Opinions on a SA mixed tank

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wheatgerm

wheatgerm

Plecostomus
MFK Member
May 22, 2010
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utah
I'm going to be setting up a 220 here shortly. want to try stocking it with mixed SA cichlids. Something I've never done before. Looking for some ideas..
How have other people kept some of these species together successfully? Some I've been looking into are the festae and umbee and other bruisers but I'm not thinking I have too great of chances keeping them together?
Any ideas suggestions would be great thanks
 
I have kept xC festae, Acarichthys, Guianacara, some Crenicichla and xC ornatum together quite successfully as long as size differential is taken into account.
I doubt an umbi would work long term in that situation, especially in a tank that small.
I also find many Central American cichlids much more aggressive than South Americans and though many people lump them together, I personally would not in most cases.


I find having less aggressive species larger than aggressive ones allows for a more sustainable community.
 
Why not go with big ciclids that are pretty peaceful? Sevrums, uaru, geophagus altifrons, chocolate cichlids, oscars, etc.
 
duanes said:
I have kept xC festae, Acarichthys, Guianacara, some Crenicichla and xC ornatum together quite successfully as long as size differential is taken into account.
I doubt an umbi would work long term in that situation, especially in a tank that small.
I also find many Central American cichlids much more aggressive than South Americans and though many people lump them together, I personally would not in most cases.
Click to expand...

Off topic, but how aggressive do you find your Acarichthys to be? What size did they max out at? I also have Guinacara, with a firemouth, a blue acara, and other smaller ciclids (bolivian rams, curviceps, keyhole, rainbow) in a tank that I think a Acarichthys would be cool in.
 
My Acarichthys are about 3 years old and maybe 8", so not full grown yet, and in my 150 gal with the current inhabitants, as yet, non-aggressive.

Guianacara are a bit smaller (maybe 6"), also non-aggressive.
 
Thanks for the replies. I've kept allot of the so mentioned in the past such as geophagus altifrons, dicrozoster, tapajos, windermilli. Up to many different peacock bass and stingrays. Gar. Arows ect. And honestly this 220 will be the smallest tank I've had set up in about 10 years.I've just never kept the big basasses before haha.
Honestly a single big dovii really sparks my interest but I know if I only have 1-3 fish it will get boring reasonably quick. I'm just looking for something new. Colorful and pretty easy to care for because of my lack of time my wife might end up doing allot of the feeding and care..
The pics shared are some nice ones thanks
 
I have heckellii, with severum, a bellycrawler, and a melanurus. Tank is a 225 wide and so far no issues just a chase or flair here and there and a very rare lop lock. The heckellii bicker a little amongst themselves but never any physical damage and none of the other fish bother them despite they all bicker amongst themselves.
 
wheatgerm said:
Thanks for the replies. I've kept allot of the so mentioned in the past such as geophagus altifrons, dicrozoster, tapajos, windermilli. Up to many different peacock bass and stingrays. Gar. Arows ect. And honestly this 220 will be the smallest tank I've had set up in about 10 years.I've just never kept the big basasses before haha.
Honestly a single big dovii really sparks my interest but I know if I only have 1-3 fish it will get boring reasonably quick. I'm just looking for something new. Colorful and pretty easy to care for because of my lack of time my wife might end up doing allot of the feeding and care..
The pics shared are some nice ones thanks
Click to expand...

This isn't SA, but if you're looking for something different, have you considered North American sunfish? Longears and Pumpkinseeds are gorgeous! And Greens are not as colorful but have a ton of personality. Rock bass are also not very colorful, but they are sweet predators, change colors, and have cool red eyes. With that size you could do quite the sunfish tank! You could probably also put a pickerel in as well.

EDIT: I added a picture of Longear sunfish in another post. Also, if you fon't care about having only native fish, you could gymnogeophagus as well, because the tank would be unheated.
 
duanes said:
My Acarichthys are about 3 years old and maybe 8", so not full grown yet, and in my 150 gal with the current inhabitants, as yet, non-aggressive.

Guianacara are a bit smaller (maybe 6"), also non-aggressive.
Click to expand...

Beautiful Guianacara! I have a decent size male (maybe 5in), but he hasn't got quite that iridescent look yet. I haven't had him that long though. The LFS only had one. Do you think it is worth tracking down more to have a group, or do they not really need the social aspect like geos do? The tank he will go into has mostly singleton cichlids so I don't have a breeding pair take over the whole thing.

What part of the tank do the Acarichthys mainly use? Do they stay at the bottom like Geos and Guianacara? I just have a lot that like the bottom, and don't swim much in open water.

Thanks!
 
Not my picture, but you can't beat this color!

longear+sunfish_001


Source: (http://gallery.nanfa.org/v/members/bbrown/longear+sunfish_001.html?g2_imageViewsIndex=2)
 
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