What makes good small tank mates for chocolate cichlid and just how aggressive are they ?

[djsaltynuts]

I'm thinking of a 450 gallon tank that will focus on angels and clown loaches (yea yea i'm mixing asia with sa but hey we should have a bit of diversity these days). My question is if i put in 2 chocolate cichlid will things mostly work and if so will they eat larger tetras like rosy white fin and lemon ? The tank would be approx 10 feet long and 3 feet wide - so there is a bit of room as long as they tolerate clown and zebra loaches at the bottom. I presume they would use display to warn off angels and there would not be too much true hostility but perhaps they are more aggressive than i presume.

i started a group of 5 chocolate cichlids in a 75 a year ago between 3”-5” they became extremely aggressive and bullied my rainbow cichlids who are very peaceful and a bichir who was minding its own business. theyre at 7-8” now and are much more peaceful i had similar experiences with macaw cichlids which have a similar reputation/demeanor.schooling fish 4”+ should be fine personally id do a larger species of rainbow fish, or maybe just more loaches. you may want to consider glass catfish(im talking about the larger species not the small transparent ones) they’re extremely reliant on their school though so youd want to get a large group. buenos aires tetras congo tetras red panda barbs are other great options.

if youre interested in color changing cichlids maybe get festae?

green terrors change color quite frequently in vibrance so do starry nights.

my macaw cichlid has torquoise, red, blue that seasonally change and is probably my favorite fish because it has really calmed down and is peaceful and also one of my most beautiful fish. it also changes its color allot according to dominance.

chocolate cichlids, macaw cichlids, rainbow cichlids(they frequently make huge changes in their colors but are almost always ugly ), and red hump geos are all good options for non predatory cichlids.

chocolate cichlids would be an awesome choice for what you want to do personally i think theyd do absolutely fine with dithers but you cant expect to put unreasonably small fish with a monster cichlid and them not get eaten. i mean big fish do eat little fish...

 

[djsaltynuts]

Yea I've given up the chocolate. And will stick with mostly smaller fishes. The threads where they are constantly changing colour caught my interest and since i was planning these large tanks I thought maybe they would fit but it sounds like for fishes as small as 4 inches they will be a hazard and I'm not willing to drop those from my plans.

something to think about is if you dont have the commitment to think you definitely want a chocolate cichlid for more than 3 days you definitely shouldnt get one. it takes years of waiting for the fish to grow to even get to see what the fish you bought actually looks like. plus every cichlid no matter the species is a pain in the neck and greatly reduces the possibility of tank inhabitants. so unless you plan on building a tank around a cichlid you probably shouldnt get one.

 

[jake37]

Well the tank is being designed around angels and clown loaches (an odd couple to begin with); the problem is the chocolate are just too large.

something to think about is if you dont have the commitment to think you definitely want a chocolate cichlid for more than 3 days you definitely shouldnt get one. it takes years of waiting for the fish to grow to even get to see what the fish you bought actually looks like. plus every cichlid no matter the species is a pain in the neck and greatly reduces the possibility of tank inhabitants. so unless you plan on building a tank around a cichlid you probably shouldnt get one.

The fishes you mentioned look pretty interesting esp the macaw but they seem to have the same issues - they won't fit with the angels and larger tetras. They are just too large - what i need is a peaceful macaw that stays around 4 to 6 inches. Something in the dwarf cichlid range or certainly not larger than the angels. Right now i have my angels with cardinals but the cardinals are terrified of them so i'm moving them over to the ram tank (when i move) and replacing them with larger tetra like rosy tetra or even black neon - the fishes you mentioned would require a much larger schooler and i'm not really into bards or rainbows. While the loaches are asian i would prefer the rest of the stocking to be sa.

i started a group of 5 chocolate cichlids in a 75 a year ago between 3”-5” they became extremely aggressive and bullied my rainbow cichlids who are very peaceful and a bichir who was minding its own business. theyre at 7-8” now and are much more peaceful i had similar experiences with macaw cichlids which have a similar reputation/demeanor.schooling fish 4”+ should be fine personally id do a larger species of rainbow fish, or maybe just more loaches. you may want to consider glass catfish(im talking about the larger species not the small transparent ones) they’re extremely reliant on their school though so youd want to get a large group. buenos aires tetras congo tetras red panda barbs are other great options.

