looking for a good cichlid for a 29 gallon.

[Finster]

Hve you considered natives? Some of the sun fish are very personable and colorful.

The thought has crossed my mind. I had a yellow perch, years ago, that was a really neat aquarium fish, once I got it trained on regular available cichlid food.I am probably going to incorporate some perch and bluegills into my big turtle tank when I get it. Right now, though, I'm pretty torn between the 4 that I listed earlier. Maybe leaning towards the Salvini or the Rainbow. I'm sure I'll change my ming a thousand times before I'm ready. (I plan on upgrading my turtles next summer) I might even end up taking the 29 apart to use for a basking area enclosure. Then I'd most likely pick up a 50 gallon and widen my choices a little bit for this project.

Thanks for the suggestion.

Keep them coming everyone. I know there are fish that are similar to the 4 I'm considering that I don't even know about.

 

[Pittbull]

Yeah I currently have some Green Side Darters in my Discus tank as snail control.. I have some Juvenile bluegills in with some Nano's.. Natives are pretty cool though..

 

[mechanic]

The only Cichlid I've ever kept that had a similar personality to my Oscar's was a Red Devil.
They get way too big for a 29 though.

 

[Jayhawk]

First off, all of our fish would do best in a 1,000 gallon tank (even bumble bee gobies), or heck, why not return them to their native habitat? Seriously, a single 4-5 in fish in 55 would be one empty tank. I see nothing wrong with a single 5 inch fish in a 29 gallon tank or a 20 long.

As for personality, I think there are several options - for a small cichlid, bolivian rams are unbelievably outgoing, highly interested in the food god who visits daily, and to me (having kept oscars years ago), they do have a similar personality. I really think much of what we attribute to oscar being so uber special is because they're big and relatively peaceful for such a huge cichlid.

Although not a cichlid, the standard paradisefish makes a great wet pet as well. They're more cichlid-like than many cichlids.

Eric