Central American biotype scenario options???

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
I have a 180g with quite a few Vieja, GT, and Escondido, and I had a Salvini in there too at one point. I would be careful about the Salvini. In my experience you'll probably want to get a much smaller Salvini than anything else. Mine was an absolute nightmare. He was the smallest fish in my tank and ran the show without question. I had to give him away because he was attacking 24/7. He wasn't even protective of an area of the tank, the WHOLE tank was "his tank".

If you decide to get some Vieja, I would be looking to upgrade tank size in the near future. Some of the larger species of Vieja can get 18". I have way too many, and need a 300-ish gallon now to accommodate them. Some of them grow absurdly quickly too. One of my Bifasciatus went from about 1.5" to a solid 9" and thick in 9-10 months. Your best bet will be to raise them all together from a small size. Even then some fish will never get along.
 
I was just noticing too that the Trimac is found in parts of mexico but in Honduras too. Crazy! I know it is a lot of fish, and i wouldn't be looking at trying to have any pairs in the 125 gallon. Maybe one pair in the 90 of something would be cool. But for example in the 125 if it were something like...

This video was kind of some inspiration too of a nicaraguan crater lake tank. It is a pretty crowded 125 waiting for death and chaos to happen, but looks way cool i think.

[video=youtube;cstlS282OnA]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cstlS282OnA[/video]
 
gutted said:
Here's a little inspiration. I love this guy's tanks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81hGi0c1XFg&feature=youtube_gdata_player
Click to expand...

Yeah! That is cool. I need way more rock then. I have quite the piece of driftwood in the tank. Bit of a tree stump root system I found at a local lake. Wish I could have kept and used more of it. It was pretty extensive. This is kind of what my tank looks like now. Rocks are a little different formation and a few fish in this video are not in there any more. Lost a few danios I think and no texas unfortunately, but a hybrid texas. The plants not in there anymore either cause they kept digging it up. Don't know how this compares to most CA waters but I like to think it's close.

[video=youtube;Famp9bF7-7Y]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Famp9bF7-7Y&feature=plcp[/video]
 
I like your setup especially your driftwood. Your salvini is huge! I'll be setting up my new 125 very soon.

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gutted said:
I like your setup especially your driftwood. Your salvini is huge! I'll be setting up my new 125 very soon.

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Click to expand...

Thanks! I still feel like it is a work in progress and my OCD doesn't help much. That's part of why i like the idea of a biotype. Fish from the same area means organized, and unfortunately I'm being a little too obsessive.
 
I'll list some quick thoughts since biotopes are something I really enjoy too:

-Get specific and do research, it's more fun. Instead of a "Nicaraguan crater lake," pick one. Two good candidates for biotopes are Lake Nicaragua and Lake Xiloa.

-Mixes are hard to judge and unpredictable. The male black belt in my avatar tolerates and smaller fish just fine. Try picking one species per genus and mixing adult sizes, like one large species, one medium, one small. Say with your first list, black belts, loisellei, and convicts. The problem with six foot (and four foot!) tanks is there really isn't a lot of room when we are talking about big cichlids (coming from someone who doesn't have a tank over 6 feet). Try starting with smaller sizes too and grow them out together. Pairs in comm tanks are hit and miss. Dithers are also hit and miss IME, I recently had a small rainbow pair take out all my swordtails when they spawned.

-Good resources are Cichlid Room Companion, Monga Bay, googling scientific papers on specific lakes/rivers (often times will have a species list, though it may be on page 100 or something, and might be in another language), and other hobbyists who you find with biotope tanks on message boards. I have even met and spoke to guys that have gone collecting and I pick their brain on what fish they saw together and whatever else. I keep biotopes, as does nutty and fishnvw. I'm sure there's lots more.

Have fun!


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robmcd said:
Here is a Mexican cichlid tank that I did a few years back..

http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/f...K-(Mis-pescados-Mexicanos)&highlight=mexitank
Click to expand...

Nice Rob! That's cool. I do love me some texas cichlids. I had some firemouths too back in the day and they were pretty cool. I thought about doing something like this tank of yours with my 90 at some point to get some smaller CA cichlids going in it like texas and firemouths, or texas and salvini, and doing just a country.
 
Batboi3000 said:
I was just noticing too that the Trimac is found in parts of mexico but in Honduras too. Crazy! I know it is a lot of fish, and i wouldn't be looking at trying to have any pairs in the 125 gallon. Maybe one pair in the 90 of something would be cool. But for example in the 125 if it were something like...

This video was kind of some inspiration too of a nicaraguan crater lake tank. It is a pretty crowded 125 waiting for death and chaos to happen, but looks way cool i think.

[video=youtube;cstlS282OnA]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cstlS282OnA[/video]
Click to expand...

That is a tank from an MFK member named fish_n_vw. He big time researches bio types and is now in the process of raising some live bearers from some of the regions he is trying to set up, to go with his cichlids. I dont think he has that current set up any more.
 
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