Firemouth madness?

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H

HrHagel

Plecostomus
MFK Member
Sep 7, 2009
1,639
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Denmark
Hey everyone.

I got this crazy idea in my head, that i wanna do 15-25 firemouthes in a 50-100gallon tank.

My question is, would this work? i know they usually go in pairs, but would there be any downsides to this kind of setup?
I realises there will be dominant individuals in the group, but with this many individuals, would there really be any targetted fish for picking on and random aggression?

I can't think of anything why this wouldn't work, but i have never even heard of a setup like it, so maybe there's something i don't know?
 
my guess is it would turn out like with my festae fry, they all ganged up on the smallest/weakest one until he stressed and bloated, then moved on to the next smallest, etc until only ONE remains... but who know it maybe could work, would def go for the 100g over the 50g though, in 50g there would be more fish than water when those guys are grown
 
i think this would work so long as you get all your fish at the same time and around the same size the younger the better also watch for sexes the more males the more aggresion over the females
 
That might work in a 100 gallon tank but no way would up to 25 firemouths do well in a 50. I agree with Sarah, that they would stress the smallest till it was dead and then move on to the next smallest.
 
Good luck if you try it. I had 4 juvies in my 180G for a while when I first set it up. They spent all their time beating on each other. They didn't care about the other fish in the tank, only the other FM's. Maybe with more of them in less space the aggression would be more spread out.
 
personaly i cant stand overstocking i think watcing their aggression is way more interesting than having to many of them for any of them to be aggresive its in thier nature and should be taken into consideration for best and longest happy fish keeping id say get like a 125 or bigger if you want a large cichlid comunity even if they dont grow very large they attitudes do
 
Thanks for the responses everyone

I have owned a breeding pair of firemouthes before, from fry to 6", and i know how absurdly mean they can be. Honestly, pound for pound, i would really consider this species the meanest of all cichlids.

But yes, my thought exactly was that the more the merrier it would turn out. I was thinking getting maybe 5 males and then 10-20 females, with only one piece of territorial land for the dominant pair to reside in.

They are very common fish, but when i think about it, they really are some of the coolest fish i have ever owned, and i really like theire look aswell when they get some nice trailers going and awesome colors when with females.

Yes, i think maybe i'll start out with having them in a 50g when they are 1-2" and then transfer them to a 100+ when they are around 4"+
 
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