Green Terror compatibility, 55 gallon?

[Aquanero]

If you like the idea of GT so much, why not keep blue acara? Much smaller than a GT and very similar coloration. They are usually peaceful, will be a lot easier to choose tank mates too. A Blue Acara, school of larger tetra such as red eye tetra, some cory cats, and 1-2 small-medium size pleco such as bristle nose or golden nugget, in my opinion will make a very interesting tank.

This is and excelent suggestion! Andinoacara Latafrons is available from right now from Tangled up in Cichlids if none are available locally. I haven't seen any A. Pulcher around for a while but I haven't been looking either. Thay are like GT lite, and absolutly beautiful someone suggested them I believe a couple of pages back. This would be an ideal fish for a 55 if you really like GTs. Actually there are many Acaras that would be an excelent choice if the OP is interested in ordering fish the options are vast if he's looking for somthing other than the typical chain store fair.

 

[CichlidFan779]

ok i got a few questions, i have a aqua tech 30-60 filter and a marineland penguin 550, are these filters good? and how does a marine penguin 550 work and what is it's purpose? thanks! my other question is if i put a jack dempsey cichlid in with a few male black convicts, will they kill eachother? and do convicts and dempsey let bottom dwellers into their territory? thanks!

 

[CichlidFan779]

It's not so much the capacity of the aquarium, but rather the dimensions that do not make a 55 gallon ideal for a male GT. The 60 they are referring too may be 18" deep for all I know, but that's why much of the information given on many of these sites should be taken with a grain of salt. MFK is a much better source of information where you can get it directly from the source--experienced fish keepers that have kept many of these fish. Nobody was attacking your "friend" on a personal level, it was just being stated that he was giving wrong information, and that's really a big no-no on a public forum where this information will be stored for years to come, if not forever. If we see BS being posted, we're going to call it out, as we should.

thanks, i know that my friend wasn't being attacked, i was trying to make him feel better, and i agree that those sites have bad information, thanks for being a very helpful person on this forum, and me and most fish keepers agree that the worst source of information are pet stores, there tags purposely underestimate their fish and give wrong information to sell some fish and earn some cha-ching, EX: like petsmart says the minimum tank size for a oscar is 40 gallons, i mean really? 40 gallons is a terrible size for a 12 inch cichlid, and they also say that minimum tank size for a gold chinese algae eater is 5 gallons? how stupid! i say a chinese algae eater should have at least a 55 gallon, anyways thanks for being helpful on the Sa/Ca cichlid forum

 

[RLHam3]

IMO a 30-60 by itself is not nearly enough filtration for a 55 with a lone JD. If i'm not mistaken, the 550 is a powerhead which will give the water movement, but won't do much of anything for filtration. I really like canister filters. they're really powerful and you don't have to change the filter media nearly as much. You want to try to aim for a filter that pumps 4 time the tanks volume in an hour. (55gallons=220gph)

Most bottom dwellers are pretty inactive so cichlids will generally ignore them. Some of the more active ones may receive some attention, but as long as they’re too small to fit in the cichlids mouth they should be ok. (some scaleless loaches may have problems)
Your cons will probably take the most aggression form the JD, but as long as they’re all male, cons should work really well with a JD. You actually may want to worry a little about the cons bullying the JD while they're of similar size. You may want to try to get the JD before the cons and let him get used to tank/grow a little. (but if he's the only fish in there, he'll probably spend a lot of initial time hiding.