Wen I first kept Acarichthys heckelli, I read an article in Cichlid News Mag, saying a minimum tank would need to be 220 gallons or more, to handle their unique form of territoriality.
I scoffed and thought my 150 gal would suffice. ...Just as my heckelli started to mature (@8-10"), they subtly started killing each other off.
They were totally unaggressive with other species, but deadly with each other. I went from 7 heckelli down to 1 in a very short time.
Territory is the major issue with cichlids, they can be fine for a year, or even two, but at true adult maturity it seems there is a switch that flips.
Maybe you will be lucky, I was often not when trying to combine species in less than 6 ft or larger tanks.
I scoffed and thought my 150 gal would suffice. ...Just as my heckelli started to mature (@8-10"), they subtly started killing each other off.
They were totally unaggressive with other species, but deadly with each other. I went from 7 heckelli down to 1 in a very short time.
Territory is the major issue with cichlids, they can be fine for a year, or even two, but at true adult maturity it seems there is a switch that flips.
Maybe you will be lucky, I was often not when trying to combine species in less than 6 ft or larger tanks.
