Geos and Chocolate cichlid compatibility

[hamfist]

Thanks, Ryan, I appreciate the input. I did come across that while reading about Gymnogeophagus, about needing a winter period. That immediately rules them out. And, I like the idea of taking the Chocolate out of the 90g temporarily while letting some geos adjust to the tank. I'm still not sure which route I will go as far as picking out fish. I might be leaning more towards some cories at this point.

I agree with Japes saying that a 90g is even small for a Chocolate. A 90g is sufficient for a single chocolate as far as depth and so on, but the bio-load they put out is near unmatched. I'm not sure if adding more fish is the right way to go now. I was set on keeping it a single a single Chocolate cichlid to the 90g tank, but now I feel kinda bad for my fish in there all alone (not that he really seems to mind it, but can I really tell?). Japes mentioned having some success with the cories in with a Chocolate, maybe I should just try a small shoal of them to keep the bottom clean. I'm not so sure about adding 4 4-6" minimum Geo fish into the mix. Perhaps 6-7 cories will suffice.

Sorry if the above paragraphs don't make the most sense. I'm sick and kinda all over the place lol, and not about to read it over. But, THANKS for any input everyone!

If your aim is just to get something that mops up uneaten food on the bottom then cories are a better idea than geos, simply because of their lower biomass.
Your choc will be very happy on his "own" and does not need company really. Although, having some smaller fish to mop up the uneaten food on the bottom would not be a bad idea.

 

[Cookie*]

I'm used to having community tanks, and having the chocolate alone sometimes makes me depressed for him. He does seem quite happy tho, I can't argue that. He has a great personality and seems so smart which is why I thought he might be better with other fish as opposed to alone. Even if not fish to interact with, to at least be distracted by every so often. I just fear him being lonely I guess. The fish is too smart to just sit in a tank all alone is what depresses me I guess. I've recently been toying with the idea of getting rid of him if I were able to find a big SA community tank for him to go to locally, but good luck with that.