Is my 125 gallon cichlid tank overstocked?

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
cichlidfish said:
That rule doesn't account for territories and aggression. It doesn't factor in bio-load with the filtration and water changes done either. It just doesn't make sense that in a 125g you could have 6.25 fish under that rule. Does that mean 6.25 rams or 6.25 doviis? Big difference. Plus a flowerhorn in that tank will kill everything else.
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I'm going to have to keep my eye on the flowerhorn for sure and if there are any signs it is a psychopath back to the store it will go. In your experience do they typically pick on fish over a period of time or do they take them out relatively quickly where you may not have a chance to separate them. I am hoping I will at least have some type of warning and he won't kill the tank overnight.

Also with the python water changes are virtually no effort at all so extra water changes are no problem and water is cheap where I live with our bills typically under $30. This is in my opinion one of the best pieces of equipment you can buy if you plan on taking care of large tanks. I change at least 200 gallons of water which would not be happening with a good old fashioned bucket.
 
Pbass...imo the tank would be overstocked if you went with the fish listed in your initial post. These fish will be enjoyable for a while once they grow a bit and start staking out territories what was once relaxing will become stressful.

taking care of bio load is the easy part

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You better watch that Texas also.. They can get nasty. The flowerhorn we'll have to go at some point. If it was my tank I would get rid of both of those. If you feel you need to add something go with more severum
 
I would do 2 to 3 cichlids of different size and appearence. Also remember you ssking about oacars and gt's the o will outgrow the gt quickly

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I think it is over stocked. For now it would be ok, but when they reach their maximum size it would be overstocked and hard to keep the water levels stable.
 
Pbass265 said:
I'm going to have to keep my eye on the flowerhorn for sure and if there are any signs it is a psychopath back to the store it will go. In your experience do they typically pick on fish over a period of time or do they take them out relatively quickly where you may not have a chance to separate them. I am hoping I will at least have some type of warning and he won't kill the tank overnight.

Also with the python water changes are virtually no effort at all so extra water changes are no problem and water is cheap where I live with our bills typically under $30. This is in my opinion one of the best pieces of equipment you can buy if you plan on taking care of large tanks. I change at least 200 gallons of water which would not be happening with a good old fashioned bucket.
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Usually you will notice some aggression like chasing or shredded fins. Some fish just go completely psycho and just kill everything. Hopefully yours isn't like that. Its all in the personality of the fish really, but I find as they get older, the more aggressive they become. It starts from when they hit sexual maturity.
I recently traded my p. loisellie for something less aggressive. The loisellie was only chasing, but it was stressing the others out. This was in a 150g and the other fish would all hang on whichever side the loisellie wasn't. Now everything is calm peaceful, and the colors on the other fish are much nicer.
I am finding less is more sometimes with fish keeping.
 
the firemouth will get outsized rather quickly so be prepared to move it. I had to pull my firemouth out of the big tank and now he's happy as the only cichlid in the community tank.
 
I've been keeping an eye on all of them and all is well however they are still small. If anybody does get too aggressive I can always get rid of them as they grow older. The way I am looking at it is it is easier to get them small and grow them out while they are small. I would hate to have to just have a couple in there and one not work out where I would have to find another similar size cichlid, pay the higher price, and hope this one worked out. Time will tell I guess.
 
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