What fish would be compatible?

Bowjo

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Apr 4, 2004
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My son has a 30 gal. aquarium.He has 2 pictus catfish and a cichlid,I think it is an Arautus.What type of fish could survive with these others.We have tried some other cichlids but they all get killed and ate...Thanks
 
Is this what you have?:

Female auratus:
melanochromis_auratus_female.jpg

Male Auratus:
02287642.jpg

sorry about the large file size.

Auratus cichlids are pretty aggressive in general and will guard a territory as small as a 30g quiet viciously. What have you tried already?

Make sure you have lots of rocks and places for the Auratus to create a territory. After that, something you could consider is 3 giant danios. They are active enough to be able to dodge the advances of an Auratus and would also act as 'dither fish', which is a distraction to other fish and could possibly calm the Auratus down.

Unfortunately, if you're looking to get more African cichlids, you'll need a larger aquarium.
 
Is this what you have?:

Female auratus:
melanochromis_auratus_female.jpg

Male Auratus:
02287642.jpg

sorry about the large file size.

Auratus cichlids are pretty aggressive in general and will guard a territory as small as a 30g quiet viciously. What have you tried already?

Make sure you have lots of rocks and places for the Auratus to create a territory. After that, something you could consider is 3 giant danios. They are active enough to be able to dodge the advances of an Auratus and would also act as 'dither fish', which is a distraction to other fish and could possibly calm the Auratus down.

Unfortunately, if you're looking to get more African cichlids, you'll need a larger aquarium.
there we go :D

i did a search and goldfish popped up...
 
You could try some large(2"+) Congo Tetras, but the bio-load could be to much in a 30gal. It might be safer to try and get a auratus of the opposite sex, and of comparible size.
 
That picture is the fish we have.I have lots of rocks and plants for them to hide.I am not sure of the other cichlids we tried.They have killed a few tetras,an agea eater,a large pleco and a bluegill.
 
I talked it over with my son,he wants to keep these fish.The pictus have both been here two years,they are about 3 1/2" long.We may try to find a female auratus or two ,maybe he wont kill them.The male we have looked like the females when he was small.Is there any way to tell males from females when they are small?...thanks
 
I think if you got a bigger tank, like a 55, you might be able to add some that could handle your current stock.
 
Just curious how easy it is to introduce a male auratus into an established 20g that contains just one female auratus that's about 3 1/2 inches now. I've had the female alone in this tank for about two months. I know of a chain lfs that has a male, but wasn't sure if that would work out.
 
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