Firemouth tank size?

[Jayhawk]

Would a pair of firemouths do well in a 36" x 12.5" x 17" tank (33 gallons)? I'm tempted to get 4 juveniles to let a pair form (and remove the non-paired fish), have some variatus platys as dithers, and have a clown pleco as a bottom feeder/algae control unit.

What do you all think?

Eric

 

[god61021]

my firemouth is about three inches and bullys everyone in my 55 gallon tank,i have him with 2 chocolate cichlids, an albino oscar ,a marbled goby,and a blackbelt cichlid.he is the boss of the tank and rarely allows the other fish to eat(back to the lfs for him).its the only firemouth ive ever owned so im no expert but i would say your tanks too small.

 

[FishyInDallas]

I've got a Firemouth who is about 4 inches who is also the boss of the 55 gallon community. Key here is for the firemouth to have a "Home" to hang out in. I have a big 4 inch PVC pipe in the corner of the tank. Its pretty much his house. Once in a while he gets a little bossy, but he's not too bad on the rainbows, loach or other fish. He actually gets along quite well with the Blue Acara too, as they tend to hang out together.... go figure....

 

[hughitt1]

Let me know how that works out if you decide to try it. I'm getting ready to set up a similar tank now (36gal tall) with a pair of firemouths, a few panda cories, and possibly few other smaller guys (tetras?) if i can find a species that the firemouth wouldn't bully around.

Also what do you plan to do with the remaining two firemouths once you have a pair? That wouldn't be a bad idea, but i'm not sure what i'd do with two lonely remainders.

Keith

 

[god61021]

i just wanted to add my firemouth only bullies the fish that react to him,the plecos fight back which the firemouth seems to enjoy,but the oscar and the marbeled goby ignore him like they dont even see him so he goes and bothers someone else.