Good growout setup for a male marble

[jandb]

I've had a male montoro for about 6-8 months. He's doing real well on cut shrimp, nightcrawlers and nibbling sinking Hikari gold. I have him alone in a 40 breeder. My goal is to get him in my SA cichlid 540 but I feel like that's going to be awhile down the line. I am debating on shuffling some things around and that could open up a ~80 gallon. If I move him there I may also try and move my albino hecklii growouts in the same tank. He is ~6" and I would say they are 3.5" Is this a bad idea? I'd also like to have something else in with him to clean up the pellets he gums and spreads everywhere. What do you think?

 

[Dieselhybrid]

40 gallons too small for a 6-8 month old motoro. Do not add anything additional to that tank except filtration and gallons. You need to upgrade. Rays produce far more waste per pound of bodyweight compared to regular fishes. One expert estimates 10 times more. 1lb ray makes the waste of a 10lb fish. They're sensitive to stress when young so while the 540 is space that's desperately needed for the ray, your cichlids may be too aggressive and stress it out. It will need sand to hide from the cichilds. If you keep it in the 40 gallon much longer, it will die.

read the stickies, all of them, that should get you to a well balanced place of understanding. After that you will have less questions.

 

[jandb]

40 gallons too small for a 6-8 month old motoro. Do not add anything additional to that tank except filtration and gallons. You need to upgrade. Rays produce far more waste per pound of bodyweight compared to regular fishes. One expert estimates 10 times more. 1lb ray makes the waste of a 10lb fish. They're sensitive to stress when young so while the 540 is space that's desperately needed for the ray, your cichlids may be too aggressive and stress it out. It will need sand to hide from the cichilds. If you keep it in the 40 gallon much longer, it will die.

read the stickies, all of them, that should get you to a well balanced place of understanding. After that you will have less questions.

I appreciate the reply. I was asking about moving him into a 60x18 footprint with 3 small albino hecklii. I know he has grown out of the breeder and would be beaten up or outcompeted in he 540 right now. I don't fear the hecklii would attack him but I don't want him to mess with the hecklii.