Considering a venture into Cichlid keeping - help planning an aggressive community

johnnytaboo

Fire Eel
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May 4, 2005
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So I've been looking into cichlids recently, and I've kind of fallen for these flowerhorns; however, I am not looking for another species tank. I was hoping to start another aggressive tank. I have a 144 gallon semi-circle tank that I was planning on using for a native tank, but I wondering if it would work for this. Ideally, the stock would consist of
- Red Dragon Flowerhorn
- Jack Dempsey (ideally electric blue)
- Green Terror
- Tiger Oscar
- Some sort of Pike Cichlid

The plan would be to buy all as babies between 2-3" long and grow them for a few months in a 40 breeder before transferring them to the 144 gallon.

Is this a formula for total disaster? Are there any other similarly tempered cichlids that could work in this tank?

Thanks for any help!
- John
 

gamerpond1

Gambusia
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Jun 3, 2012
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Out of that combo even with a good size tank the dempsey the terror and an oscar are all going to be your weaker links for a rd and a pike but you may only notice it after a while flowerhorn just seem to have a grudge against everything that moves and pikes will get their bluff in on fish twice their size and I don't think a dempsey 's growth rate will keep up with the rest especially a eb

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johnnytaboo

Fire Eel
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May 4, 2005
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So I'm pretty close to a 100% fail here with the flowerhorn agro community it seems.

May have to move to another section, just because my other ideas for cichlid communities do not include a flowerhorn...... Although, say I tried this, and it does fail when the FH gets larger, would he still display this kind of aggression if I threw him in a 180 (or 240 if it's running by this time) whose stock included larger, meaner fish? - silver arowana, Odoe pike, common wolf fish, and a rtc...
 

gamerpond1

Gambusia
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Jun 3, 2012
879
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I don't see why not and whos to say for sure maybe you don't fail and you end with one of those flowerhorn thats mellow

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johnnytaboo

Fire Eel
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May 4, 2005
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Ok, I made a purchase. Most of this mix feels like a bad idea, but if by some miracle it works out, this will be the prettiest collection of fish I've ever had in a tank:
1. Red Dragon Flowerhorn
2. Jack Dempsey
3. Green Terron
4. Polleni Cichlid
5. Texas Cichlid
6. Nandopsis beani "Rio Panuco, Mexico"

all fish should be arriving around 2-2.5" long. I was initially thinking of starting them all out in a 40 breeder and transferring them to my 144 gallon when they get a bit bigger, but I started wondering if it wouldn't just be better to put them directly into the big tank.

Thoughts?
 

FishRetard

Feeder Fish
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Jun 21, 2014
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I would just put them in the big tank, but that's just me

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ragin_cajun

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The JD and tbe GT are gonna grow WAY slower than the other fish. You can swap em later for bigger adults/juvies later maybe. Especially the GT.


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johnnytaboo

Fire Eel
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May 4, 2005
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If i notice they're being beaten up, I could take out the JD and the GT and grow them out in the 40br if need be.

What's the growth rate like on those two? 1/4-1/2" per month? The flowerhorn is going to grow a lot faster than that isn't he....
 

Montelboom

Plecostomus
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May 20, 2014
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For a Jd usual 1/2 an inch to 3/4 a month is usually what I see/hear.

A Gt usually 3/4 to an inch a month.

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