What do I need to have firemouths

B

bettaobsession

AC Members
Jun 22, 2009
326
0
0
I have an empty 36 gallon and I was wondering,

What supplies do I need for firemouths?
What are some othr tankmates for firemouths?
How many can I have in this tank?
What do firemouths eat and are there any other things I should watch out for?

Sorry for the basic questions but these will be my first cichlids EVER!

Thanks!
 
IMO your tank is only large enough for one pair of Firemouths, you could buy 5-6 juvies and let them form pairs themselves....keep one and return the others to the LFS. Or as you mentioned tankmates buy one really nice looking juvie firemouth and keep tankmates with it. A small shoal of larger tetras such as Buenos Aires would complement the Firemouth well, with that you could also keep a pair of bristlenose plecos with them. If you wanted to keep a pair of Firemouths, about all you could keep with them would be a pair of bristlenose plecos.

As far as diet is cocerned, they will eat small cichlid pellets. Frozen fish foods such as mysis, bloodworms are also good....supplementing the diet with some veggies would be a good color boost...emerald entree is a good veggie frozen fish food. Finely chopped fresh seafood is another good food source for firemouths. Id also add some spirulina pellets to the diet as well. Firemouths are small hardy cichlids, provide them with good water quality and diet and they should be fine.
 
coma_white said:
IMO your tank is only large enough for one pair of Firemouths, you could buy 5-6 juvies and let them form pairs themselves....keep one and return the others to the LFS. Or as you mentioned tankmates buy one really nice looking juvie firemouth and keep tankmates with it. A small shoal of larger tetras such as Buenos Aires would complement the Firemouth well, with that you could also keep a pair of bristlenose plecos with them. If you wanted to keep a pair of Firemouths, about all you could keep with them would be a pair of bristlenose plecos.
Click to expand...


Hi,
Thanks for the quick responce, are bristlenose plecs the only thing I could keep if I got a pair? And how would I know I have a pair?
 
If you kept a pair(M,F) they would take up darn near the whole tank for themselves and their fry. The best way to obtain a pair of firemouths is to buy 5-6 juvies and grow them out together, they will form their own pairs and when you have one it will be pretty obvious as 2 will hang together and keep the remaining fish isolated to one end of the tank. Male firemouths will usually have more elaborate long fins, a redder throat and more blue sheen. Although you will see females that rival males in looks so its not a fool proof way to tell...thus why I suggest buying the small group of fish instead of just picking out 2 fish from your shop.
 
oh, so if I just kept a single, would I be able to have like other cichlids? or gouramis or something? bristlenose plecos are really great but I don't like tetras much.
what do you think?
 
So would maybe a firemouth, two BPs, and two giant gouramis work? Though the gouramis only get 4 inches, will they be okay? Or will two 3 spot work?
 
bettaobsession said:
So would maybe a firemouth, two BPs, and two giant gouramis work? Though the gouramis only get 4 inches, will they be okay? Or will two 3 spot work?
Click to expand...
two bp if u mean blood parrots then no they can get up to a foot 10 inches is more then likely tho. giant Gs no they get up to a foot and a half same with kissing Gs.

why not do this:
1 FM
8 tiger barbs
2 BN plecs
 
Both the FM's I had are/were mean mean mean. I gave the 1st one away about a year ago and the juvie one I have now is in a 125 g tank with a full grown Oscar and a mean juvie Texas. I can't have a Plec or Loaches or catfish nor any top fish like Silver Dollars in that tank because the Firemouth attacks them. Both the Texas and the FM are scared of the Oscar because he's so big but if that changes in the future they'll have to go, in the meantime they're great cleaner-uppers after the Oscar :-) I'm always surprised when people say FM's aren't real aggressive when both mine were so dang mean.
 
livebearerfreak said:
two bp if u mean blood parrots then no they can get up to a foot 10 inches is more then likely tho. giant Gs no they get up to a foot and a half same with kissing Gs.

why not do this:
1 FM
8 tiger barbs
2 BN plecs
Click to expand...

No I meant Bristlenose Plecos, and the websites I looked on said that the GG got 4inches and the Kissing G got 2.5inches
?

Would it work to have green tiger barbs, 2 BP and 1 FM?

Just a side question, would it work to have a couple small ropefish and a couple of dwarf gouramis? Ya know, if the FM thing didn't work out.

Or maybe instead of tiger barbs, would 2-3 3spot gouramis work?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
AquariaCentral.com
Top Bottom