typical newbie question

E

eFish

AC Members
Jan 8, 2006
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Hoboken, NJ
Background: A couple years back I bought a 20G tall and put 8 small cichlids in it (all random "cichlids" from a local store back at school). I knew they were agressive, but I didn't think they would whip each other out over the next 2 years. After the last one died, I bought a jack demsy and 2 blood parrot fish, cuz I heard they were easy to keep and not so agressive. They are doing fine.

My question: I'm looking to buy a 100G custom tank and I want to give cichlids another shot. I've heard from friends they are destined to just kill each other off as some species grow quicker and are more aggressive.

My problem: I don't want to just get one species. I want a colorful tank with a lot of nicely colored fish and live plants (the 20G-T had plants and the fish ate all of them). I'm in the NYC area and haven't found any truly "nice" fish stores around me with actual breeds of cichlids on the tanks.

Sidenote: I have ZERO interest in breeding these fish. It was hard enough to convince my girlfriend to go for the 100G tank since we already have fish tank. I'm not even going to think about spawning.

If you've bothered to read all that, any suggestions would be much appreciated.

TIA,
Eric
eFish
 
bought a jack demsy and 2 blood parrot fish, cuz I heard they were easy to keep and not so agressive. They are doing fine.
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they won't be doing fine for much longer. even one of those two species grows far too large for 20 gallons and the fact that it has a smaller footprint than a standard 20 makes it that much worse.

in a 100 gallon tank you could keep a variety of African Rift Lake cichlids ... colorful, active. this link will give you an idea what they look like: http://www.vatoelvis.com/
 
Are the Jack Dempsey and Blood Parrots still alive? If so, why not just go for a New World Cichlid tank with your Jack and BPs. I hear most BPs are sterile anyhow. Dunno how many more fish you could get, as I have no experience in keeping cichlids that large. If somehow the BPs manage to magically reproduce, just let nature take its course. Those guys are gonna need an enormous tank, as they are enormous fish.

I know several New World cichlids are fond of digging, which could make planting a tank a real PITA.
 
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If you want a very colorful tank your gonna want africans, american cichlids get much bigger in general and are not as colorful. As long as your tank is not overstocked you will have no fighting problems. But sometimes you do get a fish that is just plain MEAN and you will have to keep them alone or trade them in.
 
thanks for the help. I noticed that most africans don't grow as big. I've heard a pretty big range. Anywhere from 1 fish per 3 gallons to 1 fish per 6 gallons. I'd obviously want more fish to get a nice colorful tank, but I don't want to make it a death pit again.

thanks again everyone.
 
Cichlids have a reputation for "killing each other" because most people choose them based on appearance with NO regard for thier temperament or territorial needs. I would go with a malawi mbuna tank if I were you. Only buy fish from species tanks, and make sure you research the individual species to make sure they are compatible in the long run.
 
Go for South American, not as aggressive as the Central American.

An Oscar, Uaru, and Severum could be kept in a 100
 
I would love to suggest africans to you, http://www.malawimayhem.com is another great African Malawi site. Great care should be taken in planning a good combination of species, as many have different aggression levels and different needs (diet, tank decor, etc etc). You can get some live plants such as vallisneria, anubias, and java fern with africans, but they will eat a lot of plants... because they are mainly vegetarian (the mbuna).

However, why not use the 100 gallons to upgrade your poor fish in the 20 gallon? They are going to need it big time.


-Diana
 
eFish said:
My question: I'm looking to buy a 100G custom tank and I want to give cichlids another shot. I've heard from friends they are destined to just kill each other off as some species grow quicker and are more aggressive.

My problem: I don't want to just get one species. I want a colorful tank with a lot of nicely colored fish and live plants (the 20G-T had plants and the fish ate all of them). I'm in the NYC area and haven't found any truly "nice" fish stores around me with actual breeds of cichlids on the tanks.

Sidenote: I have ZERO interest in breeding these fish. It was hard enough to convince my girlfriend to go for the 100G tank since we already have fish tank. I'm not even going to think about spawning.

If you've bothered to read all that, any suggestions would be much appreciated.

TIA,
Eric
eFish
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Africans are certainly a solution for you. Let me suggest another solution that is out of the mainstream thinking. I wanted pretty much the same thing you seem to want, but I had a 75g tank to work with. I tried to limit my grown sizes to about 6 inches and tried to get females of the potentially larger species (since they tend to be a little smaller) so long as the color wasn't reduced. I wanted a "busy" tank with lots of activity, but little aggression. I presently have the following:

8 tiger barbs - shoal in kind of a roiling ball at mid tank
6 rosy barbs - lots of color and shoal side to side in the upper area of the tank
3 large (4-5") clown loaches - active and playful along the bottom
1 nicaraguese - female, beautiful rainbow of colors, active digger
1 firemouth - male, beautiful and lots of character
1 rottkeil severum - hasn't really colored up yet
1 "bahia" (braziliensis) - female, very active, not yet really colored up
1 honduran red point - beautiful blue, great personality
1 mixteco albino - great coloring; white with red eyes and lots of yellow spangling.
1 multispinosa - gold with blue highlights; great personality, very active swimmer

They all went in to the tank together and I've never had any kind of aggression problems. I picked species with mild dispositions and avoided spawning potentials. There's always something interesting to watch; lots of interesting movement and behavior, lots of color. I'm probably overstocked by most people's estimation, but I do 20% water changes a week and run an Aquaclear 500 and Eheim 2217, so the tank (and water) stays clean.
 
rmcder: Thank you very much. This is exactly what I was looking for. I'll take a look at your list later.

Luvmykribs: I didn't proofread before that thread. It should have read I bought 2 fish (a jack demsy and a blood parrot). I also have a placo, and I know all three can get huge, but I don't want to put 3 fish in a 100G tank and wait it out for them to die. Neither the demsy or bp are aggressive, but I don't want to add fish to their habitat. Thanks for the suggestion though.

Lastly any more suggestions re: plant/fish combo's, cleaning fish (placo's are kinda boring), and places to buy them; would be more than appreciated.

TIA
 
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