Gonna try for a near impossible stock for my 150....

[aclockworkorange]

Well I have to completely disagree with all of the nay-Sayers. I have read a lot of the posts explaining why this or that did not work for this person or that person. I have responded many times to these posts. Yes there is a potential for a fish to snap at night and kill. Just curious why none of this has happened to me. I have all community tanks, all of the inhabitants have grown up together or with a group of other cichlids before being transferred into their eventual tank.

My 300 is home to (all fish are over 8") Hogabooarum, Devils, Loisellei, Kraussi, Pikes, Grammode, Urophthalmus, Hon. Jag, Beani, Heterospila.
My 250 is home to (all fish are 5" or larger) Argentea, Black Belt, Zonatus, Bifa, Fenestratus, Catamaco, Polys, Regani,
My 210 is home to (all fish are 5" & larger) RTMS, La Ceiba's, Freddies, Dovii, Carpintis, Cuban
My 150 is home to 30 different grow-outs of various other different species.

And please dont respond to what I said with, dude you are so overstocked. You have not seen my set up and I have plenty of filtration and keep up on the water changes. I breed several different types of all these cichlids and distribute them throughout the state of Washington. Id like to think that I do know what I am talking about. Though I do have people visit my fish room all the time and can not believe that my tanks are so peaceful. I understand that a lot of you have had serious issues with psycho fish, and maybe I have been lucky. But I have 27 tanks and over 75 different species, and all of them co-exist or co-existed before I pulled them to breed them.

If that is what you want as a community, start them young, feed them well, interact with them often and you will have very good success.

It's likely BECAUSE you are so heavily stocked that they are co-existing, the old JDM trick... Have enough fish and no one can focus on a specific fish to actually cause damage and no real territories are made. Same reason you see pet stores pulling off the stock they do. It can work, you might have issues later, but my main problem with that many fish for MY tanks is you don't see a lot of natural behavior in something that heavily stocked. I'd rather have a nice pair or two in a 300 gallon than a bunch of different fish. But it's a personal preference.

The one real rule of cichlid communities is that nothing will or won't work 100% of the time.

 

[Rony]

This thing is not impossible man...I myself had oscars,green terrors, flowerhorns,tilapias,red devils,frontosas and texas in a 100gallons but had to upgrade to bigger tanks....This depend on the personality of your fish...But if they are already fighting..i don't suggest you to continue with this unless you plan to get a really large aquarium...Your fish will get really aggressive as they grow and some will always get bullied and eventually die when the dominant get massive...
If you are wise enough you will see it is unfair what you are doing to your fish....
That guy who just said that he kept oscars and Jd's in a 29 gallon...Do you like ur fish and care for them????Coz what you did is really stupid man...and you had the gut of telling this!!!!!
Im really love ciclids ... i suggest you to sell some of them and keep only a few if you really care and love ur fish....

 

[DazzaClio]

If you really want to its worth a try but i would say its unlikely as they grow and mature there will always be a dominant one and as always a pecking order.

Trouble is i would say that no Cichlid out there is 100% predictable as each one his its own personality, even though we can roughly predict what they are going to be like nothings 100%.

Id say its trial and error just as said have a back up plan ready incase at any stage it doesnt go to plan.

Good Luck.

Thanks Darren.

 

[Aquanero]

This is one of those situations that could go either way. A few fish work because they can each establish a terrotory and a truce of sorts is formed with some chasing when a border is breached, add a few more fish and all hell breaks loose because each fish wants a terrotory but there is more fish then available space, add a few more fish and everything is fine because they give up trying to establish terrotories and coexsist in a crowded tank unable to focus on a single target. I personaly would find a tank like this astetecly very unpleasing I call it the "fish market look" the old maxum just because you can doesn't mean you should comes to mind. Yes water can be change often enough to keep it clean and filtration can be adaquate however the fish will be crowded and will not be able to exibit even the slightest natural behavior. The bottom line is if that what someone likes then who's going to stop them from doing it? Like I said I wouldn't do it, I don't like the way it looks and IMO I don't think it provodes the best living conditions for the fish. It's your house, your tank, your fish, your money, so do what you want, since you posted asking for opinios that's mine for what ever you think is worth.

 

[rich_one]

I am not on here trying to dog on those of you that do not agree. I am just trying to give the OP some light at the end of the tunnel. That not all fish when kept together have issues.

When I read something like this, it makes me wonder.

I have read them, and about 50% of that 99% are wrong, IMO.

So I feel that I do need to say that its not all bad when stocking your tanks. Now I agree that there are a lot of NEWBS out there that dont research or that dont know anything about raising Cichlids. Believe me, I have ignored many a posts because I thought the OP was ........ lol

So help with but dont discourage. If you screwed up by introducing something at the wrong time, then explain that, but dont just flat out tell the guy no it wont work. Im not saying that you did this, just explain why. Thats all I am trying to say, because it can work. Believe me, it takes some careful thought and planning, but it can work.

