Has anybody had any luck with this? Right now I've got two juvenile sen's and a juvenile jack dempsey and they seem to be ok in my 65. The dempsey had started to fin-nip a bit (more than I was comfortable with, really) in the 20g, but now in the larger tank with better territory I haven't noticed any of it. Although nobody has really seemed to claim anything specific...I have one large rock cave and one piece of rooty driftwood that forms a sweet cave on its own...all 3 fish seem to occupy both caves and hang around the fake tree I have in there as well.
I'm having a hard time figuring out what else I can add to the tank though. I'd like to get at least 3-4 more fish, or a school of 5-6 dither-type fish. But I'm having a hard time between finding them that grow to a size the bichirs won't eat, but also won't outgrow the tank, but also won't be so passive that the dempsey just kills everything, but also won't be so hostile that they mix with the dempsey and stir things up and start attacking the bichirs
I just don't know
A guy at one of the LFS (petsmart) mentioned that he'd successfully kept a mature sen in an african cichlid tank. His thinking was that since I had the Jack I needed some of the more aggressive cichlids to go with...like a green terror etc. I sparked the conversation by asking about severums, but he thought they would just get torn up by the dempsey.
I think its going to come down to letting the dempsey mature and seeing what his temperament is going to be, and then figuring it out from there, but I don't know. I'm not in a HUGE rush to get more fish, but I would like to go ahead and figure it out/try SOMETHING out soon, you know?
I'm not stuck on cichlids, but I don't know of much anything else that I could do now that I have the jack dempsey.
edit: Its a standard 65gallon tank, rena xp3, keeping it at 80*, sand substrate, driftwood/rocks for decor, no plants, regular fluorescent lighting, PH around 7. I can mess with the temperature of course, but I don't want to start messing with the PH at all. I'd be willing to try plants, but everything I've heard says don't bother with the cichlids, they'll just tear them up; I'm not really sure I'm ready to try plants yet anyways, I don't have the money to buy any sort of upgraded light system, so I'd be pretty limited by that anyways. I also don't have the cash to add more filtration right now.
I'm having a hard time figuring out what else I can add to the tank though. I'd like to get at least 3-4 more fish, or a school of 5-6 dither-type fish. But I'm having a hard time between finding them that grow to a size the bichirs won't eat, but also won't outgrow the tank, but also won't be so passive that the dempsey just kills everything, but also won't be so hostile that they mix with the dempsey and stir things up and start attacking the bichirs
I just don't know A guy at one of the LFS (petsmart) mentioned that he'd successfully kept a mature sen in an african cichlid tank. His thinking was that since I had the Jack I needed some of the more aggressive cichlids to go with...like a green terror etc. I sparked the conversation by asking about severums, but he thought they would just get torn up by the dempsey.
I think its going to come down to letting the dempsey mature and seeing what his temperament is going to be, and then figuring it out from there, but I don't know. I'm not in a HUGE rush to get more fish, but I would like to go ahead and figure it out/try SOMETHING out soon, you know?
I'm not stuck on cichlids, but I don't know of much anything else that I could do now that I have the jack dempsey.
edit: Its a standard 65gallon tank, rena xp3, keeping it at 80*, sand substrate, driftwood/rocks for decor, no plants, regular fluorescent lighting, PH around 7. I can mess with the temperature of course, but I don't want to start messing with the PH at all. I'd be willing to try plants, but everything I've heard says don't bother with the cichlids, they'll just tear them up; I'm not really sure I'm ready to try plants yet anyways, I don't have the money to buy any sort of upgraded light system, so I'd be pretty limited by that anyways. I also don't have the cash to add more filtration right now.
For now I think I might add a pictus cat and look at a green terror and severum. Gotta see if the severums really will get torn up by the dempsey and the terror.