It will fit but it's not ideal and will not eventually fill up the tank by itself. I did the same thing when I was new to the hobby....back when I thought a 55g was huge. Being in too small of a tank drove him to be an insane glass banger.
Green Terror compatibility, 55 gallon?
- Thread starter CichlidFan779
- Start date
Honestly, a 55 is going to be tough with any tankmates longterm. I wont suggest you getting a bigger tank since you've asked us not to, but you might consider a different fish.
I speak from personal experience here so take it for what it's worth, but just last week i had to get rid of my 4" female white saum because she was terrorizing everything in my 90 gallon tank. Moved her to the 300 to see how that would go and she immediately started chasing my festae. Relentlessly for 2 days. Moved her back to the 90 and she went back to terrorizing my firemouth and cons, so I ended up parting ways with the fish. Moral of the story? "with cichlids, you just never know"
my vote......no tankmates, or smaller fish. Just my 2C
I speak from personal experience here so take it for what it's worth, but just last week i had to get rid of my 4" female white saum because she was terrorizing everything in my 90 gallon tank. Moved her to the 300 to see how that would go and she immediately started chasing my festae. Relentlessly for 2 days. Moved her back to the 90 and she went back to terrorizing my firemouth and cons, so I ended up parting ways with the fish. Moral of the story? "with cichlids, you just never know"
my vote......no tankmates, or smaller fish. Just my 2C
I agree with auanero..
Honestly a 55 is too small for a single male gt long term let alone a pair... I woul buy a bigger tank or consider another fish... Why keep a fish you will not live happy in such cramped space? a pair of salvini would be better they are colroful and outgoing they CAN live happily in a 55.... In the end its your tank do what you want with it....
Honestly a 55 is too small for a single male gt long term let alone a pair... I woul buy a bigger tank or consider another fish... Why keep a fish you will not live happy in such cramped space? a pair of salvini would be better they are colroful and outgoing they CAN live happily in a 55.... In the end its your tank do what you want with it....
This is exactly why I suggested getting a 75 in the future. You may be able to grow out a few GTs to acquire a pair but as Tom and others have said, a 55 will not be ideal over an extended time for a breeding pair with tankmates. Since a 55 is your max it would probably be better to stock your tank with more suitably sized cichlids. There a quite a few to choose from.
a 55 is pretty much the bare minimum for a single green terror IMO. The reason that it wouldn't work for a pair is because they're aggressive fish and even a pair will beat each other up and need a place to retreat from the other. If you put in another fish like a JD then they probably wouldn't form a pair(but they could) and instead will just veiw each other as competition. Once the fish each get bigger, there would definitely be some problems.
as for non cichlid tank mates i think you may have a few options depending on your filteration and willingness to preform water changes. First off, I love bristlenoses and you couldn't really go wrong with a pair of those in there. Another armored catfish that is a POSSIBILITY would be cory cats, but only under a few conditions. You buy them as big as you can find them and put a large group in before the GT, then put the young GT after the corys are comfortable. By the time that he's fully grown, the cory's should be too. Also, the gt may grow attached to these tankmates and eventually just leave them alone.
My final recomendation would be a lone bichir. They are armored and get along great with cichlids. I have a breeding trio of GTs right now in a 75 with a senegal bichir. Even though they currently have babies, they pretty much ignore the bichir. Every once and a while, the male GT will try to intimidate him by getting in his face and puffing up. The bichir usually doesn't even notice and swims right past the male or sometimes just runs straight into him. (this really confuses the GT) Just make sure that the cichlids are DEFINITELY too small for the bichir to eat because if there's any possibility, the bichir would try.
as for non cichlid tank mates i think you may have a few options depending on your filteration and willingness to preform water changes. First off, I love bristlenoses and you couldn't really go wrong with a pair of those in there. Another armored catfish that is a POSSIBILITY would be cory cats, but only under a few conditions. You buy them as big as you can find them and put a large group in before the GT, then put the young GT after the corys are comfortable. By the time that he's fully grown, the cory's should be too. Also, the gt may grow attached to these tankmates and eventually just leave them alone.
My final recomendation would be a lone bichir. They are armored and get along great with cichlids. I have a breeding trio of GTs right now in a 75 with a senegal bichir. Even though they currently have babies, they pretty much ignore the bichir. Every once and a while, the male GT will try to intimidate him by getting in his face and puffing up. The bichir usually doesn't even notice and swims right past the male or sometimes just runs straight into him. (this really confuses the GT) Just make sure that the cichlids are DEFINITELY too small for the bichir to eat because if there's any possibility, the bichir would try.
Other fish to look at:
Jack Dempsey
Lyonsi
Sajica
All of these would be good in a 55 gallon tank (not all together, though).
It does sound like you are trying to cram too many big fish in too small of a tank, though. CA/SA cichlids need a lot more room per fish than most other species because they are territorial and mean. They'll kill eachother if you dont give them enough room. And even if you do give them enough room.....they may still kill eachother.
But if you are wanting to cram a bunch of colorful fish into a tank, you might want to look into african cichlids. They seem to do better in an overstocked situation. This causes them to "spread out the aggression." Try this with CA/SA cichlids, and they'll usually just kill eachother.
Just my worthless .02
Jack Dempsey
Lyonsi
Sajica
All of these would be good in a 55 gallon tank (not all together, though).
It does sound like you are trying to cram too many big fish in too small of a tank, though. CA/SA cichlids need a lot more room per fish than most other species because they are territorial and mean. They'll kill eachother if you dont give them enough room. And even if you do give them enough room.....they may still kill eachother.
But if you are wanting to cram a bunch of colorful fish into a tank, you might want to look into african cichlids. They seem to do better in an overstocked situation. This causes them to "spread out the aggression." Try this with CA/SA cichlids, and they'll usually just kill eachother.
Just my worthless .02
You misunderstood me I think...I didn't mean he could house his green terror with a keyhole cichlid, a firemouth cichlid, a green or gold severum, a parrot cichlid, AND A blue acara in the same tank, I meant he could house his green terror with one other cichlid that I listed and his choice of pleco/catfish. Would it be kind of crowded for 2 cichlids, and a couple of plecos? Yes, now that I think about it. & I didn't know sun catfish get that big, I always thought they got about 6-8 inches (mines stayed about 6 inches for like a year now). Now that I know they get 16-18 inches max length, a sun catfish would not work in a 55g. Also its funny you think 1 EBJD can be in a 55 for life. They get 10 inches while a GT gets 8 inches. & yes he should think about upgrading his tank to a 75 when he can especially if he gets tankmates for his GT...
i have never seen an EBJD that actually reached a full 10in and female GTs may get 8in but males definitely get 12in, GTs get larger than Jack Dempseys do and usually ebjd dont get as large as regular jacks, and yeah sun cats get quite large, what size tank are yours kept in? they should def be larger than that after a year
I only have one and it is kept in a 75g with 2 Texas, 2 Orange Parrots, 1 JD, 1 Tiger Pleco, & 1 Firemouth. (They all are juveniles) Once I get a job will upgrade to a 125-200g.
