Need some smallish cichlids

Lauren

Lauren

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Aug 9, 2003
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I am picking up a 45 gallon and I need some ideas for tank mates. The tank will have some rasboras, cories, and perhaps two gold barbs if i decide to keep them. I want to add some blue rams, and another kind of chichlid that will not be too agressive, and not grow too large. I was thinking of some small angel fish, but I hear even the small ones can get large. I don't want chichlids that look too much like the rams either.

Suggestions?
 
What about a pair of keyhole cichlids. They get up to about 4-5", are very peaceful, and have great personalities?

Eric
 
those are nice looking fish, I will look into those. Thanks

I started reading through the profiles here and the agassiz's dwarf cichlids and umbrella cichlids look nice as well. I really want a fish that swims high in the tank, I have quite a few medium and low level fish already. For that reason, I am still thinking the angelfish may be the best.
 
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my angelfish is about 2/3 of possible size for angels... he was a couple of millimeters from starvation when I got him and thus didn't grow as big.

body measurements in my tank speck link in signature

he is 8 inches top to bottom and 4 inches with tail... with good breeding, good food, lots of room from the time they are hatched angels can hit 12 inches top to bottom and 6 inches long. but that is the maximum with all the best conditions met... something most young angels are lacking that are available.
 
SnakeIce - I thought that was only Altum angels which got that tall and that scalare angels only had a heigth of about 8 inches...but I could be wrong.

I really like angels, but be careful where you buy them - bad stock often leads to lots of young angels dead shortly after you bring them home. Find a good LFS with good angels to be on the safe side! I didn't, and lost 3 angels pretty quick.

Eric
 
I thought about kribs, but they look a little too much like rams, I want to get a few unique fish to add to my tank. I like the look of festivum cichlids as well. I have a pretty narrow band of what cichlids I can put in. I need a peaceful fish, semi-aggressive at most. My PH is at about 7, water hardness is 8 (IIRC), and I want to put fluorite rich gravel in the tank for my plants. So that rules out most of the large, aggressive, alkaline loving, and or digging cichlids.

I have a very good fish store, so I think the quality of their angels will be above par. I asked my fish store, and they said that even "small" angels can grow very large, in a 45-gallon tank; will their growth be stifled? I've heard people agree and disagree with the old "a fish will only grow as large as its environment will support" theory.

How long does it take for an angel to reach full size? I had some small angels as a kid. They didn't last more than a year because of my amateur fish skills, but when they died, they were still about the size of a 50 cent piece. I think I had four of them in a 10 gallon with some neon tetras. I know I was horrible, but I was also eight at the time.

The tank I am getting is a hex tank, so it'll be pretty tall.
 
Try lateacara curviceps/ aka aequidens sp. Like the keyhole but smaller and better looking. You think kribs look too much like rams?
 
The reason most angels don't reach the potential 6" length and 12" hight is because of overcrouding as babies. the combined hormones each fish produces in the spaces that young fish are kept in restrict the growth potential when they are just weeks old. that "stunting" if you will can't be made up and may be what you want in an angel... ie not as big a fish.

that is one part of why most angels are not as big and healthy as they could be. the other is the angel die off that occured a decade or more ago. after that decimating outbreak of the angel virus many fish were produced from a small stock and the resulting fish declined because of to many incrosses.

the result is the deformed fins, agressive or skittish behavior, lack of parenting skills and general lack of vigor in alot of the angels that are available today.

my male angel is a shrimp compaired to the males my dad had. the two that I know of personally were well over 8 inches in total hight with the one being almost 12 inches in hight. that was allmost a pathetic sight in a 20 long but he was healthy and happy as the sole angel in the tank.

some breeders have worked to keep the genetics of the angels they offer strong as they work to improve their line. and some like angelsplus.com work with wild fish and cross them into domestic lines to regain that vigor and poise that angelfish are known for.

I hope the accounts of what is, and what is possible can be sepparated so that the fish in each account can be viewed for what they are.

there is a rare(to the hobby)subspecies of angel that does not get as big as the traditional scalare. but I've only read of it on another forum and don't remember where that was. may have been mojo's forum.

f2 wild scalare

peruvian scalare
love this one
 
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