How many Cichla in a Heavily filtered 390 gallon

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C

Cakilla

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Oct 2, 2009
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Illinois
I have made a descion that I am going to be putting diifferent species of Cichla to stock it , as for species I am thinkking mono's, occel's, Orino but I am unsure about how many of each species .

I was going to add a tem or two to the list but after thinking about it they grow alot faster then the others so I will get a couple of them later on , or might even pass on them all together seeing that I plan on getting a nice pack of cichla here shortly

So far I am thinking about ordering 3 of each Mono's Ocells, Orino's and I think that would be pretty much max capasity for my tan might even be over stocked .... but wanted to know what the Cichla keepers think.

Filtration is going to be a 55 gallon sump that is only going to be mechamnical filtration with different density sponges then iI am going to have 2 fluidised bed filters with a total of 300+ liters of K1 mdeia and then I am going to be running 2 fluval FX5's for polishing and I am looking at Uv's still not decided on what brand and wattage I am going to use .
 
Youre about on there. I am only going to keep three-four in my 240 but thats just because I have two of the smaller catfish with them.
 
What's the tank foot print? If it's a 8'x3', I'd go with 3x mono's, 3x ocell's and 4x orino's maybe even a couple kelberi's to. Or you can drop a mono and ocell and get 2x kelberi's. I would do a 180gal sump and 2x fx5's for the filtration. I like to over filter my tanks. 10x the turn over rate of the total water volume. But that's just me. I would also add a group of earth eaters to take on the clean up duties.
 
The tank has Odd demensions its 100 x 30 x 30 .

I always over filter thas for sure I will check around and see if I can't come up with an idea to make a larger sump fit under the tanks stand ( it came with the tank its a made out of steel square tubing butthe way its laid out its going to be tricky to get a standard 150+ gallon in there but if i can find a long narrow one it would work .

for turn over I was going to be shooting for 5500 - 7000 Gph not counting the FX5's which both of the FX5's will have a spray bar on them to help make a nice Current and I always try to provide plenty of air to all my tanks, it seems to keep the fish active and I forgot to mention this set up is oging to be on a continuous drip I plan on setting it to drip 50 - 75 GPD I think it should be enough

I Do like your Idea with the stocking and agree that a couple Bahias would be really nice but I want to get used to keeping the less expensive kind before i spend a couple hundred each on the bahias lol .

I was planning on using sand as subsrate so a good shoal of earth eaters would be a Great addition :-)
 
Sounds like a plan. If you can't get a 180 or a 150 for the sump, duel 75 or a duel 55 or a 125 and a 75 would work just as well. I don't actually know the pounds per square feet of bio balls/rings/scubbies and what not, but I know more the merrier. Bahia's are easier to keep then the wild guys (IMO/IME) because most are already eating shrimp, bloodworms, black worm, krill and so on...But I do agree with starting with the bass that are readily available, then trial and error with special order bass.
 
I am going to be placing my orders for everything but the guyana ? Occels ( the same kind that Hulon has ) Tommorow or the nextday and that's just because I haven't found them yet lol , hope that some will be available again

That is a Great idea about linking 2 tanks together !
 
O I hope so! I will send him an email first thing in the morning and find out !

I can't wait to finally get the tank together and get all the cichla here and start growing them out :-)
 
How ever many you want. It's not your filter or your tank. It's the keeper! Better get ready to cut up a lot of SHRIMP & TALAPIA.
 
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