branching off from a thread in general that isn't getting much attention; if i were to do a 150 (4x2 footprint) community tank of ca/sa cichlids.. would it work alright, in theory? it would include a lot of the general species from the aggressive list, probably as much variety as i could work in with one or two from each species.. maybe one a piece, maybe some cons too to mix it up. they would all be added young, 2 or 3 inches preferred so they'd grow out together to adults with hopefully plenty of hiding spaces and line of sight dividers like plants if i could manage to grow any.
i've had an oscar for a while and loved the attitude, and also coming from piranhas i'm a guy who likes to show cool fish off. how would this tank most likely end up? what sort of problems would i run into as they grow? i haven't had any others besides the oscar that are worth mentioning and he only got to 6 or 7 inches so temperament wise i'm in the dark, also fighting and territorial tendencies of the meaner guys will be new to me but i'm open to suggestions and was more looking for a "crowded" community tank anyway with a couple schools of smaller fish but these were suggested so i figured id look into it since i've had good experiences in the past
thanks fellas!
A 150 cichlid tank is entire possible. You could do a tank with 1-3 large cichlids and some medium sized dithers (silver dollars or tinfoil barbs) or a tank with 4-8 medium cichlids with some smaller dithers. It sounds to me like you would prefer a larger number of cichlids.
Need to find out what level of aggression you are after. If you are looking for mean cichlids, you are likely going to fall into the large cichlid category. They tend to get meaner as they get bigger. There are some higher level aggressive cichlids that only reach sizes of 6-8", but they will require plenty of space to avoid killing each other, which nips any plans for a crowd of cichlids.
Oscars fall under the category of gentle giants in my book and I know many will agree. They reach sizes of 16" max, but realistically they are 12-14" wet pets. Great personalities and can be trained to eat from your hand (if you feel like showing off for guests). They also are one of the fastest growing cichlids (which has pros and cons, but I prefer slower growing cichlids or at least having tanks where the growth rates are very similar so that I can avoid any predation due to size difference).
As for plants, they don't tend to work well with cichlids that hit 6" or more. There are exceptions to that rule, but not many. Driftwood is your best friend in situations where you need to break line of sight in tanks where plants are either uprooted or destroyed. Many cichlids will eat live plants and those that don't will often uproot them if they feel its not in a place they like (lots of cichlids are tiny interior decorators).
Aggression levels are definitely helped when all the fish grow up together. They know each other and a fish you have raised from 3" will have expanded its territory to a size smaller than if you bought one at 8". When a cichlid is placed into a tank at an adult size, they tend to grab up larger territories than if they grow into them. Aggression will also be your biggest opposition in any cichlid tank as juveniles are growing up. Some develop mean personalities as they get larger (size makes some of them arrogant) and others will be completely harmless until they pair up and turn into small devils with fins.
The important part of building a stock list is to have a centerpiece fish in mind. Either a solitary fish or group of the same species. Once you know what your must have fish is/are, you can build a stock around that. Without this, people could name off hundreds of cichlids that could potentially work in a tank where they don't know what the tank mates will be. I would recommend doing some looking into finding out what peaks your interest and then the people here can help you develop a good stock list and give tank setup/decor suggestions based on the species going in it. Look into the different species of severum, geophagus, festivum, angelfish, firemouth, and convicts just to name a fpvery few more common and easily available species. Looking into these species will also lead you to other species as well, so do some research and come back to us with the "must have fish" and we can go from there.
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