thank you all so much for helping me, means a lot to a new cichlid owner! when i get everything set up and going i will share pictures!
75 gallon Firemouth species only Tank
- Thread starter FiremouthGem
- Start date
guess this is more of a question about the Tiger Lotus plant but I was reading and it says it prevents the growth of other plants with a chemical it exudes and that I could prevent it from overtaking the tank with a pot for it to be in to control the roots, I'm a little semi-new (55 has live plants in it and doing ok) would i also need to put flourish tabs in to help the plants, would i need to also add co2 as I have little to no knowledge of how to do that.
With mine I never had problems with other plants growing near it.
Although many of the other plants were not really rooted types, they were either Anubius or java fern, that were tied to logs or other objects.
Although many of the other plants were not really rooted types, they were either Anubius or java fern, that were tied to logs or other objects.
that looks amazing!, alright another question, i just put the specs in to an aquarium calculator and its telling me that the aquarium is 80% stocking but it says my aquarium filtration capacity for above-selected species is 140% for 4 fire mouth cichlids 1 to 3 ratio M: F and 1 to 4 M: F ratio of Swordtails, little worried here as I don't want to cause issues or overstock my aquarium negatively here are my tank and stand specs
here are more specs if that helps out any, mostly I am just nervous as I want to do right by the fish.
With good filtration and regular water changes you'll be just fine. I'd add 1 bushynose pleco as well.
puppers checking out the new cichlid aquarium, might be a small leak so i’m going to fix that up, and start up soon here in prepping and scaping
I have a pair who spawned in a 150g. Great fish, you’ll love them. A lot of attitude for a little fish.
In a 75 gallon tank, sometimes you need more than 6 thorichthys to keep one fish from taking over.
I would start off with 12 juveniles.
I started with 12 thorichthys in this set up
I never had to separate any fish, they all got on fine for about 3 years.
Eventually I moved them over to my 210gallon tank. They started to act much more aggressive with each other than they ever did in the smaller tank.
Years ago I put 6 meeki in my 210gallon and it was like a war zone. My dominant male became a real pain to the other meeki. I added another 14 meeki and all was calm again.
I'm certainly not a believer of over crowding fish tanks. In my experience thorichthys will be at their best in decent numbers. I don't mean cramped in and over stocked. Just enough individuals to dilute aggression. I have found over the years that 6 is not always enough.
Regards to swordtails. The ones I had were rio otapa swords.
They are a beautiful xiphophorus helleri variant and I highly recommend them if you can find them. Agree with the others keep one male to three females. Multiple males can work if you have more than say 5 and plenty of females to go round. If you only have 2 or 3 males they will probably kill each other.
Rio otapa swords
I would start off with 12 juveniles.
I started with 12 thorichthys in this set up
I never had to separate any fish, they all got on fine for about 3 years.
Eventually I moved them over to my 210gallon tank. They started to act much more aggressive with each other than they ever did in the smaller tank.
Years ago I put 6 meeki in my 210gallon and it was like a war zone. My dominant male became a real pain to the other meeki. I added another 14 meeki and all was calm again.
I'm certainly not a believer of over crowding fish tanks. In my experience thorichthys will be at their best in decent numbers. I don't mean cramped in and over stocked. Just enough individuals to dilute aggression. I have found over the years that 6 is not always enough.
Regards to swordtails. The ones I had were rio otapa swords.
They are a beautiful xiphophorus helleri variant and I highly recommend them if you can find them. Agree with the others keep one male to three females. Multiple males can work if you have more than say 5 and plenty of females to go round. If you only have 2 or 3 males they will probably kill each other.
Rio otapa swords
thank you again for the advice everyone so much, means a lot for a new cichlid keeper like me who is overly anxious about first time solo cichlid keeping (i was very young when my parents took care of angels in their tanks which introduced me into fish keeping). so 4 FM 1:3 (or 1:4 M:F ? ) 1:4 Swords M:F and a bristle and do weekly water changes and clean the filters with tank water. looking at wanted to do a planted tank with Hardy plants such as java fern, Tiger Lotus, anda few other plants, hides/egg spots and driftwood of course for sight line breaks and for the bristle. does this sound good or any changes to be made?
