb, also known as diamond shark, he is in a 2 foot tank of his own as he eats anything i put him in with. I am thinking about putting my loaches and small cats into the 2 foot tank and putting the shark and Cichlids into the big tank to see how they get on? Surely the shark wont bully the cichlids will he? I wouldnt mind a sevarum or geophagus or green terror too.

What do you all think? ANY advice welcomed.

Thanks, Gaz.

[Stormbringer]

i think the keyholes are to gentle for an Acara or the other cichlids you mentioned , as for the shark i dont know whether it would bully or be bullied by cichlids,
Keyholes only grow to 4-5" and the other cichlids are nearly 2-3 x  their size when grown , i would go for the keyholes in the 2 foot and put the other fish in the 4 foot and you could put an Acara or a sev  in it , the clown loaches get big as well , its really tempting to add more fish when they are small but you need to plan for their adult size

[Ezekial]

blue acaras are generally tolerant but I wouldn't bet the keyholes on it.  I agree the Keyhole cichlids would likely be fine in the 2 foot tank along with the cory's and the ram.  Depending on what kind of plecos you have they may be OK in that tank or not.  Many get 12" or larger and in the end a 4' tank (I'll assume it's 55 gallons) won't be big enough.  Clowns also get very big but they grow pretty slowly so somewhere down the road you will need a larger tank anyway.

In regards to the 6" lemon fin barb, I'm not sure if they will bully a cichlid or not.  Surely they will a smaller cichlid but might well get beaten by a larger one.  A GT is likley too big and aggressive but the severum or geophagus may be OK.  I'd shoot for one that is already 4-6" so the lemon barb doesn't have a huge advantage right away.

[Gaz_Daniel]

okay, thanks to both above. i will deffo put the corys, rams and keyholes in the 2 foot then with the smaller pleco. Will the bigger pleco be okay in the cichlid tank? hes about 8 inches now. Would you out the loaches in the small tank too? 2 loaches are very small, about 1.5 inches and one is about 4 inches.

What other chichlids would you reccomend me getting as its basically going to be a cichlid starter tank now.

Thanks.

Gaz

[Gaz_Daniel]

To make it a bit clearer what im asking here... Assuming my 4 foot tank currently contains ONLY a 8 inch sailfin pleco what different cichlids would you reccomend putting together?

I only want a handfull, say 5 or 6. Would an acara, blood red parrott, green terror, sevrum and say a firemouth be a good selection?

Ive just picked a handful out there so let me know what you would change.

Thanks.

[Stormbringer]

if you mix 5 or 6 cichlids in a  4 foot tank your going to end up with problems as you may end up with 1 cichlid at the end of the day , cichlids are territorial and will fight to gain territory , pairs of fish may well be a diferant story like a pair of Firemouths or Acaras , you might be ok with a fire mouth and an Acara tho these are a bit mellower than GT's and sevs  , your tanks just not big enough to house a mix of 5 or 6 of the cichlids you have mentioned (when i started with cichlids years ago i did what you were wanting to do and it ended up being a disaster:( ), what are the dimensions of your tank we know its 4 foot long but whats the width and depth ?
we can work out gallonage which will help us advise  you as  well

[Gaz_Daniel]

okay... it is 48" x 18" x 18".

When you say pairs do you mean just one pair? or pairs of different cichlids? i take it by pair u mean male/female pairing.

thanks

[Stormbringer]

ok your tank is 67 US gallons that gives you a bit more scope
when i mentioned pairs i was meaning male/female pairs of 1 type
you could have a pair of FM's a blood parrot and possibly an Acara with your sailfin plec in that tank , im not sure if a pair of sevs woud fit but the green terror with your plec would , or you could have 1 oscar with the plec  ,
but you did say you had other fish as well like the clown loaches etc what are you going to do with them ?

[Vern]

Will the bigger pleco be okay in the cichlid tank? hes about 8 inches now. Would you out the loaches in the small tank too? 2 loaches are very small, about 1.5 inches and one is about 4 inches.

The larger Pleco should be fine in the larger tank.  I personally wouldn't keep Clown loach with cichlids.  They're much happier eating snails in planted/river aquariums. And, as everyone's already said, they grow big!

To make it a bit clearer what im asking here... Assuming my 4 foot tank currently contains ONLY a 8 inch sailfin pleco what different cichlids would you reccomend putting together?

I only want a handfull, say 5 or 6. Would an acara, blood red parrott, green terror, sevrum and say a firemouth be a good selection?

My advice would be to think ahead.  Think about what you're aiming to achieve and work back. Do you want a placid tank or an more aggressive set up? Do you want to breed? etc...  All the fish above will grow and you'll eventually end up having to try and sell fish on or buy more tanks.  Also different fish have different requirements, water parametres, aggression levels, territory issues, etc, etc. (i.e. A green terror can get very aggressive, severums not so).  Trying to match fish from similar geographic areas and who's temperament is suited helps get a natural balance.  In the end not only will it look good, it'll save you a fortune in time, money and energy on care and repair later on.

 

[Gaz_Daniel]

thanks again to both replys.

I like the sound of a pair of firemouths, a blue acara and a red parrot.

Would it matter what sex the acara and parrot is?

Im not gonna rush out and buy these dont worry, i appreciate more reading and gaining of knowledge is required.

Gaz

[Stormbringer]

dont think it makes much diferance with the sex of the Acara or Parrot  but females  tend to be smaller than males , if you do go for that ammount of fish you will probably need to do 50%or more water change per week to keep the water good and get some test kits for ammonia nitrite and nitrate better with the test tube type as the dip strips arnt as accurate , just things to think on 
others may have other opinions on stocking and it might be good to hear those fore you decide what you go with

[Gaz_Daniel]

okay thanks very much for your advice stormbringer.

On another website i look at it says keyholes are okay with parrots f/mouths etc. Is this a definite no no? If i kept the pair of keyholes in then i would perhaps give the parrot a miss, or maybe the firemouths a miss. I dont want to overstock.

Like you say i will keep reading what all others have to say.

Thanks again. Gaz

[Vern]

I guess you know red parrots are hybrids?  Leave them out.  They're not really cichlids IMO.

[Gaz_Daniel]

i have read that they are hybrids yes. I also read that they were a peaceful fish, not exactly cichlid sounding i suppose!

Gaz

[Stormbringer]

i wouldnt keep keyholes with Fire Mouths  to peacefull for fm,s IMO
Parrots try to be aggressive but their mouths arnt right so they get themselves into trouble and cant fight back properly