Gruff Master;4129189; said:
That's it! You have inspired me. No, I won't be making a Parachromis tank but I will be stocking a challenging tank. Many people have said it time and time again that it can't be done just like your Parachromis tank. But I'm going to try it anyway. It's a set-up that I have room to pull off but haven't had the nerve to do it. Looking at your tank has changed my mind. I won't say what cichlids I want to stock. I will wait until it is up and running a while. Why get flamed before I even have the chance to do it, right? Thanks again for sharing your pictures and experiences!
That's what this place is all about and what makes it so great! I used to frequent another site in the beginnings of my participation in this hobby. I won't say the name, but the initails are c-f. Once I moved away from africans to the new world species, I gained the love and appreciation I have for the Parachromis. I had a mix match of what I thought were the most beautiful of the new worlders. Jags, festae, oscars, losiellis, and some others in a 190g.
This morphed into a "what if" with all five Parachromis together. When I posted a diary type thread about actually doing it, it was locked and deleted in just a couple of weeks. People were telling me there would only end up being an orange mushroom cloud where my tank used to be.

And that it wouldn't last two weeks. So I started another diary type thread a little later and kept the arguing to a minimum. That was three years ago.
I barely ever post on the other site, only to update that old thread which is now more than 60 pages long. The doomsayers have long since disappeared. The rewards I have experienced from risking such a "controversial" stocking have been more than great. It's awesome.
Don't let anyone talk you out of doing what you want. Be responsible and remember it's about the fishes. Keep your fishes happy. Be prepared for and ready to accept losses any time you put fishes together that aren't supposed to be together. Learn from your mistakes and correct them so you don't make the same ones again.
So, thanks for the flattery, lol. Seriously, I appreciate being able to inspire someone else to do something like I did. I think we here at MFK can all understand and appreciate that. We are the ground breakers, the inspiration, the cutting edge, etc.. At the end of the day, it's your tank. Put what you want in it. This thread and my tank wouldn't be here if I had listened to conventional wisdom. That, I think is what MFK is all about, we are the new "conventional wisdom".