I understand that. I did exchange pm's with him, letting him know what happened to me, later last night (initially did it in this thread, then a computer hiccup erased all I typed, and at the time I was work, and didn't get around to typing it all again! LOL...). But I, for one, am not big on insulting people in a forum, myself. I do not like when folks do that. One thing I've learned in this hobby however... fish do have individual personalities, and there will always be that one setup that defies reason! LOL... heck... I had two angels in with an oscar, JD trio, pearsi pair, bocourti, green terror and argentae, all in a severely overstocked 125, and had no issues for months. In fact, the angels ended up getting killed by a severum, after I moved them out of that overstocked tank, and added the sev to the tank I moved them to later! (sigh... lesson learned...).

My overstocked tank took a turn for the worse when I stuck a hartwegi and festae in there (by this time, the JD trio and green terror were moved out). Not a good mix. No one died, mind you... but everyone had battle scars and were pretty beat up, except the hartwegi and male festae.

I couldn't take seeing beat up fish, so I rehomed nearly everyone, and started over a bit. right now, the tank has the lyonsi pair, oscar, and a vontehillo, and everyone is happy. No sparring or fighting (except the occasional spat between the male and female lyonsi), and no scars, wounds, damaged fins and stress. Finally... harmony.

Anyway... I'm ranting. I do get your point. I just didn't want my opinion to come off as being a naysayer, because I hope for aquamonster's success... but I will tell him if I fear the worst in any plan he has, and I certainly hope others do the same with me on here... WITHOUT being nasty about it!

-Rich

 

[Natural Born Killer]

I say go for it,get the fish and give it a try. All fish behave different,and behave different in different environments also..Its not about the 3 - 4 hundred people who fail to be able to keep these fish together. Its all about the one person who can,this person could be YOU! So take it to a new level and have at it for all those who failed before you!

 

[balton777]

I've had similar aggressive set ups like this in the past. They often worked for some time and I thought I was the man, bragging how I managed to keep certain fish together. Eventually it would always end in death. I would simply replace the fish that died with a new fish...I did that for a while in the early days but decided I hated to lose fish. Now I have a different approach on stocking....not that I don't experiment here and there. GL

 

[RD.]

Well I have to completely disagree with all of the nay-Sayers. I have read a lot of the posts explaining why this or that did not work for this person or that person. I have responded many times to these posts. Yes there is a potential for a fish to snap at night and kill. Just curious why none of this has happened to me.

As clockwork stated,

It's likely BECAUSE you are so heavily stocked that they are co-existing, the old JDM trick... Have enough fish and no one can focus on a specific fish to actually cause damage and no real territories are made.

Which is an entirely different situation from the OP's stocking plan.
Also, according to a post that you made just a number of weeks ago, the majority of your fish are in the 2-7" size. It doesn't take a whole lot of skill to successfully maintain an overstocked tank full of immature fish, the point some people here are making is that the chance for long term success, with these species, in a 150 gallon tank, isn't overly great.

Even the OP understands that yet is apparently willing to take the risk. Fine. But that doesn't equate to those that are waving a warning flag, or giving advice in what I personally would consider a responsible manner, as being naysayers. More like realists who understand the limitations when attempting to keep aggro species together in a confined space.

The success of any aquatic set up is one that should be measured in years, not months, yet unfortunately as of late it seems that some of those giving the advice in this folder have had their "successful" set ups for 12 months or less, and ironically refer to others as newbs. Funny stuff. The problem with that is until you have actually experienced some of these fish at their adult sizes you won't understand how different a 5-6" V. argentea may behave in a comm setting, compared to when that same fish reaches 10-11". The dynamics of a comm tank can change in a heart beat, and when it does there is always the potential for loss of life. That's all some of the members here have suggested, which I believe most experienced hobbyists would agree with.

 

[Allan01230]

Why on this forum when you tell the truth you are a nay-sayer? A fish whole purpose is to eat swim and eventually breed. The dominant fish (cichlid) gets to breed and they do so by runnning other males away from a possible mate. In the confines of an aquarium the other can either fight or get beaten. No where to run. With most ca this happens as the fish mature not when they are "growing up together". Also a 150 is not a really big tank for all those fish that get some considerable size on them. I guess if you really want it though get some really good filtration and cram as many in there as you can. Not my idea of a cool tank but to each his own. Why not check out Aqua mojos tanks he is a real cichlid guru. He usually keeps species tanks incidently.

 

[AQUAMONSTER]

no reason for everyone to comment about others post. Like i said if things go bad as they grow i will rehomes or house them in my other tanks. I dont plan on keeping all of them anyway. just trying to find those who will live with each other. This is my favorite site on the internet and ive met some cool people on here. I take what everyone says on here into thought everytime i get a new fish or try something new. Thanks for the responses and i will keep everyone updated on how the fish are doing