75 gallon, a single and a pair?

[Dwl0222]

Any of the smaller catfish would work well. Make sure there are hides as most are nocturnal and will hide all day.
With catfish really depends on your pick, some can't stand being with same species, some want to be in schoals.

Most people go with 6 juvenile fish. Tho convicts are usually a lot easier to tell male from female. Twice now, first time with common convicts second with the HRP's I only got a male and female and both times ended up with fry.

Ongoing take on Convicts
Get a male
Get a female
Add water
= fry in no time

With swords I would get one male or a whole bunch six or so. I had three male swords in a 6ft 125gal and they fought it out Highlander style till one remained. Having a bigger number of males will spread aggression. A single male works, gives the females a easier time. Female count can depend on the male count. You want at least 2f for each male. If you go solo male get eight or so females.


Plecos if Bushynose get a male and female, they could breed for you as well. If other kind of fancy pleco get one that stays smaller, like Blue Phantom, Orange seam.

Doing this up in a 75 will be a nice size. I would stay with cats/plecos that stay six to eight inch range as adults .

Sounds good, I think I’m leaning toward 5-6 juvenile Sajica, and getting a pair from that then returning the rest. I’ll get 3-4 male swordtails and about 9-10 female. Then I’ll finish it off with a pleco or catfish or two. Is there anything else I could consider, that the Sajica wouldn’t consider a threat?

Btw here’s my tank, what do you think? Look like it will be ok? I’m gonna replace the tall plants with some taller, better looking ones....

 

[Jexnell]

Maybe a couple pieces of wood/rocks. Make nooks and cave like areas for the cats/pleco to hide in during days hours.
You could add a group of tetras, taller bodied like Black skirts, Bleeding hearts, etc, around ten of them. Also Nerite snails, there are some really cool looking ones and they can't breed in freshwater so can't overwhelm the tank.

 

[Dwl0222]

Maybe a couple pieces of wood/rocks. Make nooks and cave like areas for the cats/pleco to hide in during days hours.View attachment 1350542 View attachment 1350543
You could add a group of tetras, taller bodied like Black skirts, Bleeding hearts, etc, around ten of them. Also Nerite snails, there are some really cool looking ones and they can't breed in freshwater so can't overwhelm the tank.View attachment 1350544 View attachment 1350546

I do have a few more of thevrocks you see in the tank already. Should I add them and rearrange a bit so they’re more bunched together? Lean them against each other and even stack them a bit? I also have some real thin, almost twig looking driftwood I could add too. I just always worry about one of my fish getting scratched or hurting an eyeball haha. Those snails are cool!

 

[Jexnell]

Again final fish choices will dictate the need of caves or not. Some catfish like the Porthole are very active and out all the time. Where as some like the Raphael hide all day and only come out at night.
Ok so his hide was in plain sight, but all day he stayed there and only swam around after lights out.

You will want a cave or two for your female Sajica to be able to get away from the male Sajica for bits of rest.
They can be man made like the fake rocks with holes in them, pleco caves made from clay, drilled out coconuts or you make some yourself.

Get a floating plant like javamoss or plastic ones if you dont want live plants. The cichlids like the cover, and swords like it to birth thier babies in.

 

[Dwl0222]

Again final fish choices will dictate the need of caves or not. Some catfish like the Porthole are very active and out all the time. Where as some like the Raphael hide all day and only come out at night.View attachment 1350552
Ok so his hide was in plain sight, but all day he stayed there and only swam around after lights out.

You will want a cave or two for your female Sajica to be able to get away from the male Sajica for bits of rest.View attachment 1350553 View attachment 1350554
They can be man made like the fake rocks with holes in them, pleco caves made from clay, drilled out coconuts or you make some yourself.

Get a floating plant like javamoss or plastic ones if you dont want live plants. The cichlids like the cover, and swords like it to birth thier babies in.

I’d prefer a more active catfish or pleco tbh. So I’ll have to look into that and see what I can find. Unless it’s just a better fit with a pair of breeding cichlids to have a more lazy/nocturnal one.

I will try to add and rearrange some rocks to form better natural crevices/caves soon. Maybe I’ll rearrange the driftwood too and see if I can form a nice hiding spot. I can definitely do floating plants as well, probably fake ones haha. Thanks for all your help!

