Firemouth with other cichlids?

TYPO

TYPO

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Apr 1, 2004
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I bet you guys are tired of my asking questions..
Anyway, there is this poor firemouth that has been at petsmart alone for a month, and no one has claimed it. the poor thing is depressed, and just sits there. it doesnt seem unhealthy, its color is good and all.
my question is, could i keep it in a 40 gallon with the sev, convict, and leporinus? Im going to be doing a lot of decorating, with many flagstone like caves and plants, pots. Do they need to be kept in a school?
 
Erm you could keep it in your 40, would probably have little scraps with your convict, they arnt really schooling fish. Personally I would replace your Sev with the FM as your Sev is to big for that tank, they will happily grow to 8+ inches in the home aquaria.
 
i cant put a sev into the 40? o.O it would seem to be big enough, i just got measurements for it..

well, anyway, what should i put in there? it will look very bleak with just those 3 fish.
Id prefer to keep it to cichlids (the lepo. isnt a cichlid, i know). any ideas?
 
A 40 gallon, while much better in terms of space than the 18 they are in now, is still not really large for cichlids. Its actually the minimum tank size for many african and south american cichlids.

Severums do grow large and would be very cramped in a 40 gallon. I'm sure they need a 75+.

I would suggest you do a community setup (tetras and rainbows, etc etc.) and keep maybe the convict and the firemouth if you'd like... but cichlid-wise thats all you could get in there since they are both territorial bottom dwelling fish, they'll stake out the floorspace in a 40 gallon pretty quickly. I've never kept them together so i dont know if they would get along, but if they could both find territories then you might be ok.

HTH
-Diana
 
TYPO said:
so you are saying i should put the convict, firemouth, and tetras and rainbows?
im just confused now.
Click to expand...

You could put some large tetras with the firemouth and the convict - but I wouldn't - if the tetras survived, they would be pretty stressed and unhappy - larger rainbows would be ok, they are commonly use for dither fish in cichlid tanks - the severum added to the mix would be too much - even if the severum was the only cichlid in the 40g, he would still be a little cramped, but probably ok. With cichlids, I care more about surface area as opposed to gallons - longer, shorter tanks are better. I have gotten away with a quite a bit over the last 25 years that I have had cichlids when the tanks are longer and i play with the rock work, filtration, etc. IMO, for now, maybe pass on the firemouth and don't rock the boat with the fish you have, and focus on getting the larger tank before you get more fish. Just some thoughts...take care!
 
Yes, im purchasing the 40g tank from OrionGirl, and thats (hopfully) going to be here on april 2nd. That is the tenative date, at least.
Even so, I will be looking for fish then, too.
Other than rainbows and danios.. are they other dither fish/ fill in the empty water fish you can reccomend?
If im correct, these are the dimensions of the new tank:
36 3/16 x 18 1/4 x 16 15/16 (40 breeder)
 
Tiger barbs do well because they are scrappy and fast - plus they look nice - they would do better in a 40g than the rainbows, IMO, because you can get away with 3-5 tiger barbs and they will feel secure, but most rainbows are larger and need more numbers to feel comfortable.
 
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