Gold Saum Tank builders out there?

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ECDC

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Oct 9, 2015
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So... Ive had a wild caught male GS for a year and he's finally at 8 inch in my 220 gallon tank. Added a Nicaraguan6" to boost his colors and they get along fairly well. I recently added much smaller GT(4") they get along great. They are also with:
8 clowns (4-8")
2 blue botia
a bristle nosed pleco
clown pleco
4 6" Silver dollars
5" male polleni
And 3" male Texas


Any other stocking additionons come to mind?
 
I would stop at this point, and watch the hierarchy. It can change drastically as cichlids get within 75% of the mass of the other cichlids, and you may find your saum at the bottom of the cichlid list.
 
Appreciate the feedback.
I was somewhat thinking the same thing. The only cichlid in that stock that seems like it's going to be a problem is my Texas. He's already showing signs of aggression and might be getting an early bus ticket outta there.
Any other fish to add? None cichlids.
Any luck with fish along the lines of:
Flag tails and giant danio?
 
ECDC said:
Appreciate the feedback.
I was somewhat thinking the same thing. The only cichlid in that stock that seems like it's going to be a problem is my Texas. He's already showing signs of aggression and might be getting an early bus ticket outta there.
Any other fish to add? None cichlids.
Any luck with fish along the lines of:
Flag tails and giant danio?
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Like mentioned id stop your clowns will take up most of that tank when bigger
 
The clowns aren't bothered at all... It s my silver dollars he and my other cichlids seem to Target. I posted on here looking to see if there were any folks that would suggest some targets. If not that's fine, I'll go off and do more research on my own.
Appreciate the advise on not adding any more cichlids it was never in my interest, but everyone automatically assumed it was.
I do however have other portions of the tank that need filled in to prevent future problems.
 
ECDC said:
The clowns aren't bothered at all... It s my silver dollars he and my other cichlids seem to Target. I posted on here looking to see if there were any folks that would suggest some targets. If not that's fine, I'll go off and do more research on my own.
Appreciate the advise on not adding any more cichlids it was never in my interest, but everyone automatically assumed it was.
I do however have other portions of the tank that need filled in to prevent future problems.
Click to expand...
ECDC said:
So don't add any other target fish to help reduce aggression?
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Target fish are fine but your cichlids are small atm and when bigger you can't predict how they will act and adding more fish could help spread the aggression but most likely will make the gt or dominant cichlid in charge get frustrated and start beating on fish it can attack
 
philipraposo1982 said:
The classic "I don't get the answer I want so I'm out of here".
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I don't get that from this guy. He took the advice offered about not adding cichlids, and asked another question. I don't think he quite understands target/dither fish, but at least he's here asking questions.

"target" fish are meant to spread the aggression around. When dealing with big CA/SA cichlids, people often use smaller, hardy cichlids such as convicts for targets. You say the loaches aren't bothered- that's because they don't represent a threat at all to your cichlids, so they don't care about them. The loaches, or other non-cichlids, are more like what we would call "dither" fish, the point of these being to make cichlids feel comfortable and less shy. In the wild, cichlids will watch the activity of smaller schooling-type fish as an indication of danger. So in the aquarium, having a school of characins swimming around care-free tells the cichlids that there is nothing for them to fear.

Regarding your stocking- adding more non-cichlids will not have any affect on the cichlid pecking-order. The way to alter that order would be to add or remove cichlids. Your fish are mostly small still, so you can't really know who will be dominant when they are grown up. You could leave it as is, and be prepared to remove the texas or other offenders if they become too rowdy- or you could try adding a few more similar cichlids, with the knowledge that you will probably have to tweak the stock as the fish grow. Cichlid communities are a balancing act, it's damn near impossible to just list a few fish and a tank size and guarantee that it works. But you have a nice sized tank and with some adjusting as the fish grow, could have a nice community.
 
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