I want to buy a lima, jack dempsey and oscar( I have 3 silver dollar roughly 3 in). Question is wat size cichlid should I buy so the lima 5"-7"(roughly that size beause no pet store around me sells limas milwaukee so will be buying online) wont eat the cichlid and will the lima eat the siver dollar when it gets bigger(not sure about the growth rate of silver dollars).
Limas
- Thread starter Terrorizing Cichlid
- Start date
I don't think a lima is capable of eating a silver dollar unless it is really huge. My 14" lima couldn't eat a 3" silver dollar. His mouth is 2" wide at 14". Anything that is thicker than 2-3" should be fine in the tank. They can eat large fish up to about 65% of their of their size, but the fish would have to be shaped like a hot dog to be eaten. Tall or thick fish over 3" probably no need to worry, but watch out they might still harass or kill them. Only one of my 3 large limas harasses other fish. The other two could care less, unless the fish is smaller than 3" then it's lunch lol. So good luck and I hope this helped.
i wouldn't worry bout the lima at all...mine are very docile...they just chill upright all day and will only eat very small fish and only if he's very hungry...so knowing that i would be more worried about the SA cichlids picking on the lima...the lima is too slow to get away and without a huge tank the territories would intersect.