 

[Gourami Swami]

I think you could attempt something like a small group of an amatitlania species, then a single of another (not particularly nasty) sm-mid sized species, if you wanted. But, should undertand that it would be a lot of bioload and may require more than one large WC a week when the fish are mature. Also, even if you go with "docile" species, there would be no guarantees it would work out long term. Ca communites require a lot of luck, and more often than not, you have to switch fish around at some point to find a balance, which is then constantly changing.

I had a tank similar to this which I took down last year. grew out a group of panamensis with a couple H. tamasopoensis, ended up keeping only one female tamasopoensis with the group. The panamensis would breed after a while, but the hericthys was just a little bit larger, and held her own. She would also lay eggs with no mate. In a 5' 70g tank .The fry would always get eaten by parents or tankmates after a few weeks. These fish lived without any actual violence for a year or so, before I sold the hericthys (and all the panamensis other than the pair, after which the male killed the female when I put them alone in a 90)

 

[Mitchell The Monster]

Sounds good, I think I’m leaning toward 5-6 juvenile Sajica, and getting a pair from that then returning the rest. I’ll get 3-4 male swordtails and about 9-10 female. Then I’ll finish it off with a pleco or catfish or two. Is there anything else I could consider, that the Sajica wouldn’t consider a threat?

Btw here’s my tank, what do you think? Look like it will be ok? I’m gonna replace the tall plants with some taller, better looking ones....View attachment 1350541

Sweet setup.

 

[Dwl0222]

I think you could attempt something like a small group of an amatitlania species, then a single of another (not particularly nasty) sm-mid sized species, if you wanted. But, should undertand that it would be a lot of bioload and may require more than one large WC a week when the fish are mature. Also, even if you go with "docile" species, there would be no guarantees it would work out long term. Ca communites require a lot of luck, and more often than not, you have to switch fish around at some point to find a balance, which is then constantly changing.

I had a tank similar to this which I took down last year. grew out a group of panamensis with a couple H. tamasopoensis, ended up keeping only one female tamasopoensis with the group. The panamensis would breed after a while, but the hericthys was just a little bit larger, and held her own. She would also lay eggs with no mate. In a 5' 70g tank .The fry would always get eaten by parents or tankmates after a few weeks. These fish lived without any actual violence for a year or so, before I sold the hericthys (and all the panamensis other than the pair, after which the male killed the female when I put them alone in a 90)

View attachment 1350615
View attachment 1350616

Thanks for the input, the more i think about it the more i think ill just settle for a single pair with dithers and bottom feeders. I know nothing is guaranteed and would honestly rather just have the best chance at it working rather than trying to force as many fish in there as possible. I know a 75 gallon isn't the greatest size for C/SA cichlids. If there was something i could add that wouldn't "compete" with a pair of Sajica then i'd think about it, but i think ill be happy with the dithers and bottom feeders.

 

[Dwl0222]

Sweet setup.

Thanks! Its hard for me to be satisfied haha, it always looks unnatural to me, but i like it. I am going to switch out the tall plants for better looking ones, and probably add some more rocks to form additional hiding spots. So we'll see where that takes me!

 

[Gourami Swami]

Thanks for the input, the more i think about it the more i think ill just settle for a single pair with dithers and bottom feeders. I know nothing is guaranteed and would honestly rather just have the best chance at it working rather than trying to force as many fish in there as possible. I know a 75 gallon isn't the greatest size for C/SA cichlids. If there was something i could add that wouldn't "compete" with a pair of Sajica then i'd think about it, but i think ill be happy with the dithers and bottom feeders.

You have the right attitude for sure! Glad you are willing to do what's best for the cichlids. Though, in my experience, I have had better luck breeding cichlids with others of the grow-out group still in the tank. In the example I spoke about in that post, I eventually moved just the pair of panamensis to a 90 gallon where they were the only cichlids with some dithers. That is when the male turned on the female and killed her. I think that defending the fry from the other cichlids, and even just the presence of other cichlids in the tank, strengthens the pair's bond and keeps the male from seeing the female as an enemy. If I were you, I would get a group of 5 sajica, preferably from diff sources. Get them small and grow them out, let a pair form, and then keep all 5 in the 75. The pair will probably breed, and the other 3 will probably hide in the corners (put a lot of caves etc), but hopefully the male won't kill female. I have also bred cryptoheros/amatitlania species in smaller tanks alone (for example, pink convict pair in 30 gallon) and have pretty much always had the male eventually turn on the female, sometimes killing her if I did not notice fast enough to pull her.
That's just my .02, and somebody else might disagree. But this is what has worked best for me.