Cichllids to go in a fifty?

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Jory

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Apr 1, 2008
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las vegas, NV
I currently have an empty custom fifty gallon[ish] tank(roughly 4' long 18" wide) and i was wondering what interesting south/central Americans i could put in there that wouldn't get too big and would be somewhat attractive. I also really do not want to do discus, rams, angels etc. Hoping you guys could help me with suggestions? Figured a maximum of about 6 fish.
I was thinking any mixture of these(and any others of course, fish subject to change):
con
blood parrot
any vieja
geos.
honduran red point(hrp)
firemouth
thomas/butterfly cichlid[?]
salvini
severum[?]
P.S. First Post!:headbang2
 
con...if you want you could do a pair and some dithers but I wouldn't go much more than that because as they get larger and reach full size they'll want the whole tank as their territory..if they're breeding that is

blood parrot...imo they'll get too big for that size tank...they can get to 8" or more and are very bulky, imo best for a 75 minimum

any vieja...pretty much any Vieja/Paratheraps is going to grow too large for anything smaller than a 75 gallon

geos....some Gymnogeos stay small enough for your tank. G. balzanii are nice but they may not be the easiest to find.

honduran red point(hrp)....very nice and a couple of pairs would probably be fine in that size tank. the only problem is it may be difficult to find TRUE HRP's and not HRP x Cons which are often sold as HRP's or simply as blue cons at LFS

firemouth...IMO, this would be the best way to go...I'd get 6 juveniles and a top-dwelling schooling/shoaling fish and set up a nice display tank. platys would probably work perfectly with them as they are found in the same areas in the wild with firemouths anyway, plus when the platys start to breed, the fry will make a nice snack for the firemouths.

thomas/butterfly cichlid[?]...I assume you're talking about the african butterfly cichlid? if so I don't know much of anything about them so someone else will have to chime in here

salvini...a pair would possibly work though I have heard of males growing fairly large..in the 8" range and not sure how much conspecific aggression you'd see between a pair in that size tank though overall I think they'd probably be ok

severum[?]...imo, severums should be kept in 75 gallon minimum. I know a lot of sites say they only grow 6" but I've seen them in the 8-10" range and they're incredibly bulky so a 75 gallon really would be much better for them

:)
 
From that list a mix of HRP and firemouth would be great, neither is too large or particularly aggressive.
 
so does that mean there are no new[er] suggestions?
 
Rainbow cichlids or blue acaras could be interesting as long as tankmates arent too aggressive
 
thanks a lot for all the replies.
highly appreciated.
 
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