Cichla newbie

[geophagus]

Hi,
never owned a Cichla, but i have had a special "crush" for them for many, many years.
Im setting up a new 200 gallon tank next week, and wanted to know if its okey to house a little gang of Cichlas in it until they get bigger in size? (I can get a some 2" Ocellaris) How fast will they outgrow this tank?

Im building a huge stand in concrete and 2x6" that can take a much bigger tank in the future (wider and longer). Should hold a nice size 600 gallon, maybe bigger. Unfortunatly its not very common to find a tank that big over here, so i must plan for a custombuild a little bit into the future. At least i have the space..

 

[geophagus]

How many of those Ocellaris should i buy? I guess there is a risk of loosing one or two. They will have the tank all by themself...
They have 10 in stock.

 

[Dial92]

That's a loaded question haha how many can you afford to buy and feed. And if not on pellets you may start them or in 40 gallon to get fattened up just so they can catch feeders easily. That's just personal opinion. I have only raised about 12 bass fonner 2 inches. The ones I raised in a 55 the others in a 90 that's 3x2x2 and they seem like they have more trouble hunting. Also it's bare to keep ammonia down. As for number I usually do trios at minimum to beat the odds one may die of something. I'm raising kels now and lost one out of 5 do to it never eating. Don't know exactly why but tanks had feeds in it the whole time and other 4 are doing well. Hope this helps if not I can give more info into my opinoins

 

[geophagus]

Thx Dial. i also have a 44 gallon tank that they can go in until they get a little bit bigger.
Was thinking i could buy 5 or 6 maybe... Have to decide to day

 

[geophagus]

Oh... i see now that i wrote the wrong size on the occelaris... they are not 2", but close to 4".
(not used to "think" in inches over here)

 

[Dial92]

get as many as you can provide for they are awsome fish used to have 3 arowannas and 6 bass in a tank and it was great

 

[geophagus]

Reserved 5 so far...

 

[geophagus]

...and picking them up on saturday. Cant wait to get my new babies home

 

[Dial92]

nice

 

[geophagus]

They are here
So far very active, and some of them have already eaten some discus dry food/pellets.
Two of them look a little skinny, but i'll try to fatten them up