55 gallon SA community stocking

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numbah84

numbah84

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Jul 6, 2011
150
25
31
Vacaville, CA
So I used to have a breeding pair of dempseys, a male convict, two firemouths, a jaguar and a parrot cichlid in a 55 gallon... can you say overstocked? So ive reduced it down to the Female dempsey, parrot and firemouth. Now im thinking i need one last guy to finish out the stocking. all three of these fish are super friendly personality wise so i think the tank can handle the extra fish. Im just at a loss of what a good fish to add would be. and where to get him from. also all the current fish are 4 -5"
list of questions if you dont want to read the paragraph..

What is a friendly community SA/CA cichlid?
Where is the best place to buy cichlids of 4"+?

Thanks
 
you might want to try an festivum cichlid or if you like to have something moving around on the bottom I would get a pictus catfish.
 
I would say a couple of pictus cats. I just added 6 tiger barbs and 3 pictus to my similar setup and it's been great. My tank is a little bigger but you could probably handle a couple of pictus. They dont get huge and are super active.
 
If they were all getting along i probably would not have removed any and would have stood pat with that stocking.
 
smitty03281964 said:
If they were all getting along i probably would not have removed any and would have stood pat with that stocking.
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I have to disagree. The OP did the right thing by removing those fish. That 55 was grossly overstocked. A 55 isn't large enough for a single Jag, not to mention with the others.
As to the OP's question, I would get a school of hardy Barbs or Tetras instead of adding another cichlid. Your fish are small now but they will soon grow larger and all of that empty space will be gone. A school of fish will add movement, color, and size contrast to your tank. Good luck with your decision.
 
8 tiger barbs would work fine. They are very active and one of my favorite fish. I have 4 of them right now and after my move I will bump up the school to 8.
 
I introduced three small cichlids(3") into my tiger barb tank about 8 months ago. 90 gallons 18 2" barbs. All was good till my Jd hit the 4" mark. Picked them off one by one over about 2 months...

Not saying not to try tiger barbs, just sharing my experience. Don't get too attached. Based on my experience I wouldnt add them. Pictus maybe..... Or maybe a small pleco.
 
Jc1119 said:
I introduced three small cichlids(3") into my tiger barb tank about 8 months ago. 90 gallons 18 2" barbs. All was good till my Jd hit the 4" mark. Picked them off one by one over about 2 months...

Not saying not to try tiger barbs, just sharing my experience. Don't get too attached. Based on my experience I wouldnt add them. Pictus maybe..... Or maybe a small pleco.
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I agree, in about mid may I was given a really good deal on a 1 3/4" Flowerhorn so I brought him home and thought I would put him into the 56g with 10 Tiger Barbs, 5 Rummynose Tetras and four Cory cats. After three days I had 6 Tiger Barbs and the four Corycats. The Tetras and Barbs were about 1" each... I did not think they could even fit into the mouth of the Flowerhorn until I seen him snag one!!! I thought how the heck could this little fish eat all those other fish in such a short time frame, but they were gone and I looked all over the floor and inside of the tank thinking I would find them dead... nope. My Flowerhorn is now about 3" and something fierce... I would never try Barbs or Tetras again. By the way those Corycats are doing just fine in a tank with four Convicts and three Salvinni.
 
I certainly understand the last two posts. You run the risk of your cichlids taking out some or all potential Barbs and Tetras. But there is still a chance that they will leave them alone. There are members here that keep Tiger Barbs and mollies with full grown Midas without little to no problems. Then there are the normally timid cichlids that can turn rogue and kill smaller fish. My Festae killed each and everything in their tank regardless of size. I was surprised because I saw so many people keeping their Festae and other aggressive cichlids with Silver Dollars, convicts, and Giant Danios. It just depends on the temperament of the individual fish, size of the tank, and the number of fish in it. Female Dempeys, Firemouths, and Blood Parrots aren't usually high on aggression so schooling fish may work. I was able to keep schooling fish with My breeding pair of Dempseys without incident. It's a gamble but i think it's much easier to adapt most cichlids to smaller tankmates by introducing them while they are young and small.
 
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