Is there enough room in here

Mr Meaty

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Oct 8, 2006
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Southern Indiana
I have a 55 gallon, Inside I have 13 African Cichlids that range from 1" - 4" along with 4 small fry. They have been fine and very active, I ve had them in this tank for about a year. But is this really enough room for them?
 
African Cichlids is a pretty all encompassing term. Not really enough info to make a call. Any ideas on exactly what you have? Can you post some pictures or compare them to some at an LFS to identify them?

Do they look like any of the ones you can see here...

http://www.cichlid-forum.com/

Will be glad to help. Any other questions?
 
Mr Meaty said:
I have a 55 gallon, Inside I have 13 African Cichlids that range from 1" - 4" along with 4 small fry. They have been fine and very active, I ve had them in this tank for about a year. But is this really enough room for them?


What kind of African cichlids are they??......other than that i would have to say that the tank is over crowded

Take a look at this and tell us what type they are:

http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/categ.cfm?pCatId=831
 
Ive got a 2 real dark blue with black vertical stripes that i think are dwarfs, I have a blue one almost identical to the one on the site you sent me who has given birth once, 1 plain sky blue, 2 electric yellow, one purple bodied with vertical black stripes and orange fins 2 medium size yellowish orange, one being dark yellow sometimes a dark stripe down the side, the other more orangeish yellow, with a weird color pattern, 1 peach (albino) medium size, 1 plain, almost brown, 2 orange 1 1/2 in. About 3-4 lbs. of display rock and 2 peices of driftwood. I have been researching , to try and find out what kind of fish exactly that i have but am having a lot of trouble doing so. I just got a digital camera to take pictures of them. But the **** serial cable that you use to connect your camera to your computer was missing so i cant post pictures right away, but soon.
 
I only see two types that I have from that web site they are the 2 electric yellow and 2 Demosani
 
KK if ya can get those pics that would be great! have u seen much aggression? when do ya do water changes? they like good water quality and with that many fish in one tank ur gunna have to keep up on ur water changes, if all of the above are good ya should be just fine.....but will probley wanna upgrade, or get another 55g or something later, and if u do start to see aggression u could lower the numbers by removing the fish that become overly aggressive
 
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I started out with about 5 to begin with, about 3 weeks later I bought about 8 more so now have 13.Right after that I moved , and one died. I quickly replaced him, then I moved again and another one died. I replaced him too. As far as the aggression, yes, there was one particular fish the established his territory and would aloow NO fish to come to the right side of the tank.(he was also the biggest fish in the tank at the time) So I went out and bought one slightly bigger than the bully and the new fish put the bullying to an end. Not much aggression, but every once in while one might chase another for a min or two. To be quite honest, I dont do water changes very aften at all, although I did just get done with one about 30 minutes ago.
 
Well clearly it sounds like u have nothing to worry about right now, but most of ur fish will get bigger than 4" as i said if ya have any crowded problems u will have them sometime down the road
 
just found out what some of my fish are, 1 male chipokoa, albino zebra, and red top cobalt zebra, still trying to figure out waht my other ones are
 
It is ideal to overcrowd cichlids to tame aggression. Just make sure that you have over filtration and that you maintain at least two to three water changes a month.
 
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