Thinking about a cichlid tank
- Thread starter kittyhazelton
- Start date
Brian, let me first say that I'm glad you discovered cichlids early in your career as a hobbiest. I think most people on this forum will agree that they are by far the most interesting family of fish that you can keep. Your intent to breed them also shows that you have a real interest for the natural history of these fish (not something you usually see in someone your age).
With that said, it sounds like your tanks are more than a bit overstocked, and you may be underestimating your fish's territorial requirements. Medium/large cichlids need space to grow and display thier natural behaviors. It sounds like you may have fallen into the trap of wanting to have one of evey cichlid you see, and there's nothing wrong with that, they're facinating fish and all of us at one time or another have stuffed too many incompatable fish in a tank. My first cichlid in middle school was a jack dempsy in a 10g (gulp!) that got moved into a 29g with two oscars (double gulp!). He eventually killed the oscars and then died (probably because I stunted his growth in too small a tank with too few water changes). The point I'm trying to make is that the type of cichlids your're keeping are just not community fish. Many people (even experienced keepers) sometimes treat them as such, but it ALWAYS ends up costing a fish it's life.
I don't want you to think I'm lecturing you, I'm not. What I will do is offer you some advice that took me years to figure out, and once I did really opened my eyes to the wonder of these fish we call cichlids. Keep fewer species, give them more room, and they will reward you with stunning displays of thier natural behaviors. I promise you that this will do more to satisfy your obssesion than keeping "one more cichlid" in an overcrowded tank.
My suggestion (from someone who has been in your shoes) is to pick a species (not the oscar, take him back) and obtain a pair for you 37g. Firemouths are very attractive, easy to breed fish that would go well in your tank. I think ONE pair of cons will work in you 20g (trust me, more than one breeding pair will have you flushing fry down the toilet for lack of a place to put them all).
Please don't feel like taking some of those fish back is a bad thing. Eveyone who has kept cichlids has had to do this at some point. There are just too many variables to be sure what combos will work. If you decide to keep all or some of your fish, then do them a favor add as much structure to the tank as possible. This can be in the form of pieces of driftwood (expensive) or sections of pvc pipe (cheap). This gives the fish places to hide and breaks up "lines of sight" so that more dominant fish are not constantly seeing and picking on less dominant fish. My last piece of advice (and this is the one that will save you and your fish a ton of trouble) is to keep up on your water changes. There is no single prcatice in fishkeeping that has more beneficial effects than a good water change schedule. In your tank, I would say that 50% once a week is the bear minimum that you should be doing. Twice a week would be better since you have so many growing fish (they produce higher levels of growth hormones that build up in the tank and can cause stunting and other health problems)
Good luck, and welcome to the club!
With that said, it sounds like your tanks are more than a bit overstocked, and you may be underestimating your fish's territorial requirements. Medium/large cichlids need space to grow and display thier natural behaviors. It sounds like you may have fallen into the trap of wanting to have one of evey cichlid you see, and there's nothing wrong with that, they're facinating fish and all of us at one time or another have stuffed too many incompatable fish in a tank. My first cichlid in middle school was a jack dempsy in a 10g (gulp!) that got moved into a 29g with two oscars (double gulp!). He eventually killed the oscars and then died (probably because I stunted his growth in too small a tank with too few water changes). The point I'm trying to make is that the type of cichlids your're keeping are just not community fish. Many people (even experienced keepers) sometimes treat them as such, but it ALWAYS ends up costing a fish it's life.
I don't want you to think I'm lecturing you, I'm not. What I will do is offer you some advice that took me years to figure out, and once I did really opened my eyes to the wonder of these fish we call cichlids. Keep fewer species, give them more room, and they will reward you with stunning displays of thier natural behaviors. I promise you that this will do more to satisfy your obssesion than keeping "one more cichlid" in an overcrowded tank.
My suggestion (from someone who has been in your shoes) is to pick a species (not the oscar, take him back) and obtain a pair for you 37g. Firemouths are very attractive, easy to breed fish that would go well in your tank. I think ONE pair of cons will work in you 20g (trust me, more than one breeding pair will have you flushing fry down the toilet for lack of a place to put them all).
Please don't feel like taking some of those fish back is a bad thing. Eveyone who has kept cichlids has had to do this at some point. There are just too many variables to be sure what combos will work. If you decide to keep all or some of your fish, then do them a favor add as much structure to the tank as possible. This can be in the form of pieces of driftwood (expensive) or sections of pvc pipe (cheap). This gives the fish places to hide and breaks up "lines of sight" so that more dominant fish are not constantly seeing and picking on less dominant fish. My last piece of advice (and this is the one that will save you and your fish a ton of trouble) is to keep up on your water changes. There is no single prcatice in fishkeeping that has more beneficial effects than a good water change schedule. In your tank, I would say that 50% once a week is the bear minimum that you should be doing. Twice a week would be better since you have so many growing fish (they produce higher levels of growth hormones that build up in the tank and can cause stunting and other health problems)
Good luck, and welcome to the club!
