Community Cichlids?

[ScottoMacD]

Great choices by firetank. They all would work great.

I have found with blue acaras that it depends on the individual fish. Some are tough and fighters some are quite docile. Like mine were.

Same goes for the firemouths. But I have also noticed that they are docile more often than tough. Cichlid Woman is completely right though the tough/rowdy ones can be a handful.

A single severum in the 65 will also work. As will a single convict. You don't want to chance getting a pair that ends up mating. The whole tank will get thrown into chaos if that happens.

 

[ChilDawg]

Hey, Scott, I've never kept Severums, but I heard that they might like to be kept in schools. Is this true, and, if so, would this preclude having them in the tank?

 

[ScottoMacD]

ChilDawg: Severums can stay as singles in a tank with no problems.

In fact before I started breeding them. I kept my two males in seperate tanks alone for years. They were like all the rest of the inhabitants.

 

[ChilDawg]

Okay, thanks. I am glad to have learned something today...sorry to have called you into question!

(I guess book-learning only gets you so far )

~Very Apologetically, Matthew

 

[Weasel6]

I have a Gold Severum thats been in quite awhile. He's all alone and at first was kind of a bully. He'll stake out his spot and run everybody else off that even looks like they were coming over. After I added the 2 Red Hooks he seemed to chill out. He's a "don't bother me and I won't bother you" kinda guy now. I like him. Wouldn't mind adding a Green Sev. at some point but in order to do that somebody has to go.
My favorite fish I have now are the 2 Geophagus Jurupari's. They are in the cichlid family and are quite tame and easy going. They swim about looking for food, scooping up rocks, sucking on them and swirling them about in their mouths then spitting the rocks out. Its funny to watch them. They aren't "brilliantly" colored but have a nice "tint" or "tinge" to them and the older they get the more colorful they are suppose to get. Nobody messes with them and they mess with nobody. They help keep your tank clean aswell. I've noticed that when I vacuum the gravel that it hasn't been as dirty as it used to be. I can see the bottom of my green 5 gal. bucket. Keep them in mind to, GREAT fish.

 

[Thunder]

I have been keeping a tank of mostly cichlids and mine aren't all that aggressive. The important thing to realize is that most cichlids become aggressive to their own kind and only aggressive to others when they are breeeding. Keeping a 65 gallon tank with individuals from didfferent cichlid species could work. Make sure there are lots of hiding spaces and they should be fine. I have kept a tank with:

1 Pink Convict
1 Blood Parrot
1 Electric Yellow Lab
1 Oscar
3 Silver Dollars
1 Red-Hook Silver Dollar (he's larger than the others and can be the most aggressive guy in my tank)
2 Common Plecos
1 Albino Pleco
1 Leopard Pleco

I have had very few problems. If you start the tank off with all of the inhabitants early, you lessen the chance of problems. Give them time to grow together and you should have an enjoyable tank.

 

[munkee]

holy hell, that has got to be the tank with the most crap in the tank ever. an oscar, 4 plecos and 3 red hooks probably produce an inch thick layer of waste in a week. what kind of filtration are you running?

 

[Thunder]

I use a Whisper 60 gallon filter plus a powerhead. I have only one Red-Hook and three common Silver Dollars. The two common plecos are big, but the albino is small and the Leopard is even smaller. Most of my cichlids are pretty small. Only my Parrot and my Red-Hook are large. Besides, there isn't a whol lot of uneaten food as my fish are voracious eaters.

 

[Skittyfish]

I had two Red Hooks and Two Silver Dollars, a Green Severum, a yellow Pleco, and some smaller fish. There was so much poop in my tank I had two clean it twice a week and rinse the filter floss in may canister every week. What a mess.

 

[hanif]

try malawi cichlids there great and they come in many wonderful colours such as the electric yellow labs which arnt as aggressive as most cichlids, then there the red zebras the male is a vibrant orange and the female is more of a pastilly orange but they look great and they have beutifull flourescent blue specs on there scales which loolk great just a thought you might want to try them out.