120g with big cichlids
- Thread starter markoi
- Start date
i think as long as its a carpintis and not a cyanoguttatus you should be fine, though all those cichlids are a lot more aggressive than severums so thats the issue i would see is that he might get beat up on, is it a 4ft or 5ft 120g? if 5ft then the stock should be fine but i think it would be tight in a 4ft tank, and if you havent bought any of those other filters yet then i would just go with the one fx5, that is already over-filtering for a 120 and will give you way more than enough flow and would be a lot easier to maintain, no reason to make things harder than you have to especially when that much over filtration wouldnt really do anything better for the tank, there is only going to be enough beneficial bacteria that can live off of the waste and you should definitely be able to fit that much bio media into the fx5
Friedrichsthalii grow to about 11" and True Red Terrors grow to about 16". They both have a lot of personality. If you go with Red Terrors, make sure you know what you are getting. Mayans are False Red Terrors but often sold as Red Terror. They can be very colorful, also, just more of an orange than a red. True Red Terrors are slow growers. You might want to look around for a larger fish. With the larger fish, you would also know if it is a True Red Terror or not.
True red terrors can also be bullies sometimes. But like stated, make sure it's a true one if that's the route you go and not a Mayan.
the cyanos are more of a greenish/silver color vs the carpintis being more blue and the cyanos get to 12in and are much more aggressive IMO than carpintis that only get to 10in (i think carpintis are better looking personally, i recently raised a vontehillo variant of carpintis and it was absolutely gorgeous, i got him to about 6.5-7in before i sold him and he was the boss of my tank but not in an overly aggressive way) but while he wasnt skittish he wasn't really that personable either which is one of the reasons i got rid of him, i like my fish to have a bit more personality than that (or at least be out in the open more) but that was just my experience with him, when i had my small esondido he was more outgoing but i rehomed him when he was still small because the vontehillo didnt like him
Thats good to know, thanks a lot for the great and helpful info. I have one more question to ask though. I want to add a big pleco in the tank as well. I understand that they create a lot of waste and don't do alot of cleaning of algae when they grow but i thought that a big one would be a nice addition to the tank. Also that my filtration would be able to accomdate for him.
I don't want those monster 24inch plecos just a mid sized 10-12inch pleco.
I don't want those monster 24inch plecos just a mid sized 10-12inch pleco.
In looking at your original stock I think you would be fine. I had a Green terror, an oscar, a salvini, an argentea, and a black belt in my 125 for awhile and they were fine together. They were only about half full grown so I knew things could change but there was a good balance. I would only be worried about the severum if anybody in that mix. Other wise it should be fine.
oh and the true texas (cyano) will have a lot of smaller very round spots while the the carpintis will have larger pearling and small lining and most have worming around their faces, and yeah if you can find a pleco that stays that size then it would probably be ok, just make sure to keep a close eye on your water parameters and don't slack on water changes (try to keep nitrates below 20ppm) but dont get the common or sail fin plecos that are commonly available as they are the ones that get huge (which you could probably do in your tank but i would do one less cichlid then)
As you said i could do the pleco with removing a cichlid. So I've decided to remove the severum. They get big but idk they'll have enough aggression like the others. I've heard of stories of aggressive sevs but the chances are maybe probably 50/50. So the final stocking will include:
Texas x1
Green Terror x1
Jack dmepsey x1
Salvini x1
Pleco x1
Texas x1
Green Terror x1
Jack dmepsey x1
Salvini x1
Pleco x1
