First Time Cichlid Owner

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Morticia

Morticia

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Jul 28, 2016
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Hello all! I'm new to this forum on this page. Sadly my 3 year old Fahaka passed away recently and I have decided to turn his tank into a Cichlid tank. I jumped in head first with an established breeding pair of convicts. They are young, but have had 4 clutches so far. My question is what can I house with these guys? I'm wanting colorful Cichlids to go in the tank. I'm ok with it being a species only tank seeing as my Fahaka was a solo fish having more than one in there is pretty cool lol. I was thinking if I stray from the species at all it would be for a bottom feeder or maybe some barbs. I look forward to the input!

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Cons are VERY protective parents. Soon enough they will have eggs/fry and run anything off that gets close to the eggs/fry.
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Until the divider went up, they were keeping the obviously bigger fish in the left third of the tank.
If anything I would add a school of tall bodied tetras, barbs. If you don't care so much about the fry, then bottom feeders like Cory cats, Raphael cats, Hoplo cats, Pictus cats. Something that stays smaller than 6in.
 
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Jack Dempsey's are good medium-large cichlids that will take a beating and serve it back even when small.
 
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SmokeyDaScarecrow said:
Jack Dempsey's are good medium-large cichlids that will take a beating and serve it back even when small.
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I was thinking Dempseys. Im surprised to see so many are saying live breeders. I just assumed they were too slow to make it with the convicts. I want some fry but, I know these guys have large clutches and breed like rabbits. So I was hoping to get corys to help thin the herd some.
 
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I agree with Tom, because other cichlids will be appraised as competitors for the limited substrate space available. In nature live bearers such as mollies, other live bearers, and tetras (such as Astyanax) would share their habitat, and be non-competitive because they would occupy more of the surface and upper areas of the aquarium.
If you can find Astyanax, they are great fry cullers. Below two videos from southern Mexico in the Yucatan, a little north of where convicts are found, but still a good representation of how cichlids thrive in nature, and what other species, and population densities they share waters with.
Azul imovie edit
next a video with Astyanax, and live bearers, note the small population differential between cichlids, and compared to other species.
Aktun Ha
 
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Ive seen people keeping dwarf gouramis in the tanks. Any ideas on that?
 
Being similar shaped fish to cichlids, my guess (because I have not tried dwarf gouramis,) is that they will be seen as competitors, by the convicts, and treated accordingly (beaten to death).
Of course I may be totally off the wall, but when ever you put similar shaped fish that are inherently territorial together, especially if one is not tough enough, that is often the result, unless the tank is massive.
In nature, gouramis and cichlids are not found together, and the territoriality may be a reason, except in India with cichlids of the genus Etroplus ( never in the new world) . This is one of the reasons I don't normally mix fish from separate continents. I personally think it doesn't look realistic to put Asiian species like barbs, loaches or gouramis with North, Central, or South Americans cichlids, of course if this isn't a problem for your eyes, que sera sera, but looks apart, territoriality between similar shaped species in a small tank can be lethal.
 
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duanes said:
Being similar shaped fish to cichlids, my guess (because I have not tried dwarf gouramis,) is that they will be seen as competitors, by the convicts, and treated accordingly (beaten to death).
Of course I may be totally off the wall, but when ever you put similar shaped fish that are inherently territorial together, especially if one is not tough enough, that is often the result, unless the tank is massive.
In nature, gouramis and cichlids are not found together, and the territoriality may be a reason, except in India with cichlids of the genus Etroplus ( never in the new world) . This is one of the reasons I don't normally mix fish from separate continents. I personally think it doesn't look realistic to put Asiian species like barbs, loaches or gouramis with North, Central, or South Americans cichlids, of course if this isn't a problem for your eyes, que sera sera, but looks apart, territoriality between similar shaped species in a small tank can be lethal.
Click to expand...
What about adding another female convict? I've been offered a pink female convict.
 
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