compatibility question

[thesedays]

hi all! im new to this forum and rather new to the hobby as well, was very amazed to see such resourceful forum.

recently i have order a 200(l) x 60(h) x 55(d) tank which i believe is around 170 gallons. all along ive known that i wanted to keep cichlids and im particular attracted by Champsochromis Caeruleus which i believe is an amazing cichlid. I do know that my tank might be a lil small for cichlid of this kind but this tank size is really the biggest i can have considering the size of my house (i live in hk), so I was wondering if my tank size would really make it impossible to keep one of them and if if possible, what kinda cichlids can i keep with him? would cichlids like electric yellow and other smaller cichilds?

thanks a lot guys!

 

[spyke]

that size tank could house one easily...it will take a number of years to be 12"+...so dont worry too much, and as long as you have super duper filtration, that would always help.

if i were you i would skip the mbuna, and stay with haps, like compressiceps, red empresses, fryeri, nimbochromis,....basically i big haps show tank...with males and females,

but you could keep them with smaller cichlids, just not too small to get eaten whole. but try not to.

 

[thesedays]

thanks spyke, but i have a couple more questions
if i bought all of them (both haps and mbunas) when they are really small, would it be better in terms of tolerance?
could you name a few more haps for my stock list
and lastly would an all male tank work (in terms of colour) for haps too? (i did a mbuna all male tank before and it seemed ok but they were still small...)

thanks!

 

[Otherone]

Sounds like my tank:
Haps - Trout, Hawk, Torpedo, Empresess, Tawian Reef Steveni, Venustus, Fenestratus, Tyranno, Eyebitter, Ahlia, Moorii, Mloto Fireline, Electra.
Mbuna - Auratus x2, Aurora, Labs x2, Johannii, Red top Zebra, Maingano, Bumblebee.
Victorians - Xmas Fulu x2, Flameback.
Bichirs - Ornate, Gold dust, Armored
Oddballs - Armored Cat, Medusa Plec, Gold Nugget plec, Rainbow Shark x3 , Red Tail Botia, S/A Arrowana.

Big Tanks = Big Options - IMO nothing beats a stuffed large colorful active tank and my stock is over 3 years old. The exception being the Arrow thats been in there growin' out for 6 mo @ 14-16". The only issues I've had were Peacocks I've had 3 killed over the past year. I have only 2 Female fish in there a Lab and an Xmas Fulu.
I will say that the Vics aren't very happy - their colors are washed out due to being small. We are cycling a Bowfront specificaly for Vics as I type. I'm also repairing an empty 180 for the arrow and my Dats - it's gonna kinda be an Asian theme tank.