220 gallon stocking question

[FishKing5]

Pretty simple question. How many vieja melanura and maculicauda could you comfortably fit into a 220 gallon all male tank.? I was planning on getting a 300 gallon but might have to resort to a 220 but we will see.

 

[dan518]

Personally 1,,,,, but if your going for the heavy stocked all male tank your going to need at least 7 to stop aggression, but you need the filtration and water change schedule to mach

 

[Steve@TN]

Switch the blackbelt out for a less aggressive Vieja and will probably have more success. I currently have 6 in a 220 with Vieja in the 5-8 inch range with little aggression. But I can tell I will have to thin the stock just due to the max size. Also some Vieja ,not melanura though, grow pretty slow like argentea. Good luck

 

[Stanzzzz7]

1pair.
Fully grown melanura will soon fill that space.
If you want to do the crowded all male route,I don't think the tank is big enough.

 

[ragin_cajun]

I have a melanura, and an old-style Belize type Synspilum, and those 2 are the meanest fish in a 540 gallon tank full of Vieja. Just dominant.

 

[FishKing5]

The vieja that I'd be putting in the 220 are all being raised together as juvies right now so maybe I'll have some luck with limited aggression. I'll just have to keep a close eye on them and just separate what I have to. Would a 300 make a whole lot of difference

 

[FishKing5]

Would a 300 gallon make much of a difference

1pair.
Fully grown melanura will soon fill that space.
If you want to do the crowded all male route,I don't think the tank is big enough.

 

[Stanzzzz7]

Would a 300 gallon make much of a difference[QUOTE
It would help.
You could try ir and remove any trouble makers along the way.i think you would have a greater chance if succeeding if you stuck to one veija species and kept them in harems of 1 male and 3 or 4 females.

 

[dan518]

The overstocked all male tanks do work, seen quite a few amphilophus sp tanks done this way with no aggression issues, but personally I like ca cichlids because of there personality, the way they interact with you and each other if you have a pair, this behaviour is lost in these tanks and if all you want is lots of big colorful fish that beg for food and that's about it there are far better types of fish to choose from.

 

[FishKing5]

I've seen many, many tanks with combined central Americans that didn't seem to have any issues. I had a 210 gallon central American community tank a few years back with even a female red terror with zero issues. That's the beauty of the vieja species is that they seem to do well with other fish. I'm mean ya I'm sure you're going to have your one or two trouble makers, but you can always remove them. Here's a video of my community tank.