How big of a tank do you think I would need for these fish: 2 oscars, 2 midas cichlid, 1 manganese cichlid, 1 firemouth, 1 severum, 5 black convict cichlids(2male 3female) and 1 common pleco? Aquascaped with plenty of mopani and sword plants. Would a 120 gallon be enough or should I go even higher? Right now they are all 2-3" and getting along pretty well.
stocking question.
- Thread starter Thehappypet
- Start date
Yep, oscars, midas and jags get pretty big and along with their aggression 120 would be too small.
I would say a more relistic stocking for a 120 would be 1 oscar, pair of convicts, pair of firemouths, 1 common pleco, and MAYBE 1 severum (though a smaller cichlid would be better).
Well, I was thinking about setting up a pool/pond in the basement, it would be roughly 400-500 gallons or so. Would that be enough to house them full grown?
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Oscars tend to be fairly non-aggressive compared to the others....
Problem with your stocking plans is that all those fish can vary drastically in personality and aggression level. It may work out, more likely it won't. It may end bad for your oscars and sev especially if your other cichlids form a pair or become overly aggressive. I see a lot of oscars with their eyes bit out trying to mix them with extremely aggressive cichlids like red devils/midas and jags in an overstocked situation because people think oscars are aggressive, usually they're not. I've seen severums torn to shreds, because honestly severums tend to be pretty peaceful a lot of the time.
The other problem is you can conceivably end up with breeding going on even if you only pick males or females of a species. Though it seems you want male and female cons. Not real good idea if you want to keep the peace in this type of setup.
Jags,midas, convicts and firemouths can all breed together. Convicts especially will breed with almost anything so it wouldn't be hard for you to end up with some kind of breeding pair, and when these types of cichlids breed they aren't nice.
Jags and midas can be extremely aggressive, so if either start breeding you will have problems. Convicts aren't much better, the only plus is that they're smaller than the other two.
Say you don't end up with a pair of something, considering the size of the individuals combined the tank is really too small.
I guarantee you will NOT be able to keep plants alive with these fish, so planting won't do anything for you, lol. My red devil builds a 5 inch high mound sometimes in the sand, if plants were in there they'd constantly be uprooted. You can try some plants on wood but they'd still likely be ripped off.
Your pleco is likely to be picked on, at the worst killed once the others are full grown.
Now - 400-500g? That's more like it. Still can't guarantee a peaceful mix though, just not possible with the indivudal personalities of cichlids.
That is the good and bad side of SA cichlids. They are great because they have their own personalities, however it's nearly impossible to advise what mixes will work and what won't.
If you are willing to remove breeding pairs as they form it will be much more likely to work...
Problem with your stocking plans is that all those fish can vary drastically in personality and aggression level. It may work out, more likely it won't. It may end bad for your oscars and sev especially if your other cichlids form a pair or become overly aggressive. I see a lot of oscars with their eyes bit out trying to mix them with extremely aggressive cichlids like red devils/midas and jags in an overstocked situation because people think oscars are aggressive, usually they're not. I've seen severums torn to shreds, because honestly severums tend to be pretty peaceful a lot of the time.
The other problem is you can conceivably end up with breeding going on even if you only pick males or females of a species. Though it seems you want male and female cons. Not real good idea if you want to keep the peace in this type of setup.
Jags,midas, convicts and firemouths can all breed together. Convicts especially will breed with almost anything so it wouldn't be hard for you to end up with some kind of breeding pair, and when these types of cichlids breed they aren't nice.
Jags and midas can be extremely aggressive, so if either start breeding you will have problems. Convicts aren't much better, the only plus is that they're smaller than the other two.
Say you don't end up with a pair of something, considering the size of the individuals combined the tank is really too small.
I guarantee you will NOT be able to keep plants alive with these fish, so planting won't do anything for you, lol. My red devil builds a 5 inch high mound sometimes in the sand, if plants were in there they'd constantly be uprooted. You can try some plants on wood but they'd still likely be ripped off.
Your pleco is likely to be picked on, at the worst killed once the others are full grown.
Now - 400-500g? That's more like it. Still can't guarantee a peaceful mix though, just not possible with the indivudal personalities of cichlids.
That is the good and bad side of SA cichlids. They are great because they have their own personalities, however it's nearly impossible to advise what mixes will work and what won't.
If you are willing to remove breeding pairs as they form it will be much more likely to work...
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I ended up with that severum in there b/c the first severum I had was too peaceful to be kept in there so I removed him and put him in the angelfish tank and got 2 small guys from the petstore, one of those was sooo aggressive that he ended up in the tank with the SA cichlids instead of with the other 2 severums and the angels.
He fits in pretty well in there, and since I work at petsmart now I watched all the fish for a few weeks before buying them so I got peaceful guys(I hope!) And I always have empty tanks to move breeding pairs to so that shouldn't be a problem. :3
And I will definitely get pics of my pond posted after I set it up but that won't be for another 6 months at least as the fish are all still pretty small and the tank is heavily decorated with driftwood.
He fits in pretty well in there, and since I work at petsmart now I watched all the fish for a few weeks before buying them so I got peaceful guys(I hope!) And I always have empty tanks to move breeding pairs to so that shouldn't be a problem. :3
And I will definitely get pics of my pond posted after I set it up but that won't be for another 6 months at least as the fish are all still pretty small and the tank is heavily decorated with driftwood.