if youre interested in color changing cichlids maybe get festae?

green terrors change color quite frequently in vibrance so do starry nights.

my macaw cichlid has torquoise, red, blue that seasonally change and is probably my favorite fish because it has really calmed down and is peaceful and also one of my most beautiful fish. it also changes its color allot according to dominance.

chocolate cichlids, macaw cichlids, rainbow cichlids(they frequently make huge changes in their colors but are almost always ugly ), and red hump geos are all good options for non predatory cichlids.

chocolate cichlids would be an awesome choice for what you want to do personally i think theyd do absolutely fine with dithers but you cant expect to put unreasonably small fish with a monster cichlid and them not get eaten. i mean big fish do eat little fish...

 

[djsaltynuts]

Well the tank is being designed around angels and clown loaches (an odd couple to begin with); the problem is the chocolate are just too large.




The fishes you mentioned look pretty interesting esp the macaw but they seem to have the same issues - they won't fit with the angels and larger tetras. They are just too large - what i need is a peaceful macaw that stays around 4 to 6 inches. Something in the dwarf cichlid range or certainly not larger than the angels. Right now i have my angels with cardinals but the cardinals are terrified of them so i'm moving them over to the ram tank (when i move) and replacing them with larger tetra like rosy tetra or even black neon - the fishes you mentioned would require a much larger schooler and i'm not really into bards or rainbows. While the loaches are asian i would prefer the rest of the stocking to be sa.

i like loaches allot and i know you said you wanted to do loaches with your cichlids ive done this quite allot i usually regret it because it seems out of place to me if you can get hoplos im sure you wouldnt regret it they have a great personality and imo are the ideal sa mid sized catfish and have a great personality. they’re closely related to corydoras.
an electric blue acara would definitely be what youre looking for but theyre a little trendy for my taste. id try it with a green terror but youd need a back up plan. honestly mixing cichlid species is always a regret for me becasue most get nice fin extensions and slight aggression can really take a tole on a fishs beuaty and health so if you want angels you may want to just go for it. rainbow cichlids are extremely docile and are pretty closely related to chocolate cichlids but definitely arent as good looking stay smaller but look interesting in a darker biotop tank.

another thing to think about is the price of schooling fish for me i can never commit to as many schooling fish as if like because they need as large of numbers as possible and i feel bad buying a different schooling fish when i could be buying more of a species i already have and loaches definitely arent cheap. ive run into allot of really interesting rare loaches lately but i cant justify buying them when my botia and khuli schools aren’t particularly large.

sounds like you have the potential to have an amazing tank you may not want to squander it trying to meet the needs of so many different species.

 

[djsaltynuts]

it’d definitely be worth considering geos i think of all the cichlids geos would probably be the least abrasive to the angels. maybe a species of dwarf cichlid if you wanted to play it really safe.

 

[celebrist]

Sounds like the choice was angels or chocolates and you are going angels, post pics it should look great

 

[jake37]

it’d definitely be worth considering geos i think of all the cichlids geos would probably be the least abrasive to the angels. maybe a species of dwarf cichlid if you wanted to play it really safe.

There is a second tank with geo, cupid and gbr planned. This tank won't be quite suitable for geo - specifically i have winemilleri in mind.

 

[jake37]

No - the angels were going to be there no matter what - the consideration was if chocolate would fit without making things difficult.... and i think they would be problematic to any fish less than 4 inch from waht i have read.

Sounds like the choice was angels or chocolates and you are going angels, post pics it should look great

 

[djsaltynuts]

No - the angels were going to be there no matter what - the consideration was if chocolate would fit without making things difficult.... and i think they would be problematic to any fish less than 4 inch from waht i have read.

a flagtail would be really cool. they get huge and i dont think itd cause problems with the angels it may push them around a little but i dont think it would hurt them in any way. you could also maybe do a titan pleco if you want a large fish in your tank.

 

[jake37]

a flagtail would be really cool. they get huge and i dont think itd cause problems with the angels it may push them around a little but i dont think it would hurt them in any way. you could also maybe do a titan pleco if you want a large fish in your tank.

Given that it is a 13 inch fish what would it do to a tetra ?