Will these cichlids be ok together?

saganco

saganco

RIP my precious kitty baby
Oct 29, 2006
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Colorado
What do you guys recommend? The cichlids I'm planning on choosing are the Rainbow cichlid and T-Bar cichlid (both in pairs and hopefully spawning), along with some tank mates - thinking of bosemani rainbows and rainbow sharks (both regular and albino for color and variety). Good combinations?
Now to the food:
Hikari First Bites maybe for little fry?
Cichlid Omni Formula or Vegi Formula by Ocean Nutrition?
Spirulina Wafers for all them?
Shrimp Pellets (I know my live bearers just LOVE these - but cichlids??)

Other brands or types? Please give me your preferences for health, breeding, and color for my choices? I'm stocking the pantry and need to know what to get them!

Thanks everyone.
 
I have breeding Rainbow cichlids and breeding tbars living together in a 90 gallon.
Never had any problems

They share the tank with a few other cichlids (tailapia bemini pair, juvenile geophagus, rotikel severum juvenile) and barbs (clown, spanner, arulius etc...) I had a red tail shark in there until he died of old age. He was the boss of the tank.

Depending on the size of you tank I would strongly recommend not putting more than one shark in the tank. Granted the rainbow sharks are more tolorent than the red tails but they really do not like it when there is more than one in the tank. They are a very intolerent fish when it comes to its own species.

You will find that you wil eventually end up with one bully who will kill off the others.

For the cichlids. the food you listed is fine. The key is variety. Getting Rainbows and t-bars to spawn is easy and quite the show to watch.

Good luck. Enjoy.
 
saganco said:
What do you guys recommend? The cichlids I'm planning on choosing are the Rainbow cichlid and T-Bar cichlid (both in pairs and hopefully spawning), along with some tank mates - thinking of bosemani rainbows and rainbow sharks (both regular and albino for color and variety). Good combinations?
Now to the food:
Hikari First Bites maybe for little fry?
Cichlid Omni Formula or Vegi Formula by Ocean Nutrition?
Spirulina Wafers for all them?
Shrimp Pellets (I know my live bearers just LOVE these - but cichlids??)

Other brands or types? Please give me your preferences for health, breeding, and color for my choices? I'm stocking the pantry and need to know what to get them!

Thanks everyone.
Click to expand...

I like the New Life Spectrum food as well as the Hikari Staple and Gold. I mix the Staple and Gold into one floating feeding, and alternate days I use the sinking NLS. I have a mix of New World cichlids, clown loaches, and barbs, and everybody seems equally satisfied with the food.
 
So the rainbow cichlid and the t-bar pairs are ok together!!?? I'm so happy!!! :p:

Should I stop at those two pair, or add a third (maybe Aequidens portalegrensis Port Acara, or Firemouth) pair? Rainbow fish for dither fish? Or something more like a tiger barb group?

Thanks again 'yall!
 
Another choice for the third pair (IF it's ok) might be a pair of Bolivian Rams. Remembering that my ph is 7.8 and my tank is a 65g (36x18), is a 3rd pair ok?

Open to other suggestions for some colorful tankmates for the cichlids as well. Thanks!
 
no on the Ram's, they're a low pH fish. The central american cichlids you're intrested in like higher pH and alkaline water, not quite african hard, but much harder then the rams will like. You're water is PERFECT for CA fish! The ports are also South American, like the Rams, and would do best in softer water BUT I had some in with my rainbows and they did ok. Kind of a dull fish though. Look up archocentrus spinnossisimus they take on a lovely purple/silver hue. They're not very common in shops, but there will be plenty available soon *wink* You may also want to consider Archo. centrarchus. Another great choice would be some Thorichthys "mixteco" or most any Thorichthys species (firemouths are the most common). Right now I have rainbows, albino mixteco and cryptoheros myrnae (close cousin of the T-Bar) in a central american cichlid community. My favorite dithers for my central tanks are sword tails, also from central america. The only fish I dont keep swords with are the most aggressive of the cryptoheros. And although I DO have a few pair of highly developed color strains, for mixing with cichlids, I preffer more wild-type looking swords.
Hope I helped a bit, what you're doing is my specialty :)

almost forgot, they're from a different part of the world, but like the same water, search "red chromide cichlids"
 
Last edited:
ScottoMacD said:
I have breeding Rainbow cichlids and breeding tbars living together in a 90 gallon.
Never had any problems

They share the tank with a few other cichlids (tailapia bemini pair, juvenile geophagus, rotikel severum juvenile) and barbs (clown, spanner, arulius etc...) I had a red tail shark in there until he died of old age. He was the boss of the tank.

Depending on the size of you tank I would strongly recommend not putting more than one shark in the tank. Granted the rainbow sharks are more tolorent than the red tails but they really do not like it when there is more than one in the tank. They are a very intolerent fish when it comes to its own species.

You will find that you wil eventually end up with one bully who will kill off the others.

For the cichlids. the food you listed is fine. The key is variety. Getting Rainbows and t-bars to spawn is easy and quite the show to watch.

Good luck. Enjoy.
Click to expand...


I've got a rainbow shark in with my electric yellows, electric blue and synodontus and they get on fine.

The shark chases the yellows a lot but they're just playing.

But yeah i was told one shark only too
 
I have the same situation with the yellow labs and a rainbow shark in the same tank. I also have tiger barbs in there along with a BN pleco and have no problems unless my big, mean male lab is trying to mate or defend a territory.

The rainbow sharks do get pretty large. Mine is at least 8 inches right now and they will have a problem with other rainbow sharks or similar looking species like the red tail black shark or even an albino version, especailly as they get older. I think it is also best to limit the type and kind of bottom dwellers you have (not including cichlids who tend to stay low in my tank) since there could be territory issues.

From what I understand, the cichlids you want are pretty mellow. If you are having problems with aggression, you might want to think about raising the ratios closer to one male for three females or so.

I also wouldnt worry way too much about the Ph of your tank so long as it remains constant. My cichlid tank is at a relatively low Ph and I am still able to breed yellow labs like crazy. I still wouldnt mix and match a bunch of cichlids from different parts of the world or lakes of africa, but dont drive yourself nuts trying to buffer a certain Ph level, just keep it at a constant (within reason, not too high like in the nines or too low like the lower fives) and acclimate the fish really well. I like to turn the lights off in the tank and float the bag of fish for a while before adding some of the tank water to the bag little by little over a period of time to slowly change the water from the LFS to match what is in my tank. Otherwise you can shock them if your Ph or water conditions are a lot different from what the water at the LFS is/was.
 
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