Breeding Green Terrors

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GTS;3434881; said:
Then you will be breeding one of the suams, when it comes to the suams personality "green terror" is a misnomer.

They are still great fish though, I doubt you will have any problems breeding them.
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I disagree that it is a misnomer. I have seen these fish be quite wicked with other fish and even head bangers on the glass. While personailty is always a factor with cichlids, the terror name seems fitting for most.

I agree with the great fish part. They are awesome (I have two myself).
 
TrikkyMakk;3435162; said:
I disagree that it is a misnomer. I have seen these fish be quite wicked with other fish and even head bangers on the glass. While personailty is always a factor with cichlids, the terror name seems fitting for most.

I agree with the great fish part. They are awesome (I have two myself).
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To each his own I guess, but in my 20 some odd years of keeping cichlids I would not even describe green terrors as aggressive, when compared to dovii, umbee, motaguensis, Zonatum, fenestratus, labitum, citrinellus, festae etc green terrors can be considered semi-aggressive. Glass banging doesnt always translate to aggression, I have had angelfish and discus that would attack the glass when I went by.


I also find them to be fragile. Most of the heavy duty CA/SA cichlids can take some sparring and some rough and tumble play. I find that green terrors can't really take any abuse. I had an 11" wild caught male silver suam get his jaw completely broken by a 7" fredrichstahli. Keep in mind that the freddy in question used to spar with a slightly smaller frempongi, and neither were ever seriously hurt/wounded. But all it took was one jawlocking match with the freddy and the suams jaw was broken. This happened all in the span of 5 minutes.
 
My experience is also that green terrors aren't in the same league as guapotes in terms of aggression and destruction

Some view that as a good thing, though

Back in the day - and before people on Internet boards called it torture - keeping a pair on a 55g was more than enough
 
 
jakezori;3435592; said:
So I guess I will get 4 green terrors from 4-6" in size. I will prolly put some plants in but idk. Right now I'm trying to choose rocks for my 90... let me know what you guys think --

http://cgi.ebay.com/Aquarium-Backgr...in_0?hash=item3ca5587c03&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

http://cgi.ebay.com/Aquarium-Stone-...in_0?hash=item3ca1460c5b&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

http://cgi.ebay.com/Aquarium-Fish-T...in_0?hash=item2a00ee7509&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

http://cgi.ebay.com/Aquarium-Stone-...in_0?hash=item3ca14601ee&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14
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They all look nice. I do not think you can go wrong with any of those

dogofwar;3435521; said:
My experience is also that green terrors aren't in the same league as guapotes in terms of aggression and destruction

Some view that as a good thing, though

Back in the day - and before people on Internet boards called it torture - keeping a pair on a 55g was more than enough
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I agree.
 
jakezori;3438369; said:
So I still don't know what to get... I would much rather have 2 gt's and 1 other fish than 4 gt's though. Isn't there anything else I could get that wouldnt eat the gt's eggs and that the gt's wouldnt kill?

Also, would this be a good light for my 90 gallon?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=290346613053&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT
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You could indeed get a male and a female and put them together, it would likely workout. If you take take this route I would add some smallish convicts to act as dither fish. There is another option that would likely allow you to form a strong pair. These days it might be considered cruel, but I used to do it all the time. Get three green terrors, 1 male and two females. Let them sort themselves out, when a pair is formed they will likely form a stonger bond because another member of their species is present. Be advised that the third wheel will likely take some abuse, but in a 90 gallon tank with 4 to 5 inch fish, you should be alright for a good while. Regardless of what you do, I would still add dither fish.
 
what do you mean by dither fish? Fish to get picked on? Could I have something like a firmouth or a texas or jd or a silver dollar or a fei feng? what about the light?

how about 1 male, 2 females, some silver dollars and some fei fengs?
 
jakezori;3438556; said:
what do you mean by dither fish? Fish to get picked on? Could I have something like a firmouth or a texas or jd? what about the light?
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Not so much to be picked on, as to be chased around every know and then. Usually dithers are small quick fish that are too fast to be eaten. They help make your cichlids feel more at home and provide a target to your other fish. The idea being, you would rather have your green terrors chasing some giant danios or small convicts than each other.


A texas cichlid or a jack dempsey would likely be seen as competiton and would try and defend themselves from your green terrors. Still I suppose you could try two green terrors and an equal sized jd. The texas cichlid is a slightly different matter. Their temperements can vary wildly, I have seen some get pushed around by jack dempseys and others who were as aggressive as red devils. If you found the right speciemen it could work for a time but you would need a larger tank in a few years, because a 90 gallon is not large enough for a breeding pair of green terrors and a fully grown texas cichlid.

The firemouth is a no go. Your terrors would outgrow it and kill it. Firemouths are too large to be dithers and too small to be kept long-term with green terrors.

The light seems fine also.
 
If you get some 4 to 5 inch green terrors, I feel that the perfect dithers would be some convicts around 2". The terrors will chase the convicts but they will not be able to hurt them.
 
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