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qtrhorse89

qtrhorse89

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jul 13, 2009
219
1
0
North Carolina
They were sold as Sajicas but I am not sure on this. They were in a 55 gallon with a 8 inch black ghost knife (my mother's favorite). Well I get a call from my mother and she goes I walked by the tank today and the bigger Sajica was really colorful and flaring and I thought he was beautiful until I looked behind him and noticed the little SOB killed my knife fish. So they got demoted to a 30 gallon all to themselves and the 30 gallon inhabitants were moved to a 55. They are my mothers fish and honestly I haven't paid squat attention to them since I got them acclimated in her tank for her. I'd glanced at them when I was visiting and noted how big they had grown and how their colors were starting to come out but I haven't paid attention to their behavior. After some questions I deduced that they were "buddies" (according to her) and hang by each other all the time. They also dug out a huge pit in one corner behind some drift wood. I knew about the digging (wrote it off as typical cichlid behavior), did not know they were hanging out together. I'm pretty sure from my mothers description she walked up on them right after the knife was killed. She said he was in the pit the cichlids dug out and beat to hell and back. This knife has been fine with them before. If anything he pushed them around. I'm not sure if maybe these two fish formed a pair bond and laid eggs and then killed the knife when he tried to eat them or not. I've got the brightly colored one singled out as a male (the farthest back fish in the photo) but I can't tell on the other one. If they are a pair I'm thinking on keeping them. If they aren't them might need to find themselves a new home. It will be hard convincing my mother not to commit fishie murder until I get back to deal with them. Sorry for the poor pic quality. My little sister took it with apparently a water damaged camera. Their coloration on the fins did not come out well in these pics. The dorsal is very yellowish with some blue and the anal fins are striped with blue. Sorry that's all I can remember about them.

Thanks for any help.

whatisthis.jpg
 
Ex 'Cichlasoma' Salvini
 
They are def NOT sajica. I cannot for the life of my think of the name but they will be ided pretty quickly. Common fish, cannot think....

edit: SALVINI!
 
They are a breedng pair of Salvini. Your mother needs a bigger tank or ALL the fish are going to die...
 
Okay thank you. I knew they didn't look a thing like Sajicas. The Salvinis are in their own 30 gallon tank right now with no other fish as they don't play well with others. The male is maybe pushing 4inches and the female is maybe pushing 3 inches. What is there to know about these fish? Are they a decent pair and worth keeping?
 
Salvinis are tough, aggressive mid-size cichlids . . . I've had a couple over the years, but never kept a pair

30G could work for a while, but I'd think you'd want to keep them in a 55G, or maybe a 40G breeder . . .
 
Alright what is the max size for these guys. I'm looking but i'm getting 6-9 inches and that's a large gap. Are they on the same level as a Jack Dempsey? I have a 30 gallon open they can stay in for the time being. My 120 is being dedicated to a mixed aggressive cichlid tank with a crenicichla lenticulata as the center piece. If all fails they can eventually try their luck in that tank. I doubt the lenticulata will put up with their crap but I don't know if the salvinis can handle the lenticulata.
 
Smaller than JD's but more aggressive. IMO comparable to convicts; 6" is probably average, I've heard of them getting a bit bigger but never seen bigger. I'm not real familiar with the various pikes but unless the lenticulata gets big enough to literally swallow/eat the salvinis I think they'd be able to hold their own.
 
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