Grow out tank questions for green terror!

[Jordan82594]

Hi guys and girls! I have a beautiful (I’m biased lol) green terror who I believe is male who just got over a bad case of ich in its aquarium. He is currently about 3 inches from top of tail to mouth and is housed with a few acara cichlids for the time being while they put on a little more size. They are currently in a 29 gallon tank because I initially tried moving them in with my Africans (I know they are different cichlids) and they were too small to hold their own so I moved them to the 29. My Africans (4 of them all peacocks with one blue zebra) are currently in a 55 gallon. I have an empty 75 gallon I bought to move all of them together eventually in an ideal situation. If it doesn’t work out, which I fully understand is a serious possibility, I have enough tanks to separate and house all of them. My question is at what point should I set up my 75 gallon and move my green terror along with the blue acaras in with my Africans as well. I don’t want to stress him out too much and I know he’ll need a bigger home eventually anyway but I just want to know the best time to move him for his safety while still giving him time to grow with my Africans to possibly prevent him from creating havoc once he’s much bigger than they are. Here is a picture of him so you can get an idea of his size at the moment. He is gaining more color by the day and growing his fins back from when he was sick. He is in a 29 right now as I mentioned. My Africans are all between 5-6 inches.

 

[DarylMac]

HI Jordan,
If it were me, I would not mix the SA cichlids (GT and Acaras) with the Africans. I would leave the Africans in the 55g, and move the GT and Acaras into the 75g.

Eventually the GT may want that 75g all to itself (if it is a male).

 

[Jordan82594]

HI Jordan,
If it were me, I would not mix the SA cichlids (GT and Acaras) with the Africans. I would leave the Africans in the 55g, and move the GT and Acaras into the 75g.

Eventually the GT may want that 75g all to itself (if it is a male).

That’s the thing I can’t run both at the same time. At least I’m not suppose to a try my apartment. I will if I have to. I planned on trading the blue acaras in though because I see their egg tubes and I don’t want any females. I had an incident with too many fry before and I’m too scared lol but my question is is it safe to keep him in the 29 gallon? And at what time or size should I move him?

 

[Spence]

I think you are at the size now where you should be thinking about moving the Terror to a bigger tank. I’m guessing you want him to grow to be the biggest and most impressive Green Terror that he can be. A small tank will just slow that growth down to a crawl. I’d set up the 75 now and see how it goes. But like you said be prepaired to separate them again. I can’t imagine a scenario where the terror is not nipped at least a little because of the nature of Africans, but he may be able to hold his own.

 

[duanes]

If you had Mbuna, it may be more touch and go, but peacocks are generally fairly benign, especially if you put them all in the larger tank, at the same time, because all will need to establish new territorial boundaries at the same time.
I also agree a larger tank will be better for growth in the long run, as long as keep increasing water changes as the fish grow.