Can you put a Blue Acara with a Convict and a firemouth together

Smac1977

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Oct 21, 2022
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Hello, I just went to the fish store for a food run and asked the guy there out of curiosity, if you could house a Firemouth, Blue acara, and a convict together and he said absolutely and I'm wondering if this is a good stock for a 55 gallon tank. along with some sort of pleco?
 
Or maybe a pair of blue acaras or maybe a species only tank, with like a pair of convict cichlids or firemouths
 
Well, back in the olden days, we kept a pair of blue acaras & a pair of firemouths in a 55g. It wasn't great, the acaras took up almost 2/3s of the tank but the firemouths were able to breed too.

Convicts breed like crazy!!! & for their small size an amazing amount!...whee, & they're very agressive then too..Ugh. I would not suggest convicts except in a species only tank...& really not then either...Think of 100+ fry every single month...yeah, it's not very fun after the first time...what will you do with all those fry? There's no market for them...you & they will have flooded your nearby lfss after the first batch or 2...

Sorry to be a buzz kill but you need a better plan than any I've seen with your proposed fish...it's just not a good idea even in the very short term.

You might think about apistogramma dwarf cichlids. Do some research...you might keep 2 pairs in a 55g...but then you'd need a 20 long+ to raise them to a sellable size...for each species....Do more web searching & hard thinking...many cichlids are not very hard to breed but they can be difficult sell or even rehome...Can you sell in a big market area? Selling by mail can have issues too...think hard!! Everyone can breed convicts...
 
Well, back in the olden days, we kept a pair of blue acaras & a pair of firemouths in a 55g. It wasn't great, the acaras took up almost 2/3s of the tank but the firemouths were able to breed too.

Convicts breed like crazy!!! & for their small size an amazing amount!...whee, & they're very agressive then too..Ugh. I would not suggest convicts except in a species only tank...& really not then either...Think of 100+ fry every single month...yeah, it's not very fun after the first time...what will you do with all those fry? There's no market for them...you & they will have flooded your nearby lfss after the first batch or 2...

Sorry to be a buzz kill but you need a better plan than any I've seen with your proposed fish...it's just not a good idea even in the very short term.

You might think about apistogramma dwarf cichlids. Do some research...you might keep 2 pairs in a 55g...but then you'd need a 20 long+ to raise them to a sellable size...for each species....Do more web searching & hard thinking...many cichlids are not very hard to breed but they can be difficult sell or even rehome...Can you sell in a big market area? Selling by mail can have issues too...think hard!! Everyone can breed convicts...
However can you put a single of each in a tank, for example 1 convict 1 firemouth 1 blue acara.
 
Well, maybe...if they're all wimpy males or don't care what species the females might be (eek! It might happen)...It could work...but still a bit of a crap shoot...that's pretty much how mixed species cichlids work. Have a back up plan!!
 
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