Merging a tank community with one full of cichlids and am unsure what can and can't stay
- Thread starter Snagrio
- Start date
The bigger clowns get, the less tolerant of other fish which impinge on where the clowns want to be. I have a number of various sized caves and other forms of shelter where they can hide and feel safe. My big guys will not tolerate a pleco deciding to live in their hiding place. The clowns began acting this way as they got into the 6 inch or more range TL. I did find a couple of pleco head and spine bones with no meat on them and piles of scales or else nothing at all. Maybe the fact that these were ablbino bn made them more of a target?
I tend to try to maintain somewhat similar fish in tanks relative to where they live in the wild. I try not to mix Africans, SA, Asian etc. I may be a little lose with species from the same continent but not all that close within that continent. When my clowns were smaller in the 75 gal., I had them with 65 cardinal tetras. I would not try that today given how big the clowns are now.
I tend to try to maintain somewhat similar fish in tanks relative to where they live in the wild. I try not to mix Africans, SA, Asian etc. I may be a little lose with species from the same continent but not all that close within that continent. When my clowns were smaller in the 75 gal., I had them with 65 cardinal tetras. I would not try that today given how big the clowns are now.
Again, the advantage this time is there will be more room to work with so I'll be able to provide a plethora of hiding spots. Having spent most of their lives sharing one cave it'll be interesting to see what happens when they're spoiled for choice. Not to mention they're all either adults to subadults (one's easily over a decade old, another's about 5-6 years and the remaining two are at least a couple years old) and have never had a problem with anybody that isn't "snack sized."
And yeah that's something that would be nice to do with a themed tank but, at this point my community is such a hodge-podge (the residents of the 55, all told, hail from 4 continents) that I've given up on the idea a long time ago. However I would LOVE to keep the 55 running after everything's moved out and start a new project with a full black and neon mixed shoal along with other SA species, but as stated before my folks don't want more than one tank going in the house so that's unfortunately not an option. Would try to appease but I've already been fortunate enough to be allowed a 6 foot tank which required a lot of sacrifice on their end (lots of furniture had to be moved around), would be foolish to be greedy and ask for more after that.
Really, what I'm doing is revitalizing my interests in this hobby period. It's admittedly been pretty stagnant for quite some time (I've not gotten any new fish since the two youngest loaches and up till now the 55 was my sole aquarium) and things had gotten rather run down with not keeping up with water changes and such (my bout of depression due to this year sure didn't help either). So now I'm both improving my care and having to relearn a lot of lost knowledge.
Oh and one last anecdote, the catfish, rainbows and danio are frankly, well, too old and handicapped to get rid of. Have had them for longer than the second oldest loach and due to both age and my pre-established temporary negligence some aren't doing so well. The cats had a really bad case of fin rot, one of the rainbows has swim bladder issues and the danio has a tumor-like growth on its lower lip (believe it's benign though). So all in all I don't think it's ethically feasible to rehome them even if I wanted to.
@ Snagrio, you've gotten some good advice from some members and inane advice from one. Just take your time to figure out what you need to do and build the tank around what you and your mother are looking to accomplish.
i would give the loaches away as they get far too big even for a 125 gallon imo. I would give away the rainbows, the rainbow shark and those UDC as well as the danio where they need a group of 6 or more. However I am mixed on the pleco. What gender is this one and the other one?
Acei are great, and they're one of the most mellow mbuna I've ever kept. As TwoTankAmin said, they're herbivores. I know people who have said they've kept mbuna with java fern, but the few times I tried the fern got ripped up into little green bits that clogged my filter intake. It pissed me off even worse because they never actually ate the fern. Like I said, I've never had anything actually eat java fern. In general, larger cichlids are hard on plants, either shredding them or uprooting them while the fish are rearranging the tank to their liking, and mbuna eat most plants and destroy anything not edible. BTW, I stand by my statement that cichlids have a secret Code of Honor that requires the destruction of plants. ?
There are a lot of smaller cichlids that you could keep, but they are mostly small to medium sized fish that live near the substrate. They will be constantly stressed with a school of large clown loaches swimming around all the time so you can rule them out. If you're looking to keep any cichlids, your options really are limited. I could probably come up with some mid to upper level dwelling cichlids that won't destroy plants and will be large enough to avoid being eaten if you want, but I'll have to think about it a bit. It sounds to me that cichlids just aren't a plan for the tank at all, though, which as a sworn cichlidophile is a disturbing, alien concept. ???
Never been much of a loach person. The only loach I've ever kept consistently are zebra loaches. I had a couple of clown loaches for a few months years ago, they were rescues that I kept until I rehomed them with a friend who was getting a bigger home and bigger tank. Since the loaches are your centerpiece fish, than you can decide of a schooling species or two for the upper regions and you'll be set. I like giant danios, but with all the rainbow and larger attractive barb species available today I guess they are kind of bland.
WYite
There are a lot of smaller cichlids that you could keep, but they are mostly small to medium sized fish that live near the substrate. They will be constantly stressed with a school of large clown loaches swimming around all the time so you can rule them out. If you're looking to keep any cichlids, your options really are limited. I could probably come up with some mid to upper level dwelling cichlids that won't destroy plants and will be large enough to avoid being eaten if you want, but I'll have to think about it a bit. It sounds to me that cichlids just aren't a plan for the tank at all, though, which as a sworn cichlidophile is a disturbing, alien concept. ???
Never been much of a loach person. The only loach I've ever kept consistently are zebra loaches. I had a couple of clown loaches for a few months years ago, they were rescues that I kept until I rehomed them with a friend who was getting a bigger home and bigger tank. Since the loaches are your centerpiece fish, than you can decide of a schooling species or two for the upper regions and you'll be set. I like giant danios, but with all the rainbow and larger attractive barb species available today I guess they are kind of bland.
WYite
