30 gallon or 40 high. how many fish?

[voxmeus]

i am about to start up a 30 gallon long or 40 high (36'' long) and i am having troubles deciding on fish. I want to host a green terror, jack dempsey, and maybe one or two other south americans. i plan on getting a eheim classic 2213 for my filtration. i am thinking about live plants as a future project.

i have read that the green terror and jd can both be fairly peaceful, but can also be awful tank mates. will this 3' footprint be enough space for one green terror or both of the GT and JD? is it possible to add more?

my plan it to eventually upgrade the tank, but i am not sure or when. how long would it take for these fish to out grow this size tank with an every other day feeding schedule.

can anyone help me out?

 

[harles2000]

I wouldnt recommend either tank for those larger cichlids - and even if you buy juveniles, they will reach near full size by a year old - so you would only have about 8 months to get your new tank anyway. I would also strongly suggest the long tank over the high tank - high tanks are almost useless for freshwater fish - especially cichlids, who need more floor space over vertical space to create territories. perhaps african cichlids in a rockfilled high tank would work, but that doesnt sound like the direction you want to go in. with a 30 long, you could put a pair of rainbow or keyhole cichlids, and some dither fish, or you could maybe put a single festivum in there. of course convicts would work, but if you want something a little nicer, try honduran red points - you could put 2-4 of them in the tank, as they are less aggressive than convicts, but breed at about the same rate, and are currently rare in the hobby, so you could probably sell the offspring to your LFS.

 

[voxmeus]

yeah, i am definitely going for an aggressive fish. i grew up watching an oscar feed and that was a very entertaining and fun fish. i heard that a GT was similar. what kind of smaller aggressive cichlids are our there?

 

[legendaryfrog]

instead of dealing with small tanks, spring for a 125 gallon from petsmart. I saw them going for 350 dollars.

with that size tank, you could have 3 oscars.

 

[harles2000]

if you want to have 30 gal, and aggressive fish, try Jewel cichlids - they can do well in nuetral water. and you could put 4 in a 30 gal. and you have 2 colors to choose from - red or blue.

if you want the large cichlids, then you will need a much larger tank right from the get go - large cichlids are very messy, and require alot of water to absorb their mess. if you put a couple of any of those cichlids in a 30 or 40, you will have to do multiple large water changes on a weekly basis.

 

[icecubez189]

instead of dealing with small tanks, spring for a 125 gallon from petsmart. I saw them going for 350 dollars.

with that size tank, you could have 3 oscars.

a 125G will not house 3 oscars, thats really size just enough for 2 oscars let alone three. but it is a nice size for 1 oscar and a school of dither fish like giant danios or silver dollars.