Cichlids with livebearers ?

[rrcoolj]

Hey Everyone,

SO I bought a new 40B because Petco is having thier dollar per gallon sale and I clearly have a problem. I have always LOVED the Giant Sailfin Molly or Poecilia Velifera. Just to be clear I am not talking about the small pet store brand but the wild yucatan ones with the large sailfin. They are probably one of my top three non-cichlid fish to keep. I kept their cousin(Poecilia Latipinna) several times in the past but I have never had the opportunity to keep Velifera.

Anyway... I wanted to ask does anyone have experience keeping cichlids with mollies? I know many people keep them with swordtails. If so, is there a smaller growing cichlid you would recommend to keep as a pair in the 40B with the mollies? I have looked into convicts, centrarchus, sajica, and meeki but I am just not sure.

 

[duanes]

I have kept sailfins with cichlids, and found the to work very satisfactory, as long as the mollies are large enough, and cichlids small enough. And there is a very fine line there.
Where I have snorkeled in the Yucatan with the Gambia and mollies, the mollies are often almost as large as the cichlids, example 6" mollies/8-10" Rocio.
That said, the volumes of water there are immense. A 40 gal is a puddle, and does not leave mush room for escape, whereas in nature, one flick of the tail, and a molly is 4-5'away.

 

[Stanzzzz7]

Cryptoheros species like spilurum or nano's
Rainbow cichlids,Panama cichlids, Honduran red points just to name a few for smaller tanks.
Most non predatory cichlids can be housed with suitably sized livebearers.
I have kept fully grown veija species,heritchthys pearsi and rocia octal with larger live bearers without any problems.
Obviously any fry dropped from them will be eaten.
Some livebearers get quite big,female swords and mollies can reach six inches in favourable conditions so their requirements for space needs to be considered also.

 

[rrcoolj]

Thanks for the quick reply guys I knew you guys would comment first. How do you think these guys would do with centrarchus? I have kept them together in the past but it was in a 125 with a bunch of other fish. Jeff has some on his list and I am thinking of getting them but i'm not sure. I may get a 55 but i'm not sure. duanes is the a cichlid species you have not kept my gosh.

 

[Stanzzzz7]

To be honest I would recommend a bigger tank.
Or choose another cichlid species.

 

[rrcoolj]

Do you think Spilurum would be a better fit and if so why? I am summing you suggested them off of personal experience. They seem to get roughly the same size as centrarchus are they milder? Is there a thorichthys species that would work like meeki?

 

[cichlidfish]

Swordtails and mollies are great w/ any smaller cichlid (except h. Deppii who will kill and eat them). I have kept them w/ rainbows, convicts, salvini, thorichthys species and HRP with no issues. Usually they are left alone. I think you will be fine.

 

[Stanzzzz7]

Do you think Spilurum would be a better fit and if so why? I am summing you suggested them off of personal experience. They seem to get roughly the same size as centrarchus are they milder? Is there a thorichthys species that would work like meeki?

My experience with centrarchus is limited. I have kept them before but only once.
The one I had was quite aggressive, it may have just been this one i had but he was a pain.
Spilurum are very underrated fish in my opinion.
They are small attractive have nice spawning colours form very stable pair bonds are excellent parents and mildly aggressive. They become quite personable and are great all round.
Any pair of thorichthys should work, personally I like to see them kept in large groups but pairs seem to do OK with each other.
Aureaus, helleri,mixteco, callolepis and passionis are all very nice.I love all thorichthys though,can't beat them imo.

 

[Stanzzzz7]

Not a great pic but this is an old pair of spilurum




Thorichthys passionis and meeki



My personal favourite thorichthys, helleri

 

[rrcoolj]

Stanzzzz7 Thanks for the pics! I will look into spilurum but finding some may be hard. I definitely want fish that are well bonded. That is one issue I had with my centrarchus after a while the male would lose interest and mom would have to guard the spawn on her own. He also began beating on her once he hit like 4in. Beautiful fish though certainly wetpet material. I have always had a soft spot for thorichthys so I will look out for them as well.