what cichlids have you had success with

Dark Phoenix

Dark Phoenix

Bad Bird
Jul 25, 2004
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hi i am looking to buy a 100g aquarium and want to stock it with cichlids like jack dempeys ,firemouths, jewels ,blood parrot but maybe if you have had succes with a particular kind plese end me pics of them and tell me what was so great about them. its ok to read about them in the books but its better to get advice from people who have actually had them i have experience with tetras and llivebearers and all the smaller fish but ive never had any cichlids so please enlighten me with yall's experience
 
Kribensis

Im a fan of kribensis. they are a rather small sa cichlid. They are wonder ful parents, and they can hold their own against anything you put with them!
 
I had good luck with JD's and Jewels and firemouths and blue Acara and convicts are really cool to they r fun to watch and they are very interesting
 
Oscars are obviously fun, the personality is amazing. But I have found that JD's and FM's also have great personalities. A healthy JD is IMO (everybody has one) one of the prettiest fish living in freshwater. I like the firemouths for the colors and flaring, all three fish mentioned can be pretty docile or downright mean, my current tank has three of the meanest fish I've ever owned, I'm not sure if I will be able to keep things the way they are. But even with the battles and flaring, I am really enjoying all three Cichlids, and nobody is getting hurt thus far just some real dancing going on in the tank. The thng I am enjoying the most thisround, is the hunting. both the firemouth and the Jd are wicked snail hunters, And I'm breeding snails as fast as I can for them. If I drop one snail in, they will spend hours looking for more.
 
From the responses, it sounds like I want to get back to raising cichlids. I had 5 Oscars ( 3 tigers, 2 reds) with 2 Pacus and things were fine while everyone was small but I they grew in a 55 gallon tank thngs just got too cramped. After 3 oscars died over the course of 18 months things got better but even with frequent water changes I just couldn't keep up with water levels.

Oscars are pretty succeptible to "Hole in Head" disease and once it started in my tank, I just couldn't stop if from reoccurring. ( Probably more cuz of my novice skills)

Make sure that you over filtrate your new tank and plan for the growth of the fish to avoid having you tank over stocked a year or 2 from now.

Sorry no old pics, but I miss the tigers....
 
Blue acaras and convicts. only cichlids i keep currently. the blue acaras are my favorite, they are very beautiful, esp with black lights or moonlights, they have blue flourescent spots all over their body and it looks very nice when the light hits it jsut right.
i will try to get some pictures if i still have them

if you do a search on blue acaras on Ac forums, you will find lots of information and pics of my fish if the pics are still there.
 
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I like cichlids because all of them have a personality.

If you don't have a huge tank, or even if you do, kribs are great fish. They don't require the room of the big ones and sport great colors.

Oscars are cool, but messy and when they get big they tend to look like grumpy old men to me. Still, I like them and find the only true drawback is the size it takes for them to thrive.

My avatar shows a gold sevrum and he is fun to watch. He's learned that the corys know where food is on the bottm and if he sees them gathered he nudges them out of the way just to investigate. What he finds may be too small for him to bother but sometimes its a tablet that he claims for himself.

I have to agree with daveedka about a health JD. Just watching their colors change according to their feelings is fun.

Convicts spawn at the drop of a hat and will even attack my python if I get too close to their babies.

Despite the colors, I like the American cichlids more than the Africans. I don't have anything against the African cichlids but I just have my own likes.

I've also had firemouths, keyholes, festivae (and I know I spelled that wrong) and others. Still I always come back to my JD, Texas, Convicts and sevrums.
 
I had 5 Oscars ( 3 tigers, 2 reds) with 2 Pacus and things were fine while everyone was small but I they grew in a 55 gallon tank things just got too cramped.
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OK, what did you think was going to happen? To say that was a "gross" overstocking of a tank is an understatement.

HITH is a problem when you have dirty tank water. Again, you had enough fish for a 300 gallon tank in a 55....

BTW, Red Pacu's can grow to over 24 inches long. They have no business being in that size tank. If you plan on moving them to the 220, great. Otherwise, they are better off going back to the fish store.
 
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Originally posted by NickH


OK, what did you think was going to happen? To say that was a "gross" overstocking of a tank is an understatement.

HITH is a problem when you have dirty tank water. Again, you had enough fish for a 300 gallon tank in a 55....

BTW, Red Pacu's can grow to over 24 inches long. They have no business being in that size tank. If you plan on moving them to the 220, great. Otherwise, they are better off going back to the fish store.
Click to expand...


No doubt the problem was overstocking. 2 years ago when I didn't know any better that didn't seem like a lot of fish. Especially since I was buying for the small size they were when i got them. Even with the eventual overstocking , the point is that Ciclids (though hardy fish) can be sensitive to the tank params and that Dark Phoenix should take that into account.
 
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