Cichlid Compatiblity?

GeeForce11

GeeForce11

AC Members
Jan 12, 2006
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NYC
My cousin got bored of his goldfish and he wants to give me his 55 gal tank :dance:

I want to set up an American Cichlid tank. I have a 6'' Jack Dempsey, 5'' Jack Dempsey, 5'' Green Terror, 5'' Texas Cichlid. I'll take them out of the 100gal African community tank. They all get along well, even with the africans. I would like to add at least one more fish with them, and i was wondering which one would be the best option? I was thinking of a Jewel Cichlid, or Convict, or Red Terror, or Red Devil, or Firemouth, Severum, Nicaraguense? Any thoughts or ideas!? TX :rolleyes:
 
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Sounds like your well on your way to a bloodbath.

Sorry for the sarcasm, but IMO American Cichlid Community Tank is an oximoron. The 55g tank will work for the pair of JDs and maybe the Texas. Keep in mind, the 55 is only 12in deep. Any of the larger CA cichlids will get too big. Picture that 55 with two 7in fish, and 2 12 in fish (all of which are aggresive species). Not much space IMO.

I'm sure you'll get posts telling you "it's fine" "I have this this and this and have no aggression" "My 55g Central American tank is a total success" Unless they've had no aggression and been keeping them for 10+ years, then it is not a success.
 
if anything you may need to move your "african community" (im not sure what all that includes) into the 55 and keep those guys in the 100. at most (and this is a lot more fish than many suggest) you could max out a 55 with 2 foot long fish, no more. aquaria central profiles say jacks get about 9", but im pretty sure i have seen them bigger. the others get about a foot. that means at best 2 of those 4 might tolerate eachother in a 55 and wont kill themselves with their own waste. thats it.
 
I agree you dont want anymore fish. As they grow your going to have trouble.
 
I have just a breeding pair of Salvini cichlids and a crayfish in my 55g. I wouldn't even consider putting anything else in there with them...and they're still only in the 5" sized range.
 
TX guys for your input :thm:

I thought i could keep 1'' fish / 1gal ratio, which would of been 5pcs approx 10'' fish equals 50 gal, but it looks it will not work out :duh:

I'll take all four of them out of the African community tank (25 Malawi Cichlids) and put them for now in the new 55gal. I'll see later what will i do with them, once they grow up, i might give them away or find a new home for them :)

They are deffinately a poop factory :laugh: Planning to put 2 power filters on the 55gal. One TetraTec 100gal and one Fluval 404 100gal, so there should not be filtering problems. Is it a good idea of putting sand in the tank for the waste not to settle down? In the 100gal community tank i have gravel and vacuum it every week, and there's a lot waste deposited in the gravel :huh:
 
i have had sand ruin an impeller in less than a day, so i dont plan on using it ever again. shallow gravel and weekly vacuuming should be all you need. you may be able to get store credit from LFSs for decent sized african cichlids. the 1" fish/gal guide is at best a loosely applicable guide for fish that dont get over about 3". as you can imagine 12" of a big cichlid is very different from 12" of neons. in reality the best stocking guide is ask peopel with experience, thats the only way you will get a good idea of how well your tank is stocked and whether or not anthing can be added.
 
Yeah...that's why I asked your opinion. I read a lot about africans, but didn't read much about the americans, i wanted to make sure... I started out my tank buying all the fish i liked and the LFS suggested, but they wanna sell you as much fish as they can...after that i started reading around on the net, i should of done the other way, but i'll figure the things out...TX again for your tips :)
 
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