gt, firemouth, 180... ideas?

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jalepeno

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
May 4, 2010
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Hi!

I have a 55 gallon right now with a 6" (i'm guessing male) green terror, a pair of firemouths male is 2" female is 3", and three silver dollars about 2".

I just purchased a 180 gallon tank for an awesome price. My girlfriend is mad.

Anyways, the gt is my absolute favourite fish. I don't want him damaged. He can be quite aggressive, but likes to chase more than kill. That being said, I'd like to keep the pair of firemouths and obviously him. What other cichlids would you stock in the new 180? The bigger the better, and the more colour the better. I'd like the gt to be the dominant fish, but I know that all depends on individual personalities. The silver dollars could be eaten for all I care, I find them very boring and skittish.
 
It depends a lot on the character of your GT. I have a very similar 6-7" male GT and he is very mellow with any smaller fish that he doesn't see as a threat to his dominance at all. At the moment he lives very happily in a 130 Gallon with a small firemouth, a rainbow cichlid and 4 sajicas.
However, he is very much more aggressive towards larger fish of a similar size to him. I guess he sees them as a threat to his dominance. I would not even try to keep him with things like chocs, large sevs or JD's etc, as it would result in war, unless I had a much bigger tank. WIth a massive tank (ie 300 gallons plus), you can keep almost anything together, but for the rest of us mere mortals we need to make compromises.

But as with any cichlid combinations you just might try him with some other larger ones and it might just work. They are all such individuals.
if you wanted to try other larger cichlids I would stay away from SA's and stick to CA's, who are more likely to have the spine to stand up for themselves.

Maybe JD's, Convicts, oscar, Texas, tilapia polleni, vieja etc. Might work, might not.

Some people overstock and pack the fish in together and claim this reduces aggression. Yes, it does, but that's not the way I like to keep fish.

Whatever you decide I wish you all the best !!
 
Holy lots of blood parrots!!!!

I have a picture of an extremely colourful chocolate cichlid. Do they all end up looking like a pastel rainbow when they are older?

I like severums. Would a breeding pair do okay with other fish?

I'm not a fan of silver dollars anymore. Are they are schooling fish that get decent sized but not huge, (no foot long fish lol) but wont be eaten to quickly without being able to replenish their population?

What about a female festae? Do they look the same when breeding verses not?

Thanks for all the answers and suggestions!
 
jalepeno;4486462; said:
Holy lots of blood parrots!!!!

I have a picture of an extremely colourful chocolate cichlid. Do they all end up looking like a pastel rainbow when they are older?

I like severums. Would a breeding pair do okay with other fish?

I'm not a fan of silver dollars anymore. Are they are schooling fish that get decent sized but not huge, (no foot long fish lol) but wont be eaten to quickly without being able to replenish their population?

What about a female festae? Do they look the same when breeding verses not?

Thanks for all the answers and suggestions!
Click to expand...
I'm not sure about the chocolate cichlid question, but I think with the amount of room these fish will have, the pair of sevs will not be a problem at all. I was just at petsmart the other day as a matter of fact and they had a 4-5 inch green severum for 6 bucks.
 
i have a chocolate in with my oscar and he is really boring and i think i will rehome hime soon. He hides all the time and only comes out to eat, have seen some nice pics of choc but if the hide all the time what the point....would prob be a good large fish in a really peacfull tank where they are the largest fish and dont feel threatend
 
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