Bichirs and (cs/sa)Cichlids?

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
Thanks for the list! I'll have to check them out as I get chances here & there today.

At a glance, I have seen the blue acaras at different LFS and I like the looks of them.

I'm thinking about picking up a green terror after work today...
 
usually if cichlids pick on bichirs, the bichirs just ignore them and the cichlids give up at least IME. I've never had a problem w/ cichlids and bichirs, but it's not out of the question to have problems if it's a very aggressive one.
 
Cool, I'm getting pretty comfortable with the idea of housing them together at this point. Now its just a matter of what I can house with the JD. I'm leaning (heavily) towards a green terror, and then maybe blue acara or severums or something. I think tomorrow after work I'll have time to stop by my LFS and see what their input is.

I was thinking the JD & GT, and then a couple pictus cats or a striped raphael cat or something of that nature. But now I'm thinking I want more than just the JD/GT as far as cichlids to spread the aggression around a bit amongst themselves?

I don't know:nilly:
 
It is only a 65 and both a JD and GT are fairly territorial. I dont think I would add another aggressive fish to that mix or you might be into some serious issues especially as they grow....

I always thought my pictus were better then the rapheal I tried in terms of cleaning up the tank. They are not that active until they realize that it is in fact feeding time. LOL. Otherwise they school slowly around the tank loking for dropped food from the oscars.

You have to remember that in a while your JD and GT will be 10inches or so and that 65 gal will suddenly not seem so large. I also hope you plan on another filter or something. I do not think the XP3 will handle the bio load of those guys once they are past their juvie stage (though you would be fine for some time)

My GT can be almost as messy as my oscars. (though when talking about filtration and mess I will conceed that the Oscars are just nasty and mess th etank FAST). I need to do 2 water changes a week to vac up their poo and keep the water fresh with my guys and they are still small. My oscars are about 4 inches and my GT is around 2 so still quite young. Just keep this in mind as you will most likely need to upgrade some items later going this route of the JD and GT with bichirs.

I do think it will be an awesome tank with a JD, GT, 3 Pictus, and 1-2 bichnir. slightly overstocked as they mature but so long as you are able to handle it it will be a sweet looking tank.
 
Yeah I've been having the sneaking suspicion that the xp3 isn't going to handle the load forever. I do have a magnum250 HOT sitting on my 20gal right now and a marineland emperor400b broken in the closet (needs a new impeller and new biowheels). I think I'd be happiest adding a second xp3, but I'm really big on symmetry:screwy: and it'll probably take me a good year to get the extra cash and convince the wife that we do indeed need more filtration on the tank:p But yes, in short, I am planning on eventually adding more filtration. I'm also planning on eventually separating the bichirs into a 55g just for the two of them. But that won't happen until I move into a house:grinno:

I know these fish are going to grow quite a bit, although I've heard of dempseys staying closer to 8" on average, but thats neither here nor there. The ones I'm worried about would be the pictus cats. Half of what I read says 4-6" and half of what I read says 8-10". The other thing is I'm not sure if having 2 or 3 pictus cats on the bottom would stress my bichirs out as somebody mentioned. I think they'd all be ok, but I'm not sure.

I'm not TOO worried about the cats as a cleaning crew, if they're good at it, great, but if not, my sand is easy to clean with a gravel vac;)

So we'll see, I probably won't be able to make any purchases until next week at least, and then it'll probably be the green terror if I go that route, and a pair of convicts to start breeding in my 20gal.
 
id avoid geting the GT or and other cichlid go with some tiger barbs like 8 they are fast enough that they arent gona get caught and a sen wont beable to eat one will hes a good size and them they still might be to deep bodyed for the bichirs to get them down and are good targets for the jds aggresion.... i saw in another post that ur 65 is 3ft long and if thats the case no more cichlids they like to have atleast 4 ft but 6-10 is better.... i say go for this
1 JD
2 sen bichir
3 pictus catfish(takes forever to get past 5")
8 tiger barbs(plenty fast if u grown them out a bit)
I just think if u go with more cichlids its gona end bad......
 
big_tank_boy;4508277; said:
id avoid geting the GT or and other cichlid go with some tiger barbs like 8 they are fast enough that they arent gona get caught and a sen wont beable to eat one will hes a good size and them they still might be to deep bodyed for the bichirs to get them down and are good targets for the jds aggresion.... i saw in another post that ur 65 is 3ft long and if thats the case no more cichlids they like to have atleast 4 ft but 6-10 is better.... i say go for this
1 JD
2 sen bichir
3 pictus catfish(takes forever to get past 5")
8 tiger barbs(plenty fast if u grown them out a bit)
I just think if u go with more cichlids its gona end bad......
Click to expand...
^ i agree
 
Wow if the 65 is only 3 ft wide then I would agree too. You will have two semi to highly agressive fish in a small environment if it is that narrow.

I woul dget the GT over a JD though personally. I think they just have AWESOME coloring and temperment.
 
I already have the JD & the two sen's, so everything else is based off that.

Yeah the tank is a regular 36x19x24 (something like that, off the top of my head) so territory is a little bit of an issue. So far there haven't been any problems in the 65 with the JD's aggression. I saw him nip at a bichir for the first time today but it was during feeding time, he stole food from the bichir, came back and nipped once and that was the end of it. I've seen the smaller bichir go face to face with the JD in his spot under the driftwood and nothing happened.

Good point though with adding more territorial aggressors though. I really want that GT but that is definitely something to worry about. Do the tiger barbs need territory or anything, or will they just swim in the open space in the middle/top?

Back to the drawing board:/ I do like the idea of having 8 tiger barbs though, I've been trying to figure out how to get that sort of number of a particular fish. That won't overload the space or the filter though? I can't really afford more filtration for a while.
 
If I go with 8 tiger barbs, should I add them all at once or in two groups over the course of two weeks? I'm liking the idea more the more I read about them.

Will a striped raphael cat do ok on its own or does it need a few of its own kind? I'd like to have a small catfish of some sort, but I think 3 of them might be overkill...I dunno
 
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