BP tank mates

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Dalfrey86

Piranha
MFK Member
Apr 8, 2020
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Buddy the BP is in need of some company. I had her paired with an adult African cichlid with success for about 3 months. Changed some caves around and all heck broke loose. The African was removed because he was mouthing the BP at every turn. I let it go for a day or two thinking it was just the fight for new territory but it was more than than.

I am looking for tank mates and so far since I've had Buddy, she has eaten mollies, platys, giant danios, and guppies. All of which were 2 to 3 inches long.

I've read a few different sources that say convicts are a viable solution so long as there is more than one convict.

Any thoughts or opinions on how convicts would interact with a BP? I know convicts are aggressive but would there be an issue since the BP is adult sized? Any other suggestions besides the dithers I mentioned?
 
Hmm, convicts are usually a good bit more aggressive than blood parrots, especially when breeding. And a full grown convict male can be a chunky 6" fish, big enough to kill a blood parrot for sure. I think if you got some baby convicts it would work until they got any size on them. A large male could mean trouble, and a pair would almost certainly take over that size tank. I've had convict pairs attack much larger fish. If you went with only female convicts, you may have luck.

I think tank size is going to be your biggest issue, a 55 gallon is not much space to have a community of aggressive cichlids. Probably would be best to leave your BP as the only large cichlid in the tank. And maybe giant danios would work better for dithers, since they are so quick they would be a lot more difficult to catch than mollies, etc.
 
Gourami Swami said:
Hmm, convicts are usually a good bit more aggressive than blood parrots, especially when breeding. And a full grown convict male can be a chunky 6" fish, big enough to kill a blood parrot for sure. I think if you got some baby convicts it would work until they got any size on them. A large male could mean trouble, and a pair would almost certainly take over that size tank. I've had convict pairs attack much larger fish. If you went with only female convicts, you may have luck.

I think tank size is going to be your biggest issue, a 55 gallon is not much space to have a community of aggressive cichlids. Probably would be best to leave your BP as the only large cichlid in the tank. And maybe giant danios would work better for dithers, since they are so quick they would be a lot more difficult to catch than mollies, etc.
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That was my thought when I had the giant danios. They were in QT for a few weeks and I must have moved them too soon. BP snatch 2 and the other 2 died for unknown reasons. They were big box store purchases so my guess is that they were lower quality than the LFS.

Thanks for the advice.
 
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possibly red hook silver dollars if you bought ones with some good size on them they can hold their own and not get eaten, they don't harass or bully bigger fish.
 
Luke tomkinson said:
possibly red hook silver dollars if you bought ones with some good size on them they can hold their own and not get eaten, they don't harass or bully bigger fish.
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Are they picky with water parameters? I'm in city water but in an unincorporated part of town. Water quality from the tap is okay but I don't want to chance it with a sensitive fish.
 
I'd say your fine to go with convicts, firemouths, silver dollars, rainbow sharks, honestly I've even mixed my BPs with texas cichlids and they do great together but maybe not in a 55, they almost go with anything lol
 
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These fish are quite hardy and have some tolerance toward different water conditions. They require clean and well oxygenated waters with a good filtration system and moderate flow. A couple of power heads can be used to help out with water movement and oxygenation.
 
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