125 gallon stocking tankmates

[Shaquan]

So far I have the following but I was thinking about adding a cuban cichlid. Is the current stocking a good stocking. The JD use to pick on every cichlid in the tank until I added the bigger vieja now everyone seems to get along except for the female green terror gets picked on occasionally.

1-jd male 3in
1-oscar unknown 2.5-3in
1-gt I think its a female 2.5-3in
1- vieja synspila unknown 4in
3-silver dollars 2in
8 corydoras 1in
1-common pleco 4-5in

 

[philipraposo1982]

Good for a little while..

 

[Gourami Swami]

With cichlid communities, it is hard to get the "mix" right the first time. What you could do, if you wanted, is add the Cuban, and as problems arise (fish too aggressive, etc) you remove fish to fix the issue. It is a delicate balancing act, having a CA cichlid community.
Whether or not you add the cuban, you will be overstocked bioload-wise when the fish are large. So I would say go for it, and know that you will have to remove or add one or two fish down the line to quell aggression/fix bioload.

 

[duanes]

I agree with Gourami Swami, in about a year (with the stock you already have) the tank will be very crowded, and you'll need to do daily water changes just to keep nitrates down.
Of course over that time, the oscar may try to eat the Corys, and succeed, or one will get caught in its throat and the oscar will die.
If you are going to add the tetracanthus (Cuban) do it soon, or territories will be so set in stone, no young Cuban, or any other newly added cichlid will have a chance.
From the experience I have with Cubans, they are very aggressive and will try to kill the Corys and probably the GT when the tetracanthus gets some size.

my pair lived alone in a 125, would kill any other cichlid after they matured.

 

[Shaquan]

Im learning that its a balancing act. Aggression was high mainly from the jd and having only 1 or 2 cichlids in the tank. Its pretty low now. none of the cichlids mess with the corys they swim freely throughout the whole tank. But im mainly worried about overstocking the tank. I also want to be able to add 1-3 fish down the road if/when i upgrade to a 180-220 tank.

 

[Shaquan]

Lovely fish duanes. I dont want to go the pair route. I would rather stick to one of many types of ca fish

 

[Gourami Swami]

Im learning that its a balancing act. Aggression was high mainly from the jd and having only 1 or 2 cichlids in the tank. Its pretty low now. none of the cichlids mess with the corys they swim freely throughout the whole tank. But im mainly worried about overstocking the tank. I also want to be able to add 1-3 fish down the road if/when i upgrade to a 180-220 tank.

Things will change as the fish grow as well, fish which once were peaceful may become aggressors or vice versa. I would recommend removing the corydoras at some point, they won't be bothered until the cichlids are 6"+, but as Duanes said, they become a choking hazard once fish can eat them due to their spiny dorsal fins.
He is spot on about adding fish now rather than later as well; while the fish are all small the tank still seems large and they can escape each other. When the existing fish are larger it will be much harder to add more fish to spread out aggression. I generally overstock my tanks a bit with growouts, and remove problem fish as they grow until I have a mix which works.

 

[FishBeast]

So far I have the following but I was thinking about adding a cuban cichlid. Is the current stocking a good stocking. The JD use to pick on every cichlid in the tank until I added the bigger vieja now everyone seems to get along except for the female green terror gets picked on occasionally.

1-jd male 3in
1-oscar unknown 2.5-3in
1-gt I think its a female 2.5-3in
1- vieja synspila unknown 4in
3-silver dollars 2in
8 corydoras 1in
1-common pleco 4-5in

1. Due to small size, ok for a while in 125G assuming 6 foot... maybe a year?
2. Agree with corys being a choking risk although they may be fast enough to escape.
3. As others have said, cichlids become sexually mature, heirarchies will emerge and deaths may occur from territorial disputes/aggression.
4. You'll need more SDs eventually to make a decent school (3-5 more fish) but depending on the species you have they may need to go (some SDs get to 8" each) if you can't get a bigger tank.
5. Eventually, the common pleco will need the tank to itself to deal with the waste, unless you can do daily 90% WC as it can get to 18" max. See photo below.

 

[Rocksor]

I would get rid of the bottom dwellers and SD's. The bioload will be more than maxed out with just the 4 cichlids within 1-2 years, assumming all males.

I've had the experience of SD's making the cichlids more skittish (I had my 8ft tank in the living room). Whenever I changed the water or my kid ran by, the SD's would freak which would then freak out the cichlids. Once they were gone, it didn't matter who ran in front of the tank, the cichlids would just stay chill to the constant foot traffic in front of the tank.

 

[Shaquan]

Okay the common pleco i know will become a problem with bioload in the future. I didnt know the corys and silver dollars would be a problem until now. Thanks for the help. What should i get as a bottom feeder?